Silence.
Amid the swirling wind and snow, several gazes turned simultaneously toward the end of the entrance to Ryūdō Temple as an eerie quiet filled the air.
"I didn't expect that even after all these years, you'd still remember my name...
Miss Illya."
A clear and pleasant voice broke the silence.
Snowflakes froze into ice crystals upon touching her golden hair.
Dark golden magical bounded fields quietly bloomed beneath the girl's feet as she walked step by step across the frozen ground.
Compared to the past, both her aura and appearance had matured considerably.
The thickness of her dress was just right, so it didn't look bulky at all, but instead accentuated her exquisite and graceful curves, making the girl look exquisite at the first glance.
With her arrival, everyone's nerves tensed in an instant.
Illya's body trembled slightly, her eyes filled with wariness and tension.
After many years, she thought that she was already very powerful and would no longer be afraid of any enemy...
Yet the moment she saw this woman again, an inexplicable dread instinctively rose within her.
After all, she and her mother almost died at her hands....
Of course, she wouldn't let the fear show on her face.
"You haven't changed at all, have you, Miss Illya."
Sajyou Manaka smiled as she looked at the silver-haired girl.
"You look exactly the same as ten years ago... Though that's how homunculi are, it still makes me a bit sentimental."
"And also,"
As she spoke, she turned her gaze to Merlin, not far from Illya's side. "I never expected you to participate in the Holy Grail War. That's quite a surprise... Merlin."
Merlin...?
Rider's head snapped up and a trace of astonishment appeared on her otherwise expressionless face.
The Servant summoned by the Einzbern family was actually the great court mage from British legend, Merlin?
After a brief moment of shock, Rider's expression grew even graver.
If Illya's Servant was Merlin, then who was this girl dealing with him?
She was clearly a modern magus... but why did she know Merlin?
Seeing Sajyou Manaka direct her attention straight at him, Merlin wore a gentle smile. "I was just accidentally summoned by my Master. But I didn't expect to see you in the Holy Grail War either... We really are fated, aren't we?"
With that, he glanced around Sajyou Manaka a few times, then asked curiously, "You haven't summoned a Servant yet?"
It would have been better if she hadn't said those words, because as soon as this matter was brought up, Sajyou Manaka's face immediately darkened.
"Could it be... you didn't summon the Servant you wanted?"
Merlin asked tentatively as the girl replied coldly, "You're talking too much nonsense."
Merlin put on an expression of sudden realization and laughed. "Looks like I guessed right?"
"But Heroic Spirit summoning is like that. Even with a related relic, all sorts of unexpected things can happen. Just let it go."
Merlin chuckled cheerfully, showing no consideration for the feelings of someone who failed to pull their desired five-star despite having the relic.
Illya interrupted coldly, "Enough, Caster... Don't forget our goal tonight."
"Don't worry. Rider won't escape."
Merlin smiled and spoke. "If I'm not mistaken, Miss Sajyou is here for Rider too, right?"
He held his staff and continued smiling. "How about we cooperate to take down Rider first?"
Sajyou Manaka didn't even bother looking up at him, her face expressionless. "Do you think I need to cooperate with you?"
"What if it's a trade, then?"
Merlin laughed as Illya's thoughts stirred.
She seemed to guess what the Britain's court mage was planning and instinctively said, "Caster—"
However, the latter stopped Illya with a look, signaling her to stay quiet for now.
Sajyou Manaka's brow arched. "A trade? What do you have to trade with me?"
Merlin stared at the girl and enunciated clearly, "Information on the White Dragon."
Thump thump...
For a moment, Sajyou Manaka's heartbeat suddenly quickened.
Her breathing grew slightly rapid as she raised her head, her gaze burning intensely at Merlin.
"You have news about him...?"
Even with omniscience and omnipotence, she couldn't obtain any information related to the White Dragon.
On the night the Holy Grail War began, when she performed the Heroic Spirit summoning and failed to call forth the White Dragon, the girl felt as if a piece of her heart was missing, leaving her feeling empty and desolate.
Now, hearing that Merlin knew something about the White Dragon, it was inevitable she'd feel excited.
"Are you serious?"
She unconsciously lowered her voice, trying to keep her emotions steady, but her radiant, shining eyes betrayed the turmoil in her heart right now.
"Yes, and I know where he is right now."
Merlin gave a slight nod in confirmation.
Sajyou Manaka's eyes flickered, but she gradually calmed down and soon turned her gaze toward Rider's direction.
"It seems we've successfully reached a cooperation."
Merlin smiled, at this moment, a golden light seemed to faintly emanate from the staff in his hand.
Sensing two waves of magical energy simultaneously focused on her, Rider instinctively tightened her grip on her chains.
Yet a series of chills ran down her back.
"Still planning to struggle? But you should know it's futile, right?"
Sajyou Manaka revealed a cold, indifferent smile. "Caster set up an ambush long before you arrived.
You can't escape the bounded field he laid. Everything you're doing now is just pointless resistance."
Rider said nothing.
She simply reached up and slowly removed her eye patch.
She possessed two different Noble Phantasms, and the one she intended to use now was the special one capable of petrifying everything—the Mystic Eyes of Petrification.
In the past, this Noble Phantasm had caused immense trouble for many powerful enemies.
Yet neither Sajyou Manaka nor Merlin seemed fazed in the slightest; there wasn't a trace of panic on them.
Sajyou Manaka was right.
Merlin had laid a magical bounded field long ago, a weakened version of "Avalon."
As long as they remained within Ryūdō Temple, Rider's Noble Phantasm would have no effect on anyone.
But neither Sajyou Manaka nor Merlin had anticipated that Rider had never intended to escape from the start.
Facing the cooperation of two powerful enemies, a mocking, cold smile curved on Rider's lips as she extended her right hand and slowly opened her palm.
An intricately patterned flying insect fluttered up.
"Pointless struggling!"
The next moment, Sajyou Manaka stepped forward.
The snow beneath her feet melted rapidly as though exposed to intense heat. Countless magical bullets rained down like golden light from the sky!
The overwhelming downpour was so vast it nearly filled the iron-gray heavens in an instant.
But that wasn't all.
At the same moment, Merlin swung his staff.
Countless pink petals mingled with the snowflakes as they fell. When Rider tried to evade, she found she couldn't move at all!
—Merlin's illusion!
As Illya had said, from the moment Rider stepped into Ryūdō Temple tonight, escape had been impossible.
They had prepared the trap in advance, waiting for her to walk right into it.
Facing this simultaneous pincer attack, Rider seemed to truly give up struggling and slowly lowered her chained weapon.
She raised her head, gazing into the sky as the crest worm infused with the "Tide of Chaos" flew straight upward.
Then, it shattered mid-air.
A single drop of black sludge quietly fell.
Like ripples spreading across a calm lake, that drop suddenly expanded countless times.
A black, graceful figure bloomed from the black mud like a mandragora flower.
The instant that woman's figure emerged from the mud and descended, massive amounts of snow on Ryūdō Temple rose upward in reverse, as though willingly prostrating at her feet.
Facing the rain of light descending from the sky, the figure in the black mud raised her right hand.
The light rain seemed drawn by some attraction, rapidly condensing together before being instantly devoured by the power of the Tide of Chaos.
Everyone present stared at the scene in shock.
Even Rider, the one involved, wore an expression of utter disbelief.
The figure silently descended from mid-air, landing behind Rider.
"It's quite lively tonight. Good thing I kept a backup plan. Otherwise, you might have been the first Servant eliminated, Rider."