"Hiss... everything is proceeding according to plan."
A man clad in pitch-black armor tossed the already-fired smoke signal flare in his hand onto the Sarkaz lying on the ground.
However, the Sarkaz showed no reaction at all.
After all, there was a gaping hole in his chest, and Originium crystals were clearly visible inside his body.
The culprit behind all of this, the man in black armor, was already departing in another direction.
Not the direction Patriot had left.
Nor the direction Rhodes Island and Shirou's group had gone.
If Shirou were here, he would probably recognize this person as one of the individuals mentioned in the intelligence provided by Elysium and Wei Yenwu.
An Emperor's Blade.
An Ursus Imperial Guard.
"Hah!"
Meanwhile, Shirou wielded twin swords while evading a barrage of Arts attacks, steadily advancing toward the Sarkaz formation.
As the distance between them closed, some of the Sarkaz drew their weapons and prepared to engage him in close combat.
But Shirou had no intention of getting bogged down with them.
Among everyone present, only the giant hammer-wielding individual posed a significant threat to him.
At the very least, he could not allow that person to fully deploy their Originium Arts. Otherwise, things might become troublesome.
Still, he had heard some good news earlier.
According to W, all those explosives were fake, and even the detonator in her hand was fake.
Annoying as that was, one less problem was still a good thing.
Leaping into the air, Shirou used Kanshou and Bakuya to block an incoming attack. At the same time, he used his opponent as a foothold and launched himself toward his true target.
Everyone else was secondary.
Only this person had to be dealt with first.
Though that armor looked rather thick.
Still, interrupting the casting process would be enough.
Thinking this, Shirou abandoned Kanshou and Bakuya, which had become trapped by numerous weapons. Upon landing, he accelerated again and swung a kick at his target.
"Ugh!"
The moment his kick connected, Shirou felt as though he had struck an exceptionally hard boulder.
What was with this guy?
Was the inside of that armor filled entirely with dirt or something?
Complaining silently to himself, Shirou switched tactics and drove his right fist, reinforced with strengthening magecraft, toward his opponent.
His priority was interrupting the enemy's Originium Arts.
At the same time, he intended to use this contact to analyze what exactly lay beneath that armor.
That kick had left his leg slightly numb.
"...It really is filled with dirt and rocks?"
The instant his fist landed, Shirou rapidly analyzed the structure inside the armor.
There was indeed a large amount of soil and stone.
As for what lay deeper within, he did not spend time examining it further. There was simply not enough time for a thorough analysis.
Still, the whole thing was rather absurd.
Then again, considering that this person could manipulate stone constructs, perhaps it made sense.
Whatever.
That was not important right now.
After driving his opponent back with a punch and interrupting their Originium Arts, Shirou projected Kanshou and Bakuya once more.
He then rolled to the side, avoiding both incoming Arts attacks and crossbow bolts.
"This guy is way too disgusting to fight!"
Seeing their Arts miss yet again, one Sarkaz finally could not hold back any longer.
They simply could not hurt him.
Just think about it.
More than a dozen Sarkaz had launched Arts attacks together.
Over half of their attackshad been sliced apart by his twin swords.
Of the remainder, half had been dodged completely.
And the rest?
He had simply endured them and charged forward anyway.
With physical toughness like that, was this guy really not a Sarkaz?
And what had they just witnessed?
Captain Mudrock had been driven back by a single punch!
One punch!
Knocked back!
The Sarkaz could easily imagine what would happen if that fist landed on them.
Would it not shatter every bone in their body?
An enemy like this was both revolting and incredibly difficult to deal with.
"Tch. You were the ones who attacked first, you know?"
Rolling into a relatively open area with some cover, Shirou clicked his tongue before responding.
They had been the ones to launch the first attack.
And now they were the ones complaining.
So what exactly were they trying to do?
The only reason he had not gone all out was because, earlier, they had seemed fairly reasonable to talk to.
What he still did not understand was the meaning of that red smoke flare.
Why had everyone gone berserk and started attacking him the moment they saw it?
Or perhaps...
Were these people not actually Sarkaz?
