The biting cold wind blew over Kiritsugu and Lu Xiao. Emiya Kiritsugu, who had lost his magic circuit, was wrapped up like a bear.
Covered in snowflakes, Kiritsugu looked like a standing and walking polar bear. Even so, his body was still shaking in the extremely cold climate.
This is a deep mountain under the jurisdiction of the state of Hesse in central Germany. When Lu Xiao and Kiritsugu arrived in Germany, it happened to be a freezing January, and the temperature throughout Germany was very low.
However, the violent snowstorm in the mountain forest in front of us is obviously not a natural formation. Instead, someone used a magic barrier to catalyze the extreme climate nearby, turning this place into a forbidden area that no strangers are allowed to enter.
Compared with the heavily armed Emiya Kiritsugu, Lu Xiao was still wearing thin Altaïr armor and would naturally avoid the wind and snow blowing in front of him. Lu Xiao seemed to have no feeling about the ultra-low temperature around him.
"That's it...that's it."
Emiya Kiritsugu trembled his lips and said, "This is the entrance to the barrier leading to the Einzbern master's house."
As if he sensed the arrival of the intruder, the wind and snow in the mountains and forests were even crazier than in Emiya Kiritsugu's memory, with obvious attack intentions.
Lu Xiao nodded nonchalantly: "Just this little trick? Einzbern is indeed a stone head who is devoted to studying alchemy."
"Bah!"
As a bright sword flashed across, the wildly dancing wind and snow paused for a moment.
"Gala~"
There was a real cracking sound, followed by a series of shattering sounds.
As Einzbern's barrier was defeated, the nearby wind and snow suddenly became gentle.
Although there was still a rather spectacular amount of goose feather snow floating in the sky, the strong wind that was driven by magic had stopped.
The anxious Kiritsugu first approached the inside of the broken barrier, and based on the route he remembered, he trudged forward in the snow that reached his knees, one foot deep and one foot shallow.
Lu Xiao used the power of the magic floating cloak to float on the snow. Under the leadership of Emiya Kiritsugu, the two of them walked around the seemingly identical woods and finally saw a quaint castle standing in the heavy snow.
"Is this the Einzbern family's castle?"
Lu Xiao looked up and observed with interest: "It does look much more grand than Fuyuki's simple castle."
This is a typical Roman-style castle, solid yet beautiful. Most of the castle's roofs are covered with thick layers of snow. Lu Xiao can intuitively see the powerful earth energy surrounding the castle through the eagle's eyes.
"Whoosh!"
Before the two of them could get close to the castle, some arrows were mixed with low-level magic such as gandr and flew out from the castle.
"Kiritsugu, come close to me."
With his left hand, he drew a set of runes in the air, and an earthy yellow solid barrier appeared around Lu Xiao's body.
"Ding ding!"
All attacks that hit the barrier can only make crisp popping sounds and cannot break through Lu Xiao's defense.
Good eyesight allowed Lu Xiao to see the "people" who launched the attack at a glance.
They have almost the same appearance and clothing. Their snow-white skin and red pupils reminded Lu Xiao subconsciously of Irisviel, but the dull expressions and lifeless eyes of these "people" are similar to those of Irisviel.
Big difference.
The unattractive pure white maid uniforms even covered their hair, making them look like a group of bionic robots acting in unison.
...Of course, in fact, it is almost the same, but it is different from robots made using scientific principles.
These "people" are all artificial humans (homunculus) mass-produced by Einzbern. Although they have a similar structure and appearance to Irisviel, the sophistication of the two is vastly different.
They do not have a complete self-personality like Irisviel, and are no different from robots.
Lu Xiao was not interested in fighting a group of androids. He used defensive barriers to withstand a large number of attacks and continued to move forward. The two came to the tall and thick main entrance of the castle.
"Einzbern, why don't you come out to greet the distinguished guest?"
"boom!!"
While Lu Xiao shouted for the door, his right fist hit the center of the door heavily.
