"How do you feel, Karna?"

After parting ways with a certain half-baked magus, the young man, who now seemed a size smaller than before, stood in the underground warehouse of the Matou residence, speaking to his Servant.

He had sold a bit of his charm to get a certain magus to agree that when the Holy Grail appeared, regardless of who held it, she would throw the "fact" of Angra Mainyu's pollution of the Grail into the distant future.

Therefore, the next step was naturally to strengthen his own side as much as possible in preparation for the official start of the Holy Grail War.

On the back of Li Zihan's hand, the once-vibrant red marks had all faded, turning into faint patterns. They were the marks left behind after the Command Spells had been consumed.

A Command Spell was a sigil composed of three strokes, with each stroke representing the right to exercise one absolute command, meaning it could only be used a maximum of three times. Furthermore, Command Spells could not only control a Servant's actions but also had a strengthening effect. Basically, within the range of the Master's mana, a Command Spell could be used to make a Servant do things they normally couldn't, even feats bordering on the domain of True Magic, like spatial teleportation.

And now, the Command Spells on the back of Li Zihan's hand—the reins he used as a Master to restrain his Servant—had completely vanished, not a single stroke remaining. Before the war had even officially begun, he had already used up all of his Command Spells.

"Compared to my previous state, I am now closer to how I was when I was alive."

Karna, feeling his power increasing, calmly stated his perception.

In a Holy Grail War, each class could only manifest one aspect of the summoned Heroic Spirit. Many heroes suffered greatly from this limitation, unable to bring their full arsenal and getting nerfed into oblivion.

However, the skill known as "Double Summon" was a power capable of changing this situation, and three strokes of a Command Spell was a power that could, to a certain extent, distort reality.

"Correspondingly, the curses upon me have also grown heavier."

The Lancer, who had been granted the skill "Double Summon"—which he did not originally possess—by the three Command Spells, spoke.

No, it was probably wrong to call him Lancer now. Because the moment the three Command Spells were consumed, his class had already changed.

He had obtained two classes.

True Name: Karna

Class: Lancer & Rider

Strength: A

Endurance: A

Agility: A

Mana: A

Luck: "A" (E)

Noble Phantasm: EX

"That sort of thing is unimportant."

Li Zihan, who knew very well that Karna's current luck was E+ at best, looked at the "A" rank for luck on the panel with a strange expression.

Karna, who insisted that he still possessed A-rank luck, was an incredibly unlucky fellow. The curses on him were frighteningly numerous. The curses varied depending on his class. As a Rider, his Noble Phantasm, the Sun Chariot, would lose mobility at a critical moment. As an Archer, he would forget the secrets of his archery at a critical moment. As a Lancer, the curse was that he would forget how to use his sure-kill blade, Brahmastra, at a critical moment.

Now that Karna had obtained a dual class, his luck was probably only slightly better than the Big Doggy whose body was covered in what were written as 'geis' but read as 'death flags'. At best, he was an E+.

Where does this guy get the confidence to put an 'A' for his luck?

Li Zihan couldn't figure it out for the life of him. But he was too lazy to ask. Compared to prying into why Karna had such mysterious confidence in his own luck, he was more concerned with whether he could get his hands on the Holy Grail.

"From now on, I'll just continue to call you Lancer."

The young man, preparing to go elsewhere to replenish his Command Spells, said to his Double Summoned Servant.

"We should go meet our ally and clean up that old man Kotomine, who has deeply inherited the true teachings of 'fairness'."

The current Karna was still not at his limit; his power could be further enhanced.

"Master, there is a problem with your ally's Servant, Assassin."

Karna, who had met Emiya Kiritsugu's Servant not long ago, spoke up, offering his observation.

"Is that so?"

The young man narrowed his eyes, the image of a man with a red back appearing in his mind.

"He is hostile towards you." Karna stated.

"That sort of thing... who knows?"

The red in the young man's eyes brightened. He had a vague guess as to why a certain Guardian would be hostile towards him. Honkai energy, a power that could cause a massacre once unleashed, was a dangerous force even in limited quantities.

"Let's talk about this later." The young man, long prepared for this, said to his Servant. "The more important thing right now is to restore the consumed Command Spells."