Were they Vouivre? No, perhaps some race that charged impulsively whenever they saw the color red?
"Words are pointless."
Mudrock, who had been knocked back by Shirou moments earlier, glanced to the side before lifting her hammer once again and slamming it heavily into the ground.
A massive cloud of dust erupted upward, enveloping part of the Sarkaz forces, along with Mudrock and Shirou.
"You are not very easy to communicate with, are you?"
Watching her actions, Shirou muttered a quiet complaint.
At the same time, Shirou felt that it was probably time to do something. If he allowed himself to be tied up like this, the situation would drag on endlessly.
After their brief exchange earlier, he had more or less gauged the strength of the Sarkaz squad before him.
They were quite strong, and their teamwork was excellent.
If he wanted to defeat them all, it would probably take some time.
But if all he wanted was to create a breakthrough point, that would be relatively easy.
Within the swirling dust cloud, Shirou held his twin swords while minimizing his presence as much as possible. At the same time, he slowly shifted his footing, constantly changing positions.
He could hear the sounds of Arts attacks being launched.
However, none of them struck him.
Instead, they were all doing an excellent job of cleaning the floor.
"..."
Within the dust cloud, Shirou sensed that something was off.
Something felt strange.
Perhaps it was just his imagination, but the surrounding temperature seemed to have dropped considerably.
As he pondered the cause of the falling temperature, he heard the sound of something cutting through the air from his right.
Judging purely by the sound, it was likely a blunt weapon such as a hammer.
Taking two steps backward, Shirou avoided the attack.
It seemed that among the entire group, only this person was capable of locating him within the dust cloud.
"The earth is my ally."
After the massive hammer struck the ground with a thunderous impact, the opponent suddenly spoke those words.
Immediately afterward, Shirou felt something grab hold of his feet from below.
Then an overwhelming wave of cold rushed toward him.
"So that was your plan?"
As his body began freezing within the dust cloud, Shirou finally understood what this entire sequence of actions had been for.
The fact that his opponent could locate him within the dust cloud, combined with their ability to manipulate soil and stone through Originium Arts, suggested that they could detect people's positions through the rocky ground itself.
Furthermore, before creating the dust cloud, the opponent had glanced in another direction.
That meant they had already known reinforcements were arriving.
Everything that followed had been done to create an opening for those reinforcements to attack.
Meanwhile, Shirou had focused entirely on the people directly in front of him and failed to notice the arrival of others.
One layer after another.
One trap following the next.
Fighting people like this was always the most troublesome.
You constantly had to wonder whether you had already fallen into their scheme.
Unfortunately for them, if freezing him solid was supposed to be the finishing move...
Then their plan was doomed to fail.
That said...
Shirou was curious about what exactly these people were plotting, so he did not immediately break free.
To lower their guard, he even tossed Kanshou and Bakuya onto the ground, pretending that his shock had caused him to drop his weapons.
If anyone asked, it was something he had learned during intelligence-gathering classes aboard Rhodes Island.
Showing a little weakness could often help uncover more information.
Though, to be fair, what Shirou was doing now looked less like showing weakness and more like playing dead.
Still, the result was more or less the same.
"Something happened to the old stubborn fool? Was this guy responsible?"
Despite being completely trapped within a block of ice, Shirou could still hear the voices outside.
He had long known that his physical abilities were becoming increasingly bizarre, but situations like this still left him marveling a little.
The difference between an ordinary person's body and that of a mage was simply enormous.
As for the "old stubborn fool" the woman mentioned, Shirou could roughly guess who she meant.
It was probably the Patriot they had spoken about earlier.
The huge man in black armor whom he had met.
"Yeah. The signal flare we saw was red... which means something may have happened to Mr. Patriot."
Another deep voice responded.
"It is really hard to imagine that old stubborn fool getting into trouble..."
The woman spoke again after hearing that.
"..."
Listening to their conversation, Shirou finally pieced together the situation.
After being physically forced to cool down, the answer became fairly obvious.
Rhodes Island and he himself had likely been framed.
Or perhaps there had been something wrong with the signal that had been transmitted.
