It Is Said Someone Else Will Cross the C Route Again

Oh dear, oh dear... you all know what happens if we go with the C route, right? Hehehe~ (wicked chuckle...)

***

"Fervor, meisanguis." (Boil, my blood)

The silver fluid, obeying the command of a certain existence within the forest, surged out from the bottle where it had been curled up, its surface trembling slightly.

"Automatoportumdefensio (Automatic Defense); AutonlatoporIunlquaerere (Automatic Target Acquisition); Dilectusincursio (Automatic Attack)."

The mercury quickly condensed into a spherical shape before the castle gates. With each new command it received, rows of dark red runes appeared on its outer layer.

"Next... heh, let's give them a romantic greeting – Bohren (Drill)!"

The sphere of mercury bulged forward until it was molded into a giant drill. The figure manipulating it snapped their fingers, and the drill began to spin at high speed, emitting a piercing and dangerous grinding sound as it bore down on the main gate of the Einzbern castle.

***

The swordswoman, trapped amidst countless tentacle monsters, finally realized something was wrong as the situation had escalated to this point.

Taking innocent children hostage and slaughtering them before her eyes to enrage her into charging into their encirclement – these low-level familiars, though weak individually, were extremely numerous. Saber also discovered that they could regenerate from the remains of the children who had just died, and even from the bodies of their fallen comrades. This meant that unless the summoner could be eliminated along with them, this battle would turn into an endless war of attrition – until she was exhausted.

Although Caster's behavior was erratic, their tactics were indeed quite skillful. At this point, Saber had to admit it. Not only was fulfilling her previous promise of victory to Irisviel becoming difficult, but even self-preservation seemed to be a problem.

This is very bad. Is there any way? Should she unleash "that" here? The holy sword bestowed by the spirits possessed unparalleled power, but was she going to be forced to reveal her trump card just because of some mad Caster? That would be a great insult to the sword.

Moreover, these sea monsters were not aligned in a single line; a single swing of her sword would not be enough to eradicate them.

Suppressing the urge to release her True Name, Saber's greatest hope now rested on Kiritsugu Emiya. Although their ideals clashed completely, Saber believed that with his combat prowess, he would surely use a Command Spell at the crucial moment to turn the tide.

It was ironic to place her trust in a Master with whom she had no compatibility, but that was how it had to be.

Saber glared with anger at the source of her predicament, the one who had brought the renowned King Arthur to such a sorry state. The madman, still shouting incomprehensible words, felt Saber's gaze and, far from being intimidated by her fury, became even happier and more unrestrained:

"Even in a dangerous situation where you are outnumbered, you never fear, never yield. Your eyes never doubted victory. You haven't changed at all. That noble fighting spirit, that noble soul, is undoubtedly proof that you are Joan of Arc. Even though you are like this..."

Caster placed their hands on their cheeks, watching Saber struggle against the tentacle monsters, lost in self-admiration.

"Why? Why haven't you woken up yet? Do you still believe in God's protection? Do you think a miracle will save you in this desperate situation? – How lamentable! Have you forgotten the Battle of Compiègne? Have you forgotten God's trap that pushed you from the pinnacle of glory into the abyss of ruin! Even after suffering so much humiliation, do you still intend to be a puppet of God!?"

So noisy! I really want to shut that babbling mouth of his. I want him to know what kind of judgment awaits the sin of taking the lives of young children for a foolish delusion. Even thinking this, her sword tip couldn't reach him at all. Saber was blocked by the wall formed by the ten or twenty layers of monsters pressing in on her. The distance to Caster was too great, so his self-absorbed ramblings still entered Saber's ears through the air.

"All gods are liars, Holy Maiden. Why do you never realize this? Holy Maiden~ If they could truly manifest so-called divine miracles, why don't they come and punish me, a sinner? Therefore, the possibility of relying on the gods is less than the possibility of a cart falling from the sky and crushing me—"

"Boom!"

Before Caster could finish his sentence, a war chariot pulled by oxen, enveloped in lightning, descended from Fuyuki's night sky, landing precisely where Caster was.

