Kayh: "Emiya Kiritsugu!!!"

  Kayh was livid. It was ohing tet him, but to involve his fiahat was unfivable.

  Diarmuid and So-ui looked equally furious. This was the first time they truly felt disgusted by Kiritsugu's as.

  [The video tinues.]

  [In the abandoned building's square, Artoria and Diarmuid were locked in intense bat, their fierce duel captivating the audience.]

  [But up on the rooftop, Kayh wasn't nearly as eained.]

  ["Useless fool. Instead of firming victory, shouldn't you have just escaped with your Master by now?"]

  [Kayh muttered in frustration as he hid, finding fault with everything Diarmuid did.]

  ["Resg So-ui is the top priority right now, but this guy…"]

  ["You idiot, 't you even make a basic judgment call?"]

  [Kayh's disdain for Diarmuid alpable.]

  [His criticisms wereirely without merit. Diarmuid had, indeed, abandoned his disabled Master to engage in a duel with Artoria—a poor decision giveuation.]

  ["Click, click, click…"]

  [Just then, the sound of footsteps echoed. A bullet Kayh's feet, jolting him out of his thoughts.]

  [Kayh looked up, eyes widening in horror. There, just a short distance away, stood Emiya Kiritsugu, who had somehow snuck up behind him, So-ui lying unscious and wou his feet.]

  [Kiritsugu pointed a gun at So-ui, raising a fio his lips in a silent demand for Kayh's cooperation. The message was clear: stay quiet, or she dies.]

  [Kayh's face torted with rage, but for So-ui's sake, he kept silent.]

  [Then, Kiritsugu tossed him a tract.]

  [It was already filled out, Kayh only o sign.]

  ["This is…"]

  [Kayh's eyes sed the tents, his face pale with shock.]

  [The tract was simple: Kiritsugu promised not to harm Kayh or So-ui further, in exge for Kayh using his ao order Diarmuid to it suicide.]

  [Kiritsugu's gun remained poi So-ui's head the eime. This wasn't a iation, it was bckmail.]

  Diarmuid: "Emiya Kiritsugu, this is a disgrace to the knight's code of honor!"

  Artoria: "Kiritsugu, how could you stoop to this…?"

  Waver: "This maerrifying. I have to stay vigint."

  Tohsaka Rin: "Me too."

  Tohsaka Tokiomi: "I always knew of his ruthless reputation, but seeing his methods firsthand…"

  Gilgamesh: "Hahaha, what a delightful show."

  [Under Kiritsugu's ruthless coer, Kayh ultimately sighe tract.]

  [Faced with a choice between the Holy Grail War and his fiancée, he chose So-ui.]

  [But as he sigears began streaming down Kayh's face.]

  [This once-proud mage looked utterly broken, his expression hollow aed.]

  [Whether he was g for his own failure or for Diarmuid, only he knew.]

  [With tears staining his face, Kayh gave the order.]

  ["I use my remaining ao order you, Diarmuid… take your own life."]

  ["Ghh…!"]

  [In the middle of his duel with Artoria, Diarmuid suddenly plunged his own spear, the Gáe Buidhe, into his spiritual core, a look of stunned disbelief frozen on his face.]

  Waver: "Teacher… he actually cried…"

  Iskandar: "It seems the blow was too much to bear."

  Kayh: "…"

  He felt utterly humiliated. This would add yet aain to his already tarnished reputation.

  [Diarmuid's self-inflicted injury shocked not only himself, but also Artoria, who had been fighting him, and Irisviel, who was nearby.]

  [It took them a moment to realize what had happened, but as Kiritsugu and Kayh emerged from the building, the truth dawned on them.]

  [Kiritsugu had kept his word and released So-ui.]

  [So-ui g tightly to Kayh, trembling as if she would never let go.]

  [Kayh, meanwhile, looked utterly broken, muttering the words of the trader his breath.]

  [What he'd been through had shattered every ounce of pride he'd once had.]

  [Kayh was a ruined man.]

  ["You monsters… you'll do anything to win, won't you?"]

  [Diarmuid, realizing what had transpired, dropped to his knees, blood trig from his eyes, his face twisted in rage arayal. The onoble knight's posure was gone, repced by sheer anguish.]

