Waver Velvet, once known as Lord El-Melloi II until he had returned the title of Lord to Reines El-Melloi Archisorte, was determined to dismantle the Holy Grail and end the Holy Grail Wars once for all.
Ten years after the end of the Fifth Holy Grail War he had tried to do so, but certain circumstances prevented this from happening.
The first was the opposition of the members of the Mage Association determined to take possession of it. Honestly, Waver had lived and seen enough to know what types of sick personalities magi had, so he wasn't really surprised about that.
The second point was, however, the opposition of Rin Tohsaka. At first, he wondered why a survivor like him, who saw what the Holy Grail War was, but the reason was "shocking".
Going to Japan, he met Shirou Emiya, another survivor of the Fifth Holy Grail War, and Rin Tohsaka and learned of the reason for the opposition.
A child.
Of all the mysteries with which he had to deal, the birth of a demi-servant was something unthinkable because a servant needed magical energy to stay in the world and things like sperm and food were just a means to reintegrate the lost magical energy.
"After what happened then, I told Gray never to go to Fuyuki again," Waver sighed wearily.
"Do you mean after Fuyuki's massacre?" Reines smiled mockingly. "That's one of the few mysteries you failed to dismantle."
Waver let out a grunt. He had solved many mysteries and did not believe that there was a mystery that had no solution after Doctor Heartless, at least until that.
"According to what he reported, even using the words of a child, the man shot weapons from golden gates." Waver knew who Yuto was describing. He had seen him with his own eyes during the Fourth Holy Grail War. "I do not doubt that the killer was the King of Heroes," he said frowned.
"A servant, huh? I wonder who could summon a servant to kill a common family?" Reines said with a slight smile. "Leaving that aside, it seems that the Sixth Holy Grail War had begun and that the Mage Association has sent its representatives even this time."
Sensing Reines' slight allusion, Waver tensed up. He knew it wouldn't go unnoticed that a relic disappeared from the Clock Tower, but have they found out so soon?
"Did I hit a nerve, big brother?" Reines asked sarcastically.
Waver pretended to cough and put himself together. It was not as if Reines had tattled, otherwise, she would have already told all the other Lords and high-ranking members of the Clock Tower.
"The Greater Grail is too dangerous to continue to exist." Since the Mage Association had opposed him regarding the dismantling of the Holy Grail, they were ignorant of the fact that it had been corrupted by Avenger by distorting its ability to grant wishes.
"Oh, I see," Reines chuckled. "So this is his last job."
Waver did not answer.
"I thought that after the incident that occurred in Wales six months ago, you had decided not to entrust any more tasks to that guy," Reines said. "And still regarding that incident, it seems that the Department of Policies intends to put a Sealing's Designation on him."
Waver sighed, releasing the cigar smoke. "I imagined it," he said casually. "After all, hundreds of people have died, almost revealing to the whole world the existence of magecraft."
"It's strange for him to make such a mistake," Reines grinned. "Until now he had been a good mercenary, so much so that many began to believe that he was the reincarnation of the infamous Magus Killer Kiritsugo Emiya."
Waver knew Kiritsugo Emiya from the Fourth Holy Grail War. He was a magus killer who cared about nothing when he had to kill a target, often involving civilians.
Yuto was his grandson and a magus killer initiate, though his ways differed from Kiritsugo Emiya.
"So, what's the truth behind the Blackmore Cemetery incident?" Reines know Waver for a long time and there was no secret that he could hide her for more than five minutes.
"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Waver casually replied. "The target was a magus who studied human bodies to create the perfect chimaera." Waver answered as he shifted his attention to the clock placed on a shelf beside the room. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a flight soon."
Waver got up, grabbed the ticket and the luggage he had prepared in advance.
Reines watched as the door closed behind Waver.
"Bon voyage, big brother." An ironic smile spread across her face.
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"It looks like I was right," Mordred telepathically said. "Do you think he's already dead?"
"Maybe."
He was not friends with Ryuji, and the few iterations they had did not leave him a good impression. All he knew about Matou was what was being said. Rumours circulated among third-year students that he had become the Captain of the Basketball Club after the previous one was seriously injured forcing him to retire from the club. Or another voice said he had a habit of going with as many women as he wanted and wouldn't accept rejection.
"Do you think it was his Servant or another participant in the Holy Grail War?" Mordred asked.
"I don't know and I don't even care how he died," Yuto replied.
The fact that Ryuji was dead or not for the Holy Grail War was important. In the end, the real goal was to kill the servants until there was one left. The master only served to supply the servants with magical energy. And Yuto knew different ways for a servant to obtain it.
"You know master, I think I had to kill her right away," Mordred said frowny. "You know... to rip the band-aid."
"Maybe," Yuto conceded. "Well, you'll get it next time."
