Fate: How About a New Savior?

From Sakura's perspective, this wasn't even a proper magecraft battle.

Shinji's attacks couldn't break through the storm.

Worse still, his magecraft was undoubtedly burning away his own life. The more he cast beyond his limits, the faster his life force drained away.

At this rate, in less than two minutes, Shinji would die from sheer exhaustion.

Meanwhile, Sakura's Mana reserves were completely untouched.

She hadn't expected to be matched against someone this pathetic. Compared to that man called Dr. Heartless, this was absurd.

Shinji's capillaries were rupturing all over his body, blood gushing from every pore. He couldn't even stand straight—staggering like a man drowning in a pool of his own blood.

Just moments ago, this man had been confidently awaiting Berserker to wipe out Saber and Archer, their Masters included, so his own Rider could swoop in to claim the kills.

Now, his eyes rolled back in agony, his face twisted in pain—who could say if he even had any coherent awareness left?

Blade Wing Insects rushed in like chunks of meat thrown into a meat grinder—shredded to pieces and left twitching on the ground.

If this kept going, it would turn into nothing but cruel slaughter.

Sakura took a slow breath and made her decision.

For the sake of her uncle, Kariya Matou, she would end Shinji's suffering—put an end to it all.

She spun her wand with a flick of her wrist, letting it hover horizontally in front of her.

"This is it. Rest in peace."

Suddenly, the wind roared even more fiercely than before, surging toward Shinji Matou like an unstoppable force of nature.

"GAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH—!!!"

His scream tore through the air, though it was impossible to tell if the pain came from casting magic—or from having his body shredded by the storm.

"Shooting Star."

The final strike.

Mana surged through a portal to imaginary space, unleashing a concentrated magical blast that engulfed Shinji's entire body.

At last, the screaming stopped. His form vanished into the torrent of energy, leaving not even ashes behind.

Where burning trees had collapsed, a massive crater now marked the center of the clearing—deeper than a person was tall, and over ten meters wide.

Sakura gripped her wand again, walked to the edge, and let out a quiet sigh.

After Shooting Star struck, she'd realized it—Shinji had undergone such complete modifications in pursuit of becoming a Magus that he was no longer human. He'd become a writhing mass of insects in a human shell.

With Shinji defeated, Saber's fight must be nearing its end too. Without a Master to supply Mana, not even Perseus could keep going much longer.

She turned to move—when a sharp chill ran down her spine. Cold sweat broke across her skin as instinct, honed through years of training, kicked in.

She threw up a defensive spell just in time to block a pitch-black dagger flying out from the woods.

A dagger?

Sakura froze.

Which Servant used a dagger?

Not Rider. Not Berserker...

In that moment, it hit her—she and her sister had made a grave mistake.

No one had ever said there were only two enemy Servants—Rider and Berserker.

The reason there had been no sign of an Assassin... was because that Servant had been hiding the entire time, shrouded by Presence Concealment, lurking around the battlefield.

This Assassin had been waiting—waiting for the moment her guard would drop after defeating her foe.

A black shadow, moving at superhuman speed, dashed from tree to tree. Left, right, zigzagging through the forest.

And in an instant—it was already right in front of her.

"Die." Assassin's voice was flat, devoid of emotion.

The pitch-black dagger in his hand thrust straight for Sakura's throat.

Not a chance! Sakura swung her wand, lightning crackling across its surface, and slammed it toward Assassin.

The wand collided with the dagger, and a powerful surge of electricity forced Assassin to retreat.

"With reflexes like that, you're clearly no ordinary Magus," Assassin remarked. Then, his black daggers came flying like a torrential downpour.

Servants wielded power far beyond humans—each of those daggers hit with the force of a bullet. Caught off guard, Sakura barely shifted into defense and was forced backward under the fierce assault.

Then—her foot missed the edge.

She had been standing right at the pit's edge. Assassin had aimed for that terrain advantage from the start.

Seizing the opening, he closed in again. Sakura raised her wand and fired an ice spear in retaliation, but Assassin twisted aside with ease and drove a kick into her stomach.

"...!"

The blow sent Sakura flying, her body arcing toward the center of the pit.

Assassin clearly meant to finish her now—to eliminate the enemy Master.

"Noble Phantasm—"

The bandages wrapped around his right arm—looking like a thick, wooden club—suddenly disintegrated. Amid the rain of tattered black wrappings, an ominous, slender arm, glowing orange-red, extended and rose.

To kill her in a single strike, Assassin had chosen to activate his Noble Phantasm.

Even if she twisted the air with wind-based magecraft, it was too late to evade now.

"Zabaniya."

Sakura's heart skipped a beat.

It was said that among the nineteen Hassan-i-Sabbahs, one had grafted the arm of the demon Shaytan onto his own body—an arm specialized for curse killings.

That arm could replicate a mirrored image of the target's heart—and then destroy it.

And once the mirror was shattered, the real heart would rupture from within, leaving no wound. The victim would simply die.

Neither human nor Servant could survive the loss of their heart.

Maybe… this was the end of her Holy Grail War.

She'd underestimated the battlefield—its brutality, its cruelty. Sakura shut her eyes instinctively, bracing for death.

But instead, she heard the sound of flesh tearing.

It didn't come from her.

A warm embrace wrapped around her—familiar, comforting.

For a moment, she thought it was just a flashback—her life flashing before her eyes.

Then she heard Assassin scream.

Startled, Sakura opened her eyes.

She was being held—like a princess—in someone's arms.

The man holding her was staring coldly at Assassin, who was now impaled against a tree, his demonic arm pierced clean through by a long spear.

"The situation's even worse than I expected. I'm glad I made it in time, Sakura."

He looked down at her gently, his voice as soft and warm as ever.

"...Dad."

Sakura's eyes widened in shock.

In the split second before death, the one she trusted most, relied on most—her closest family—had come to her side.

Tenkei Shiomi stood on the far side of the pit, holding Sakura in his arms as he watched the struggling Assassin from afar.