  ["You… you would stoop to such despicable means to win the Holy Grail… and trample over my one wish…"]

  [Diarmuid's bloodshot eyes focused on Artoria, as though she were plicit in this betrayal.]

  [In his eyes, all his dedication and loyalty had been thrown away, wasted.]

  [Artoria wao expin, but words failed her.]

  ["I curse you… I curse every one of you…"]

  ["Foul spirits who crave fame and power, desecrators of a knight's honor…"]

  ["My blood, my very soul, shall stain your dreams!"]

  ["I curse the Holy Grail… may your wishes bring forth only disaster!"]

  [With one final, despairing roar, Diarmuid disied into ashes, ed by his anger and sorrow.]

  Chihiro: "This is heartbreaking. Diarmuid lost from beginning to end…"

  Kayh: "…"

  Kayh wao refute it, but he had no words. Chihiro was right.

  Iire course of the Holy Grail War, he had been at odds with the Saber fa sihe very start. Apart from the first enter where Diarmuid's Noble Phantasm outmaneuvered Artoria, everything had gone downhill.

  No wonder he seemed so utterly defeated in the video.

  Had he himself been in Diarmuid's position, it would have been equally unbearable.

  Waver: "Still… does anyone else remember the sed Q&A video where it showed a vision of Fuyuki City burning? Didn't that e after Diarmuid cursed the Holy Grail?"

  Tohsaka Rin: "ht! Could it be that Diarmuid's curse actually worked, and that's what caused the disaster?"

  Diarmuid: "???"

  Diarmuid, already overwhelmed by rage and grief, now found himself bewildered.

  Was that even possible?

  Chihiro: "Well, it sure looks that retty ironic, isn't it?"

  Though the truth behind the Holy Grail's corruption was far from Diarmuid's doing, anyone unfamiliar with the details might indeed draw that e.

  It seemed Diarmuid's final words had gained a sort of infamy.

  Waver: "So… Diarmuid is also a curse specialist?"

  Tohsaka Tokiomi: "Perhaps this was Diarmuid's hidden ace all along?"

  Gilgamesh: "Heh, cursing the Holy Grail… perhaps he's more formidable thahought."

  Iskandar: "Indeed, I may have uimated him."

  First Emperor: "I must admit, I didn't expect it either."

  Kayh: "Diarmuid, I had no idea you were capable of this."

  Diarmuid: "My lord, please don't listen to their nonsense. I have no such abilities."

  Diarmuid: "That was simply the outcry of a broken man. Nothing more."

  Tohsaka Rin: "Oh, e now. The truth is out, there's o pretend anymore."

  Goddess Venus: "Right? There's no shame in admitting it."

  Diarmuid: "..."

  It seemed he was trapped by his own "curse."

  [The video resumed.]

  [Kiritsugu, his face expressionless, lit a cigarette, paying no mind to Diarmuid's dying curse.]

  [The video paused.]

  [Question: Who will ultimately kill Kayh and So-ui?]

  So-ui: "I… die?"

  Kayh: "And I do as well?"

  Waver: "Ahem, well, sir, I sort of expected it. After all, you were… fated to die before the Holy Grail War ended."

  Kayh: "…Was that necessary to point out?"

  Now, Kayh felt thhly humiliated. But he was more ed with the identity of his future killer.

  Was it Emiya Kiritsugu?

  No, that didn't make sehey had a tract, after all.

  Though Kayh was well aware of Kiritsugu's ruthlessness, the binding power of the self-geas scroll should have held him to his word.

  Perhaps… Tohsaka Tokiomi or Kotomine Kirei?

  Yes, it had to be one of them.

  Tohsaka Tokiomi seemed less likely, given his o sider the Mage's Association and Kayh's El-Melloi lineage.

  No, it had to be Kotomine Kirei. Ruthless, detached, just like Emiya Kiritsugu.

  Kayh: "It was Kotomine Kirei who killed me!"

  Kotomine Kirei: "???"

  Kirei was baffled, w how he had suddenly bee the main suspe Kayh's mind.

  ***

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