That time, Yuto had considered the possibility that Ryuji's servant was someone with the ability to conceal her face as the Berserker of the Fourth Holy Grail War who changed his appearance into that of Iskandar to kidnap Irisviel.
"Well, it doesn't matter. I can't change the past," he said as he got up from his desk. "We should plan our next move."
After studying the various points that the Magi could use to build their temporary bases, Yuto established that the Einzbern would be located in the old Einzbern castle just outside the city; however, the manor and the surrounding forest were protected by strong bounded fields.
Also, there had been a string of murders in the city recently. Yuto didn't believe in coincidences, and given the killer's MO, he said the murders were committed by the Assassin Class Servant. The victims had their heats stolen, indicating that it was probably a soul eater.
"For the moment, we should ignore Assassin. He or She is easy to find," Yuto suggested.
He didn't care about the people who lived in Fuyuki. If they died, it meant that the chances of finding other masters increased. He didn't want Rin to be among the victims.
"So, who is the first servant I have to destroy?" Mordred asked. She was tired of being inactive.
"Caster."
She was the first one they'd take care of. He knew Caster had created the Workshop and Yuto promised himself that Caster would suffer for daring to occupy that place.
"There's something I need to recover," Yuto said. "Unfortunately, what I want is inside Caster's workshop."
Mordred grinned. Indirectly, her master told her there was going to be a fight.
"Then we'll deal with Einzbern and his servant." However, based on the two previous Holy Grail Wars, Yuto did not doubt that they had summoned a powerful servant who was on a par with King Arthur and Heracles. "Since they own Das Rheingold, I guess they spared no expense for the catalyst of a powerful hero."
Das Rheingold was an endless mountain of treasures that provides great wealth. The Einzbern had found Siegfried's treasure and used it to finance excavations in Cornwall in search of Avalon, Excalibur's sheath, and to purchase a slab from a temple dedicated to Heracles.
"Honestly, as much as the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is famous all over the world, there are heroes who are equal or even superior to you."
"Well, we'll see about that, master," Mordred said in dismay at her master's commentary.
In human history, there were many heroes whose legends were famous, especially those of the Greek and Roman mythologies such as Achilles and Chiron, but the list was long.
"Anyway, let's be careful," Yuto said before he left class.
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Mordred blinked a couple of times while watching the Emiya residence. She remembered that last time Yuto told her that there was nothing important in that place other than the holes in the wall and the clotted blood.
"Let's move before Caster finds out," Yuto murmured.
Aware of the fact that they were entering the enemy territory, Yuto crossed police seals and entered the Japanese villa.
One thing Yuto had noticed immediately was that the Bounded Field around the Emiya residence had been strengthened. In addition to Kiritsugo's one, there were other bounded fields created by Caster.
"I could break them right away, but it could also be a trap," he mentally reasoned as he looked at the terracotta vases placed here and there inside the entrance courtyard and the back garden. "Perhaps by breaking them, some magecraft is activated, although Rule Breaker could play a decisive role."
Yuto and Mordred arrived in front of an old warehouse located at the back of the villa. Like the rest of the facility, it was damaged.
Yuto didn't have a key, so he just broke the lock.
"Hey, Master, just to be clear, but I don't want to withdraw from the war just because you got arrested by the police," Mordred made her position clear.
Yuto answered with a simple shrug. Legally, what they were doing was not a forced entry since that place was technically his property, although he had not lived there for ten years.
Once they entered, they saw the confusion inside. Boxes on boxes, junk scattered all over the place.
"So, what should we look for?" Mordred asked.
"The Legacy of Kiritsugo," Yuto replied.
What Yuto wanted were the old weapons that belonged to his grandfather: a Calico M950, a Thompson Contender and a Walther WA2000. He did not know if they would be needed, however, he was not willing to leave weapons in the hands of an unknown magus.
"It will be difficult, I won't deny it," Yuto admitted as he began to search among the various junk.
Mordred observed. Judging by the conditions in which the whole place was poured, she did not find the chaos inside strange. Whoever lived there must have fought until the end.
Her gaze wandered through the boxes until one caught her attention.
"Hey, Master, what's in here?" Mordred asked, grabbing a smaller box than the others, but which stood out for the numerous seals imprinted on it.
Yuto turned and winced slightly. He quickly approached Mordred and snatched it from her hand. "Don't touch!" He said altered while he was replaced that box in its place.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Mordred shrugged off her perplexity. She noticed that her master's expression was gloomy and the same one she had noticed when they first came there.
"This isn't the first time you've come here, is it?" Mordred said frowny. "Did you know the people who lived here?"
Yuto just nodded.
"Do you know the contents of that box?" Mordred asked.
Once again, Yuto merely nodded.
"I guess you won't tell me, will you?" Mordred asked. Inwardly, she hoped he would show it to her.
"You will kill me if you see it," he softly answered. "And I can't die until I have reached my goal."