========Line Break========

Atop a tall building, approximately four kilometers from the Holy Church, a young man stood quietly.

He was a man with slightly dark skin and short white hair. He wore a suit of soft armor, covered by a red Holy Shroud-like cloak, and held a nameless black longbow in his hand.

If anyone were to pass by and see such a sight, they would surely think this young man was insane. Dressed so strangely and holding a controlled weapon, he looked like an overgrown chuuni cosplaying some hero character.

"Assassin, what's the situation up ahead?"

A voice echoed in the red-clothed youth's ear, asking about his observations.

The youth, possessing the inherent skill of Clairvoyance, used his hawk-like gaze to monitor every movement at the church four kilometers away.

Clairvoyance, also known as "Hawk Eye," was a visual ability essential for the Archer class. At a certain level, it could even achieve future sight, present sight, and past sight. Assassin's Clairvoyance was rank C. He couldn't observe the world like flipping through a book, unlike some Casters who spent all their time in close combat, but he still possessed a terrifying ability. Simply by looking from a high place, he could survey the entire town and search for enemies.

With the enhancement of Clairvoyance, almost no one could escape Assassin's sniping within four kilometers.

The record for the longest sniper shot was set by a Canadian sniper on the battlefield in Afghanistan. In 2002, he used an American McMillan TAC-50 12.7mm sniper rifle with a 16x scope. He fired a total of three shots: the first missed, the second hit the target's backpack, and the third successfully hit the target at a distance of 2430m. It was a miracle in the history of sniping.

And Assassin, with just a casual pull of his longbow, could pick off anything within four kilometers on the battlefield. If he were to appear on a modern battlefield, he would be the nightmare of all snipers.

The youth, clearly more suited to be an Archer than an Assassin, gazed into the distance, taking everything in.

"All clear, Kiri—Master."

As if by habit, Assassin almost called out his Master's name but caught himself at the last moment, switching to another title.

"No sign of Tohsaka Tokiomi. It's a good time to move."

The assassin, who had descended in this Holy Grail War in place of "Hassan" due to a special mission, spoke. His mission was to kill the anomaly who was suspected of possessing a power similar to that of a "Primate Murder."

Just... the current situation was a bit special.

Assassin sighed inwardly.

The Lancer summoned by his target was ridiculously powerful, and he was his Master's ally. If he were to attack suddenly, he would surely die. He would die on the tip of Lancer's spear, or by Kiritsugu's Command Spell.

I have to take this slowly.

The youth, who had signed a contract of indentured servitude with the Counter Force to save five hundred pitiful people with a fated death, becoming a Guardian—or rather, a worker ant—thought to himself.

"Then prepare to execute the plan."

Unaware that his Servant's identity was highly unusual, Emiya Kiritsugu cradled a grotesque sniper rifle weighing over ten kilograms, his voice cold and thick with killing intent.

The ancestor of the Tohsaka family, Fuyuki's administrators, Tohsaka Nagato, had been a Christian before he met the Jewel-Wielder and became a magus. Therefore, the Holy Church looked upon the magus family named Tohsaka more favorably than other families. This relationship had even been further developed under the careful cultivation of the previous head of the Tohsaka family. As a result, the Tohsaka family was the one most favored by the Holy Church among all the pursuers of the Grail.

The "absolutely neutral" supervisor, Risei Kotomine, and the "traitor to his school," Kirei Kotomine, were both assistants to Tohsaka Tokiomi.

How utterly unruly.

Emiya Kiritsugu, who had learned from Li Zihan about the dirty backroom deal between Tohsaka Tokiomi and Risei Kotomine, was thinking calmly, but the killing intent in his heart was steadily rising.

If that's the case, then I'll just eliminate them.

Aside from a very small number of elites, the people of this world had no ability to resist the Heroic Spirits who had walked out from the long river of history.

If only Risei Kotomine was here, he would kill him directly and seize the Command Spells the Holy Church had collected over the years. If Kirei Kotomine was also here, he would have Assassin tie up his Servant, and then he and the ally who had invited him here would kill him directly.

"Make your move, Assassin."

The man, who was himself very much like a killing machine, spoke, giving the command to his Servant.

"Understood, Master."

The Guardian, descended under the Assassin class, drew his bow, baring his fangs at the Holy Church.