From the dust that kicked up, Saber heard a powerful, resonant male voice declare, "I, Iskandar, the King of Conquerors, have claimed the bounty on Caster!"

***

"Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!"

Machine guns continuously spat out deadly fire. Although there were only two of them, wielded by a killer magician who was an expert in this field, they created the feeling of a suppressing firepower net. If this were a battlefield, this situation could be considered half the victory.

Unfortunately, this was not a battlefield, but a war, an unusual war—

"Screeeech!"

A silver drill, two meters in diameter, blocked the path of the bullets. Besides preventing the person behind it from being hit, its rotating motion deflected the bullets at different angles, making them ricochet around the narrow corridor and posing a significant threat to their original owners.

Upon realizing that his attack couldn't even cause interference, Kiritsugu Emiya decisively dropped the two submachine guns and fled with all his might in the direction away from the drill. However, the pursuer clearly had no intention of letting him go—

"Angefahren!" (Ram!)

The drill suddenly lunged forward. The performance of the Mystic Code crafted by someone of Clock Tower tutor level was beyond human resistance. Just as Kiritsugu Emiya was about to be crushed by the spiral—

"Timealter—tripleaccel!" (Time Alter – Triple Accel!)

After uttering the incantation, the magician killer instantly disappeared from the corridor—no, it was that his speed was so fast that human vision could no longer keep up, creating such an illusion. In reality, he had merely run to the corner and turned.

"Oh, nice technique."

The operator of the mercury drill praised his opponent, knowing how much strain such magic would put on the human body. However, he would not show mercy because of this.

Following his instructions, the mercury spread out along the walls and floor, searching for enemies in all directions of the castle centered on him. Not even the gaps between the floorboards were spared. If it encountered a branching path during the search, the mercury would split off a new branch to explore the new path. With this kind of comprehensive, carpet-like detection technique, there should be no blind spots.

However, Kiritsugu Emiya didn't think so. Mercury, even when infused with magic, was just inert matter. It had no eyes and could only distinguish targets by touch. So, if it were a "human body" without a heartbeat or body temperature, it would be no different from the walls and floors in the perception of that mercury.

"Timealter—triplestagnate!" (Time Alter – Triple Stagnate!)

Kiritsugu Emiya was now a wall, a floor. All his physiological functions were suppressed, so those mercury stones absolutely wouldn't be able to detect him— Nani?

Kiritsugu, who had hidden himself around the corner preparing to gank, discovered that the extending mercury streams had significant vibrations at the end of each branch. Upon closer inspection, he realized that the mercury at the ends had been shaped into constantly operating small drills.

This way, even if the mercury couldn't sense him, the moment it touched his body, that part of his flesh would be ground into pieces.

With his plan not going as expected, Kiritsugu Emiya had no choice but to stop Time Alter and continue fleeing. The vibration of the floor caused by the human body running stimulated the nearby mercury streams that were searching for targets, and their speed suddenly increased, converging towards the source of the vibration.

***

"Woman, I want to ask you a question."

Before Kirei Kotomine stood a silver-haired woman who had been cornered. Her clothes were torn in many places, and bloodstains were visible on many parts, indicating that some intense activity had occurred before.

"For what kind of will are you driven to decide to oppose me here?"

He had initially thought encountering this woman here was a coincidence. Because a fierce battle was taking place in the castle, Kiritsugu had asked her, as his Master, to hide out of the enemy's sight. However, upon closer consideration, he realized this was impossible. This woman controlled the barrier over the entire forest. If she had intended to avoid him, he would never have met her.

In other words, she had approached him of her own volition.

She hadn't even brought a Servant, possessed no combat experience, and yet she dared to oppose an Executor. What a reckless act—how could the artificial human technology that the Einzbern family prided itself on produce such an imprecise product?

No, that couldn't be right. If she were a defective product, the Einzbern family wouldn't have entrusted her with the crucial task of the Holy Grail War. So the problem remained: why did this woman choose to reveal herself and obstruct him?

