Chapter 857: Heartless, Who Causes Trouble Even in Death 

"A shadow servant is a shadow that cannot see the light. Normally, they would never appear in a legitimate Holy Grail War. Only through such underhanded means could she be summoned—am I right, Dr. Heartless?"

After completing his analysis, Waver looked towards the architect of the ritual, waiting for a response. From their earlier interactions, it wasn't hard to tell that Heartless was a typical researcher who would talk endlessly about topics like this and would never stay silent about them.

However, the red-haired man in question remained motionless, his face toward the ground, silent and still.

"Heartless? Heartless?"

Waver called out a couple more times, but there was still no response.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?"

Faker, who was closest, moved forward to investigate. As soon as her hand touched the man's body, it crumbled into fine particles of sand, scattering into the air.

"Huh?"

"Did he run away?"

Shinji furrowed his brows and quickly moved to where Heartless had disappeared. He extended his spiritual power outward but found nothing. Frustrated, he turned to Arcueid for help.

"Arcueid."

Arcueid did not disappoint. With a quick blink, she concluded: "He didn't run. He's dead."

Shinji's first reaction was disbelief.

"With his vitality, such a stabbing shouldn't have killed him. Even if he bled out, there should have been a body left behind. How did he turn to ash?"

"It's a sacrificial ritual," came the response, not from Arcueid, but from Faker.

"It's a technique where one sacrifices their life and soul entirely to activate or enhance certain powerful rituals. It was especially popular during wartime."

"A sacrifice?"

Shinji's heart skipped a beat, and he prepared to construct a barrier, connecting his soul power with his origin.

"Can you tell what kind of ritual it was?"

Faker pressed her hands against the ground, observing for a moment before responding with some uncertainty: "It doesn't seem like an offensive ritual."

Just as the words left her mouth, both of them suddenly felt the ground beneath their feet soften. Looking down, they saw that the soil was rapidly drying and turning to sand. The soft sensation was their feet sinking into the sand. It wasn't just where they stood; the surrounding ground was also becoming increasingly desertified.

"It's just ordinary sand."

Lorelei bent down and let her hand sink into the sandy ground.

"While the range is extensive, what's the point? Simply altering the terrain poses no threat to us."

A magus' survival skills far surpass those of ordinary people, and with a helicopter from the Department of Policies nearby, even if the surrounding area turned into a desert for miles, they could still evacuate by air.

"No, altering the terrain is just a side effect," Waver shook his head, his sharp insight, quickly uncovering the truth.

"The ritual's true purpose is to drain the leylines beneath us, the entire leyline—look over there."

He pointed to the remains of the Einashe. Although Shinji had pinned it down with a thousand wooden stakes and taken its core, the forest that served as its body hadn't died due to the powerful vitality of the phantasmal species and vampires, remaining lush and verdant.

But that was a moment ago. Now, the once-thriving forest was withering and decaying at a visible rate, eventually crumbling into dust, just like Heartless's body—a typical sign of the life force being drained.

Leylines, in a sense, can be seen as the earth's life force. Draining a leyline is equivalent to draining the earth's life force. The earth drying up and turning to sand is a symbol of this loss of life. The forest, which grew reliant on the leyline, was also affected, its life force drained—having lost its core, its massive body was unable to resist and became a sacrifice to the ritual.

"But this still doesn't explain that man's objective," Luvia spread out several jewels, using her methods to probe the state of the leyline. As her attribute was earth, she was particularly skilled in such rituals.

"Confirmed. The ritual isn't offensive; it's simply extracting mana and sending it somewhere."

"Where?"

Shinji quickly asked, a strange feeling gnawing at him as if something big and unexpected was about to happen.

Luvia glanced at him, her expression shifting momentarily before she answered: "I don't know the exact location, but I can confirm it's to the east, quite far from here. I can feel a massive distortion underground."

"Distortion."

"The East!"

Shinji and Waver exchanged looks, both displaying horrified expressions as they thought of the worst, yet most likely, possibility—Japan, Fuyuki City.

Heartless had already done this once before. By using the Mystic Eyes Collection Train and the encounter with the Child of Einnashe to create a distortion, he connected it to Fuyuki, creating a false sub-species Holy Grail. Doing it again wouldn't be surprising.

The reason is also not hard to guess.

Heartless had lost his Servant, had his limbs pierced by wooden stakes, was severely injured, and was surrounded by powerful enemies like Shinji and Lorelei, who he couldn't possibly fight off. His chances of escape were virtually zero.

Even worse, Heartless had committed numerous crimes over the years for his research and interests, including the bizarre serial killings seven years ago, which was just one of them. If he were handed over to the Department of Policies, the fate awaiting him would likely be a hundred times more cruel than death.

Rather than a fate worse than death, he might as well face death head-on. A qualified magus doesn't fear death, as long as it's meaningful. Therefore, Heartless chose to use his life as a price to exact revenge on the one who had caused his downfall—Matou Shinji.

Generally, a last-ditch effort before death would manifest as direct harm or a curse, but Heartless gave up on that. He couldn't see through Shinji, let alone Arcueid—who knew if his efforts would be in vain? To ensure he could cause trouble for his enemies, he chose a roundabout approach.

From Shinji and Waver's conversation, it wasn't hard to gather that the Holy Grail War was about to begin, and it was extremely important to both of them. Furthermore, Heartless had thoroughly investigated the Greater Holy Grail and could interfere with it to some extent. His course of action was obvious.

Realizing this, Shinji immediately asked Arcueid for a phone and made a call.

As soon as the line connected, before he could speak, an anxious female voice came through.

"Shinji, you called at just the right time. I was about to contact you."

It was Justeaze's voice. Her usually calm demeanor was nowhere to be found in her tone.

Shinji's heart sank. He quickly asked, "Is there a problem with it?"

"You know? Does it have something to do with you?"

"I'll explain what happened later. Tell me about it first."

"A massive amount of mana just surged into the leyline, causing significant disruption to it. We're still assessing the specific impact, but one thing is certain—with this mana infusion, it has been activated. In other words—"

"—The Holy Grail War has begun."

PS: Some people have asked why Red Archer is Faker. The answer is simple: two reasons. First, Red Archer's Noble Phantasms are all projections, which means they're knock-offs. Second, in the "Unlimited Blade Works" route, in the anime, around episode 16, during the scene where Red Archer encounters Gilgamesh after messing with Rin's leg, Gilgamesh directly calls him a Faker—this is the earliest appearance of the term "Faker." Along with this title comes an even more classic line—"There's no rule that says fakes are inferior to the real thing"—spoken by Shirou Emiya, but it's clear that Red Archer also believes this. This epitomizes the essence of the Faker concept.