After all, as one of the parties involved, Shirou knew exactly what had happened.
Rather than fighting Patriot to the death, they had actually gotten along reasonably well.
Well...
Aside from the fact that Shirou had spent most of the conversation criticizing the man's faults.
If Patriot had somehow died on the spot because Shirou's words had hit too close to home, then Shirou would just have to accept responsibility for it.
"Do not worry. That old guy is perfectly fine. The scout you sent out to investigate, on the other hand, is already about as dead as a person can get."
Just as the two were deep in discussion, another voice came from above.
It was W.
The woman who had somehow exposed her own position for reasons unknown, had other people keep Shirou occupied, and then ran off to find Rhodes Island's Doctor.
It was extremely difficult to understand what went on inside her head.
Shirou felt that his way of thinking and hers did not even operate on the same plane of existence.
And it was not just Shirou.
Even W's own teammates often had no idea what she was thinking.
"What do you mean?"
Mudrock asked in confusion.
"I mean exactly what I said. The guy is basically dead. Someone ripped him open from chest to stomach. It was a pretty horrible sight. There was nothing at the scene except the corpse. My guess is that somebody got to the messenger first, killed him, and then sent out a false message. They wanted to turn us against these people, did they not?"
Although he could not see her face, Shirou felt that W's tone was genuinely irritating.
Still...
At the very least, she explained everything quite clearly whenever she spoke.
And judging from what she had said, she seemed to be helping clear both his and Rhodes Island's names.
For a moment, Shirou found it difficult to determine exactly what this person called W was thinking.
"..."
The scene fell silent.
After all, they had assumed he was an enemy, only to discover that they had attacked the wrong person.
It was a little awkward.
And since he was currently frozen solid, they did not even know whether he was still alive.
"How tragic. Left behind by that Doctor to cover the retreat, only to end up losing your life!"
W, however, did not seem burdened by such concerns.
She did not know the person who had been left behind anyway.
And even if she had, she probably would not have felt much guilt.
Jumping down from the high wall Mudrock had raised, W walked over to the massive ice sculpture that was Shirou and began speaking ill of the Doctor.
Shirou: "..."
He would like to point out that the Doctor's final words had actually been telling him to run.
It seemed that W knew the Doctor.
And not only that, she appeared to hold quite a grudge against them.
Judging from everyone's reactions, the conversation seemed to be over.
The conclusion was that this had been a complete misunderstanding from start to finish.
If that was the case, then having obtained the information he wanted, it was time for Shirou to leave.
"Hm? This guy is still alive?"
Although the dust had not yet settled, W was close enough to notice that the eyes of the person trapped inside the ice had moved.
The sight was admittedly a little unsettling.
For W, though, it was merely somewhat creepy.
The instant she finished speaking, countless magic circuits lit up across Shirou's body inside the ice.
He melted a small amount of space around himself and then forced his way free.
The surge of magical energy generated a gust of wind that scattered the surrounding dust cloud as he broke out.
The moment he emerged, Shirou glanced at W.
Remembering that she had apparently helped clear Rhodes Island's name moments earlier, he suppressed the urge to punch her in the face to vent his frustration.
Instead, he stepped onto her shoulder and launched himself toward the wall of a nearby building.
"...That is!"
As the dust dispersed, Shirou finally saw the reinforcements who had arrived.
A white-haired Cautus stood among them, a scar visible on her face.
What caught Shirou's attention, however, was the matching red armband on her arm and the heavily dressed figures standing behind her.
Looking around, he realized that everyone except W seemed to be wearing the same red armband.
Moreover, from the white Cautus's gaze, Shirou could tell that she recognized him.
Or rather, she recognized the clothes he was wearing.
Tch. Archer really knows far too many people.
Grumbling inwardly, Shirou did not slow down.
With nobody interfering, he kicked off the side of the building and rapidly scaled it.
In just a few bounds, he cleared the towering wall.
"That guy!"
By the time W realized she had been used as a stepping stone, the red-clad figure had already vanished without a trace.
The only things left behind were the black-and-white twin blades lying on the ground.