Fate: Hero of Justice Takeover

Atop the Alps. 

"So, can you tell me about him now?"

As soon as the duo reached the peak, Ryuunosuke Uryuu ignoring his aching legs turned to ask Sakatsuki about the man.

Sakatsuki casually glanced at the patch of grass beside Ryuunosuke and spoke.

"Of course."

There, lay a faintly visible black backpack with various things inside it. This along with Ryuunosuke's overly familiar climbing process, confirmed Sakatsuki's suspicions.

With this realization, Sakatsuki's smile turned cold and ruthless.

"Trace on."

It wasn't Shirou Emiya's beloved Kanshou and Bakuya, the black and white twin swords, but a simple short sword appeared in Sakatsuki's hands.

Before Ryuunosuke could react, Sakatsuki closed the distance between them, in his though weakened but still superhuman speed compared to an ordinary human, and stabbed him.

The blade mercilessly pierced through Ryuunosuke's abdomen.

The wind on the peak seemed to stand still, with only the clear sound of blood leaving Ryuunosuke's body.

"Look."

Scooping a handful of the blood flowing out, Sakatsuki brought his hand close to Ryuunosuke's eyes and spoke in a devil's whisper.

"This is my answer. This is what you were looking for in your life, Ryuunosuke Uryuu."

Ryuunosuke widened his eyes, staring at the crimson liquid slowly dripping from Sakatsuki's hands.

"Cool..."

Red. A pure, vivid red without a speck of impurities.

This was the primal colour he had been searching for, radiant and dazzling.

This was it—Ryuunosuke suddenly realized, a smile curling on his pale lips.

This was the true Red he had been searching for all his life, the colour he had searched for in countless places without ever finding.

The red gradually faded. And not just from the hand; even Sakatsuki, the devil, had already walked away without any signs of regret.

But Ryuunosuke had found his answer.

Lovingly, he gently embraced his bleeding abdomen.

"I see... no wonder I never realized..."

As the saying goes, what you seek far and wide is often right in front of you. Ryuunosuke, intoxicated by the hormones flooding his brain, felt as if he were ascending to heaven. Trembling, he knelt on the ground, pulling his backpack, which was lying beside him.

Unzipping it, scalpels, nails, a small hammer... all sorts of torture tools clattered out, gleaming in the sunlight and stained with blood.

Still, with a short sword stuck in his abdomen, Ryuunosuke struggled to pick them up and without hesitation began using them on himself.

Cutting flesh, squeezing out blood.

These were originally intended as a gift for Sakstuki, but now they were being used entirely on himself.

From afar, Sakatsuki watched Ryuunosuke's self-mutilation, his golden pupils devoid of any emotion.

Just then the interface of the Fate Compendium unfolded before him.

[002: Ryuunosuke Uryuu]

[Character Info: A serial killer...]

[Hidden Info: Although he was a serial killer and committed murders everywhere, he maintained an honest principle never to steal money from his victims. In the end, he discovered what he was seeking all this time was within him all this time.]

[Record Conditions (1/1)]:

[•Kill Ryuunosuke Uryuu (Completed)]

[Condition Reward: Durability parameter restored to normal.]

[Durability: D→C]

Accompanied by a pleasant sensation from within his body, Sakatsuki stretched, feeling significantly stronger.

"Condition achieved, which means..."

Looking up, he saw Ryunosuke Uryuu had hollow eyes, fingers tightly clutching the tools as he mechanically left scars on his own body.

The blood had drained from his body, yet a stiff smile remained on his face.

...Tsukuyomi withdrew his gaze silently.

Though it was good for the serial killer to die early, having to deal with such a thing right after arriving in this world and personally killing his saviour felt somewhat bad taste in his mouth.

It felt like wearing a freshly washed white shirt, only to have a passing tractor splash it with mud.

A bit frustrating.

Sakatsuki's shifted his gaze to the nearby cliff, his golden eyes gleaming brighter.

If that's the case, let's cleanse the filth clinging to his body in a traditional way.

Sakatsuki's gaze brightened with the rising sun as he madly sprinted toward the cliff.

Running through the cool wind, passing over lush green grass, and facing the pristine blue sky, he spread his arms wide.

"Woohoo—!"

With an exhilarated shout, Sakatsuki leapt from the 4158-meter-high peak!

Behind him, a kneeling figure collapsed in despair. The blood around him gradually dried in the sunlight, like a smashed red pomegranate.

The animal-loving serial killer was dead.

And a newborn fledgling bird dove from the peak, letting out its first resounding cry to the beautiful world.

"Leap of—Faithhhhh!!!"

***

Five days later, near Zugspitze

The north wind howled, snow filled the sky, and the temperature hit a record low. In this harsh weather, intolerable even for German border guards, a lone figure crossed the Austrian-German border into a desolate area.

This was a rarely visited wilderness, located between the mortal world and the mysterious.

Here stood the structure known as the Winter Castle, the headquarters of the Einzbern family. One of the factions participating in the Fourth Holy Grail War and one of the Three Founding Families of the Holy Grail War.

The abnormal magical flow dissipated, dismantling the last magical barrier. Sakatsuki stood up, wiping away nonexistent sweat from his face.

"Phew... Finally solved. As expected of the Einzbern family, with their millennia of heritage, likely even the head of the family can't remember how many defensive barriers were set here."

Indeed, after making a Leap of Faith from the Alps, Sakatsuki followed the leylines to the area near the Winter Castle and began a stealthy infiltration.

For someone who had watched the Fate/Zero plot, how could he not be interested in the Einzbern family, and Emiya Kiritsugu, who was currently residing here?

After all, this was the original Emiya Shirou's adoptive father, the ruthless man who destroyed the Grail in the Fourth Holy Grail War.

As for why he didn't storm into Winter Castle but chose such a troublesome infiltration method, there was a reason.

Sakatsuki looked up, at the ethereal blue panel displaying the records.

It was the reward received after fulfilling Angelica's hidden condition.

[Hidden Condition Reward: Displacement magic(Modified)]

[Displacement Magic: A+]

[Though a basic and low-level spell, based on the fundamental rule that the replacement will always suffer from degradation, only a few use it. But in the hands of the Ainsworth family, who specialize in it, the scale, accuracy, and application range of their displacement deviates from the common sense of magecraft, even touching upon abstract concepts like space and spirit.]

Under some mysterious forces, Sakatsuki can use the Displacement magic as if carrying a portable magic workshop with him, allowing extraordinary uses. Even touching upon the elusive concepts.

Compared to the original Displacement Magic, the modified version not only had significantly improved power and precision but also transcended the "knowing how to use" to the "understanding how it works" level. In other words, the centuries of magical knowledge, theory, and techniques of the Ainsworth family had all been transferred to Sakatsuki's mind.

At this point, Sakatsuki's knowledge of Displacement Magic was on par with the Ainsworth family's patriarch, Darius, except for a lack of practical experience.

And the Winter Castle's impregnable magical barriers were the perfect practice ground for Sakatsuki.