He approached another group of boxes and picked them up. They looked very heavy, but Yuto lifted them as if they were empty. Mordred was rather surprised and even thrilled to see the weapons that were contained inside them.
"I did," he said after he put all the weapons inside his dimensional task and put the boxes back in their place. "Let's go now."
However, their escape would not have been so easy if it had been infiltration. When they left, they immediately saw that someone was watching them at the door.
She was a woman with cherry hair and hazel eyes. A pair of fox ears and a tail grew from her body. Her clothing consisted of an elegant and rich blue and black Yukata, with a black obi tied to her life, blue socks and sandals.
"Do you know what you've done?" she asked, staring at Yuto and Mordred. "You broke into the Magus' Workshop and tried to plunder it of its treasures."
Yuto looked at Mordred and nodded.
"I guess you're Caster." Shrouded in crimson lightning, Mordred equipped her armour and summoned Clarent. "You have before you the King of Knights. If you surrender without fuss, you'll get away with a simple beheading"
Yuto, however, was not entirely confident that Mordred would win. First, fighting in that place meant fighting on the enemy field, and the second was that he felt that Caster was not a normal Heroic Spirit.
"So you are the Saber Class Servant summoned for this Holy Grail War," Caster observed Mordred from head to foot. "A woman who likes playing the Knight..."
Hearing Caster refer to her as a woman, Mordred saw red and hurled at her opponent like an angry bull.
"Saber, it's a trap."
But Yuto's warning did not reach Mordred who, closing distances with Caster in a second, swung Clarent aiming at Caster's head.
"You should listen to what your master says," Caster smiled provocatively.
Mordred's eyes burst open to the surprise of seeing her attack was blocked by the Caster's Noble Phantasm, a mirror richly decorated with eight stones attached to the rim. What was worse was that the mirror absorbed Mordred's magical energy.
Mordred distanced herself from Caster and looked irritated at her opponent.
"Trace On."
Large swords rained from the sky, surrounding Caster and preventing her to escape.
"Continuous Fire."
Mordred's eyes burst open when volleys of swords flew toward Caster.
That technique was created by Archer/Shirou Emiya and consisted of firing volleys of swords until the enemy is dead. Yuto had simply made this technique more efficient, renouncing the quality of the projected weapons in favour of the fire speed.
"..." Yuto stopped projecting and shooting swords and waited for the cloud of dust that had risen around the Caster Class Servant to thin out.
"That was very close, Gray!"
"This voice!" Mordred turned suddenly in the direction of the mechanical voice. "Where the hell are you, Kay?!" she growled.
But soon Mordred realized that the voice she had mistaken for that of her old fellow knight came from a small talking cube inside a birdcage.
"You must be Caster's master." Yuto focused on the master and for the first time since Mordred was summoned, she could see the disbelief on the face of her master. She then shifted her attention from Yuto to Caster's Master and even she remained incredulous at the extreme resemblance to King Arthur.
Caster's Master was a woman in her thirties, with green eyes and grey hair held in a bun, with some blond locks. She wore a grey jumper, a black cape with a hood, a black skirt, socks and boots.
Yuto shook his head and recovered his composure. Even if she looked frightfully like his mother, it was impossible for her to be the King of Knights, because Rin had assured him that the prophecy of King Arthur's return would not be fulfilled.
Yuto looked away from her to the servant who was hiding in spiritual form and then brought his attention back to the master. "You must be the master."
Yuto had the feeling that he had met her before, but he could not remember either when.
"I am Gray," she spoke calmly. "And she is my servant, Caster."
Caster went back to her physical form, appearing alongside her master.
"Gray, don't give them too much confidence," the cube punished. "They are thieves and intruders."
What to do? Yuto reasoned. He could not overwrite Reality with his Reality Marble so facing them meant playing on the enemy field and after what he had seen, he had reason to believe that Caster is a Divine Spirit.
Now that the only advantage they had was wasted, theirs would be an almost certain defeat.
"We're leaving, Saber," Yuto ordered.
"But master,..."
Mordred stopped when he saw Yuto's cold eyes.
"Don't force me to use a Command Seal," he threatened, emphasizing his determination by showing her the seals imprinted on his hand.
Mordred growled.
Yuto turns to Caster and watches them with a poker face.
"Caster, right?" Yuto bowed a little. "On behalf of the Tohsaka family, I apologize on behalf of Saber for being rude." In the end, he had taken what they came for and that was what mattered. "If you'll excuse us, we're leaving now, although I'm sure this won't be the last time we meet."
With an inhuman leap, Yuto jumped across the wall, disappearing into the clearing.
"It's grown, but he seems distorted," Gray said with a melancholy expression.
"What did you say, Master?" Caster observed surprise. "Do you know him?"
Gray nodded. "He is someone who's crying in a corner and no one can hear him."