Outside the window—
The sky burned crimson.
Towering flames engulfed the village.
It was a sight utterly foreign to this isolated island settlement.
Outside the door—
Slash! Slash! Slash!
The relentless sounds of flesh being cut down continued without pause.
Not knowing what was happening outside, Kiritsugu didn't dare open the door.
Instead, he hurried to the window, intending to escape that way.
Just then—
A red-eyed creature staggered past.
"...!!"
Before its gaze could meet his, Kiritsugu immediately crouched beneath the windowsill, pressing his back tightly against the wall as he silently prayed he hadn't been noticed.
"...Ugh..."
But the creature lingered outside the window like a fly drawn to the scent of carrion.
It paced back and forth...
Refusing to leave.
Go away... damn it!
Kiritsugu screamed inwardly.
Trapped between danger on both sides, there was nowhere left to run.
Despair settled heavily over him.
As if his desperate prayer had been answered, the deadlock was suddenly broken.
Outside the church, a middle-aged village woman came running through the darkness, screaming for help.
She was like a candle that had unknowingly lit itself in the dead of night...
Drawing every red-eyed "moth" lurking in the darkness toward her.
Even the creature blocking Kiritsugu's escape abandoned the window and rushed after her.
"Now!"
Kiritsugu seized the opportunity and climbed out the window.
As he fled, he glanced back.
Just in time to witness the "candle" that had rekindled his hope for survival...
...being snuffed out beneath a swarm of red-eyed "moths."
"Damn it...!"
He couldn't save anyone else.
Right now...
He only wanted to find Shirley.
"AAAAAHHHH!"
"Somebody save me!"
"What are these monsters?!"
"Stay away from me!"
"It hurts!"
"Don't bite me!"
Running through the familiar village paths, Kiritsugu was surrounded by desperate screams and agonized cries.
Everywhere he looked...
The grotesque "Red-Eye" infection had spread.
Those who had not yet been infected were being transformed at an alarming speed.
Even worse—
A group of men dressed in suits and ties were indiscriminately slaughtering the villagers using methods far beyond ordinary human understanding.
Whenever hordes of the infected rushed toward them...
They merely flicked a hand.
Walls of fire erupted from thin air.
The blazing flames consumed everything before them—
Including villagers trying to flee amid the chaos.
Once an ordinary person was scratched by one of the infected, they too became infected.
Even if they died immediately afterward...
As long as their vital organs remained intact...
They would soon rise again as another Red-Eye victim.
The only way to kill an infected person before the infection fully spread was to destroy either the brain or the heart.
But once the Red-Eye pathogen had completely overtaken the body...
Nothing short of reducing the corpse to ashes would stop it.
The magi had no time to separate the infected from the uninfected one by one.
To contain the outbreak as quickly as possible...
They chose the fastest and most brutal solution.
Let the flames purify everything.
One house after another was set ablaze.
Within moments, the entire village had become a sea of fire.
The crimson inferno illuminated the night like a second sun descending upon the earth.
"W-What's..."
"...happening...?"
Kiritsugu stood frozen before the apocalyptic scene.
Then a terrible realization struck him.
This...
This all started because...
...I couldn't bring myself to kill Shirley.
Snap.
Something inside him broke.
He stopped running.
Stopped hiding.
He simply stood there in a daze.
Across the flames licking at his feet...
His eyes met those of one of the magi.
"Hmph."
Seeing that Kiritsugu was only a child—and apparently uninfected—the magus did not attack him.
Instead, he deliberately eliminated every infected creature that approached the boy, creating a relatively safe space around him.
It wasn't compassion.
The Mage's Association had issued a Sealing Designation for Norikata Emiya.
To locate both the man and the results of the research that had triggered this Dead Apostle-class disaster...
They needed at least one survivor alive to question.
"Why..."
"Why didn't you kill me...?"
Kiritsugu couldn't understand.
He wanted to atone with his life.
He simply lacked the courage to take it himself.
He stared blankly at his trembling hands, now covered in soot and ash.
Overwhelming fear.
Crippling shame.
They nearly shattered his very sense of self.
And above all...
Regret.
If only...
If I had listened to Shirley...
If I had killed her back then...
Only now did Kiritsugu finally understand why Shirley had hated him so fiercely in those final moments.
His hesitation...
Had become the spark that ignited this nightmare.
"There are more of them than ever..."
The magus protecting Kiritsugu found himself surrounded by an ever-growing tide of Red-Eyes.
Forced to fight alongside his companions, he no longer had the attention to spare for the boy.
Tch.
You're on your own, kid.
With that thought, he withdrew the portion of magical energy he had been using to shield Kiritsugu.
His full concentration returned to exterminating the infected still emerging endlessly from the darkness.
Judging by the size of the horde...
Compared to the island's total population...
This would likely be the final wave.
Whether Kiritsugu survived...
Or died...
Made little difference to them.
Such was the reality of magi.
They never wasted emotion on things unrelated to their pursuit.
Everything they did...
Was for the sake of reaching the Root.
The instant the magus's protection disappeared...
Several Red-Eyes immediately fixed their sights on the motionless Kiritsugu.
Among them...
Was someone whose appearance pierced his heart once again.
"Father... Simon...?"
Kiritsugu collapsed backward in horror.
One familiar face after another...
Had become an unrecognizable monster.
Soon...
I'll probably become one of them too...
He thought bitterly.
And yet—
Though he wished for death...
His instinct to survive forced him to crawl backward, desperately resisting the fate of becoming one of those monsters.
The contradiction tore him apart.
Do I deserve to die?
Do I truly want to die?
Am I going to die?
"How could I..."
"...not be afraid of dying?!"
He trembled.
He was terrified.
Ashamed.
Consumed by regret.
The transformed Father Simon finally caught him...
Grabbing him tightly by the ankle.
Kiritsugu closed his eyes.
Waiting for death.
Then—
A calm voice sounded behind him.
"Kid."
"Keep your head down."
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