"..."

"She looks just like that young lady from before, and doesn't seem like the type to answer questions obediently."

Kirei Kotomine looked at the captive, who was full of fighting spirit despite being at a loss, and he, who didn't understand human emotions, seemed to be gradually experiencing something called helplessness.

So, how should he interrogate her? The silver-haired, red-eyed woman was already covered in wounds. If she suffered any more impact, her life might be in danger.

If she died, he naturally wouldn't get any answers, but her uncooperative attitude was also a problem.

Wait a minute, silver hair and red eyes... it sounded like his own Servant's appearance. Come to think of it, their facial features were somewhat similar—there shouldn't be any connection between them, right? However, Assassin should be better at extracting information from others than he was, so perhaps he should let her...

A subtle, pleased curve appeared on Kirei Kotomine's lips.

① Romance? A man's romance is a drill; also, the German was translated by Baidu, so accuracy is not guaranteed.

② Imagine Yuno Gasai's face.

It's been a long time since I last logged into Qidian. As expected, my collections dropped yesterday... so I felt it was time to do something. Plus, I saw many comments in the review section (which is a lot compared to my review section, which is comparable to Silent Hill) asking for the C route, so here you have this chapter.

There are some obvious foreshadowing elements in here. If you don't understand them for now, you will when the entire story is updated... I should be able to tie it all together. I do have an outline.

The plot is already going off the rails... I've thrown the promise from the prologue of "sticking to the plot seriously" to Uncle Daft Punk on the planet Apocalypse... Sigh, I really shouldn't speak too confidently.

Also, regarding why I started lying low after my birthday:

Exams! I won't be able to finish my exams and return home until the 25th! If I didn't have exams, I would definitely update 3000+ words daily! (Don't mock me: you didn't update even when you didn't have exams before. That was before; I've decided to become a new person—take my word for it.)

I've already failed about half of the exams I've taken, so I've been shamelessly flattering and begging teachers recently... I never realized before that I could be so... so pathetic...

What's coming up next are advanced algebra and linear algebra. Based on my current review progress, the chances of me hanging myself are huge...

But even the national football team is like that, right? So I don't think it's good to just give up and let fate decide. I still want to struggle a bit, at least to ensure I have a comfortable posture when I fail~(@^_^@)~

In short, for those who have finished their exams, I wish you a happy new year. For those who haven't, I wish you simple exams and passing grades in all subjects. For those who have graduated from work, I wish you abundant wealth and good health.

—By Director Luo, who stayed up all night on New Year's Eve playing Storm, slept through New Year's Day, and only remembered to send blessings now.

Jizi: What about me? I finally surfaced after not updating for over a month, but where's my part? I don't even have a single line of dialogue, only appearing in Papa Mako's memories! It would have been better if I hadn't appeared at all!

Author: Who says you haven't appeared for over a month? Didn't you go play next door?

Jizi: You mean [bookid=2831929,bookname=I Passed By While You Continued]? Ah~ Miss Gu Ming is really great. Not only did she arrange a profession like a teacher, which makes it easy to interact with cute lolis, but she also has a sister. It couldn't be better, and there are already lolis to tempt!

Author: But you've turned into a soft girl~

Jizi: ...Is there anything wrong with being a soft girl?

Author: It's good, but that's you yourself...

Jizi: ...Is there anything wrong with me?

Author: It's good, but you've turned into a soft girl...

Jizi: ...Is there anything wrong with being a soft girl?

Author: [After a moment of silence] Heh heh...

Author: In short, I'll continue the advertisement. The author is a beautiful girl.

[bookid=2831929,bookname=I Passed By While You Continued]. The recent chapters have a certain degree of linkage with mine. Please go support it... By the way, why am I recommending someone whose collections and clicks are both higher than mine?

Jizi: Because you're pathetic... By the way, is my appearance just for advertising? Be careful, I'll live next door and never come back!

Author: Whatever, I'll just go dig a new pit...

Jizi: I was wrong, please don't do that!

Author: You still say I'm pathetic