The pop-up right-hand hidden sword broke through a series of defensive magic attached to the door, and the explosive force instantly broke the wooden door bolt inside the door.
The heavy main door of the castle suddenly opened to both sides as if it had been bombarded by a cannon, and the androids who were hiding behind the door to maintain defensive spells fell to the ground in pieces.
The interior of the castle was in chaos. There were no real humans in the Einzbern family, including the head of the family, Yubusta Hayid, who were all artificial humans.
The androids responsible for coordinating family affairs are of a higher level and have higher intelligence. The low-level androids produced as consumables are like parts and can be replaced at any time.
The white-bearded Yubusta Hayid asked majestically: "Who are the intruders? Why did they attack Einzbern?"
One of the female androids bowed her head and replied: "There are two invaders. One of them is Emiya Kiritsugu, the loser of the Holy Grail War. The other is the main combat force of the invasion. The origin cannot be identified at the moment."
"The main gate of the castle failed to play any defensive role. It was defeated by the enemy in one blow. It is expected that the enemy will invade the castle within 5 minutes at most..."
"boom!"
Before the female android who reported the information could finish speaking, the final door protecting the main building of the castle shattered, and heavy snow rolled in from outside.
"Gutenmen (good morning), the head of the Einzbern family, Yubusta Hayid."
Lu Xiao smiled and greeted the white-bearded old man with a frown, and Emiya Kiritsugu was no longer behind him at this time.
Sporadic gunshots and battles could be heard from time to time in the castle. Unable to wait any longer, Emiya Kiritsugu temporarily regained the decisiveness of a magician killer and relied on firearms and physical combat abilities to make his way to Illya's original residence.
The great room bursts into view.
"Who are you?"
Although Yubstahayid was panicking in his heart, he still appeared relatively calm on the surface, maintaining his dignity as the head of a large family.
Lu Xiao was minding his own business and found a sofa in the hall to sit down on. He used runes to completely seal the entire hall to ensure that no one could escape.
"Yubstahaid, you should have received the results of the Holy Grail War and the censure from Tohsaka and Matou, right? What are your thoughts?"
"snort!"
Yubusta Hayid snorted: "It's a ridiculous accusation. Even if the Holy Grail is contaminated by the evil in this world, Tohsaka and Maqili can't provide evidence to prove that it is Einzbern's fault. It is just to put it away."
Einzbern is just an excuse to rule out the next Holy Grail War."
"Really?"
Lu Xiao looked at Youbusta Hayid with a half-smile, and took out a small bottle filled with black and red viscous liquid from his waist.
"Bang!"
"Ahhhhh!"
Youbustahayid was hit by a vial that teleported in front of him. Black mud overflowed from the broken vial, covering Yubustahayid's face.
The extreme negative emotions contained in the black mud poured into Yubusta Hayid's soul, and he saw in a trance the ordinary young man summoned in the last Holy Grail War - Angora Mainyu.
When the surrounding artificial beings were busy using magic to clean up the black mud for Yubusta Hayid, Lu Xiao sneered and asked, "Have you seen what's in the black mud? Are you still going to quibble?"
"Ugh!"
Youbustahayid half-knelt on the ground in pain, his consciousness not yet completely freed from the pollution of black mud.
"What on earth do you want to do? The Holy Grail War has ended, and you have traveled thousands of miles to come to the Einzbern family just to make trouble with such boring things?"
"Tell me your true purpose!"
Lu Xiao stood up with a smile: "Refreshing, wouldn't it be nice to have said this earlier?"
"I need all the Einzbern family's research materials on the Third Law and Ilyasviel. If you refuse..."
Lu Xiao pointed to the black mud that was still crawling on the ground, and a teasing smile appeared at the corner of his mouth: "I guess the sealing designation bureau will be very interested in Einzbern who created this unprecedented new material."
"After all, the evil in this world is the ultimate killer weapon that can destroy human civilization if you are not careful."