Or, you guys find another savior

"Speaking of which, once the 'Lost Will' is activated, anyone who approaches it without authorization will also be caught in it," Morgan said.

"Why bring that up all of a sudden?" Xi Jianxi didn't quite understand.

"I'm afraid my husband won't be able to sit still and might suddenly try to finish off Artoria and her group. In that case, I'll only be able to think of you and hastily undo the magic."

"...Am I that cruel?"

As soon as he spoke, Xi Jianxi looked up sharply. He sensed the presence of others in the forest.

"More than one person, and quite a few," Morgan closed her eyes, connecting her consciousness to the forest's barrier.

After analyzing the barrier here, she didn't choose to destroy it. Instead, she infused her own magic circuits into it, thereby infiltrating the barrier's surveillance system and gaining control over the entire Einzbern forest.

Anyone attempting to enter or exit would be detected, even without triggering the forest's defensive magic.

"Many?" Xi Jianxi raised an eyebrow slightly.

"One of them is human and heading towards the castle. They'll arrive in about two minutes at most," Morgan continued to provide details. "As for the others, they are all Servants, but their presences are exceptionally weak."

"Numerous Servant presences... It must be Assassins," Xi Jianxi crossed his arms. "This means Assassins have a clone-like ability. Although it weakens their own power, it's perfectly suited for Servants focused on assassination and intelligence gathering."

Morgan opened her eyes. "The Servant presences are still increasing. It looks like they plan to deploy all their Servants to block us here."

"But inside the castle..."

"Too clever by half."

Morgan couldn't help but feel that things were just too coincidental.

His consciousness was pulled back by the noisy roar of a car engine.

Kiritsugu Emiya noticed he was sitting in a beat-up old pickup truck, with a young girl beside him casually gripping the vibrating steering wheel.

The car left the village and drove deep into the jungle.

"Where is this..."

"Awake now, Kelly?" the girl asked.

Hearing that name, which felt like a lifetime ago, Kiritsugu Emiya looked at the girl in surprise, his eyes wide with astonishment.

It was the horizon of bleached memories.

The other side blurred by blood and gunpowder.

For Kiritsugu Emiya's soul, filled with gunpowder, It was a memory of origin, now impossibly distant.

He cautiously glanced at the pickup truck's rearview mirror. Through the old glass, Kiritsugu saw a face that he himself could no longer clearly recall, but which was undeniably his own youthful face.

Chapter 64: Lost Will (3)

In the stone room, on the white hospital bed, the woman afflicted by a terminal illness looked at him with a loving smile. Kirei could never forget, nor had any reason to forget, that emaciated body, reduced to skin and bones, unable to even stand.

Claudia Hresvelgr.

His wife, who had passed away four years ago.

Then, Kirei quickly understood the current situation.

He had originally been heading to Einzbern Castle, intending to find Kiritsugu Emiya before Xi Jianxi could make a move, to confront that man again and seek answers that Kirei might receive.

However, upon entering the castle, the scene before him suddenly transformed into this.

In the sun-drenched room, Kirei stood before the bed, gazing at his wife.

It was that day.

Although he didn't understand the principle, Kirei roughly deduced that this was likely an illusion created by some barrier, allowing him to see his deceased wife.

Yet, the scene was too real, and he couldn't find a way to break it. More importantly, he remembered which day it was.

A congenital defective.

Kirei deeply understood this fact. Though incapable of experiencing morality, he possessed common sense, and he spent his entire youth trying to overcome this.

His ascetic practices did not cure his troubles; they all ended in vain.

And the final attempt was with the woman before him.

This was a simple matter for anyone. Everyone had fantasized about loving someone, starting a family, reaching the end of their life, and quietly breathing their last breath.

Kirei wished for this.

Even though he couldn't feel the charm of such stable happiness, he wished it could be like this.

To love someone, to have a child.

But why, after all, did Kirei choose a woman with almost no future?

The woman consumed by illness, anyone could see her time was short. Kirei couldn't recall the reason he chose her.

For two years, Kirei loved his wife, and his wife loved him like a child.

There was no improvement. For him, only when he saw his wife suffering terribly from her illness did he feel happiness.

The more he loved his wife, the more misfortune he brought upon her.

Claudia was like a saint, loving Kirei unconditionally, and deeply understanding the bitterness and anger in his heart.

But it was precisely this that troubled Kirei even more.

Such a pure person who understood him would soon disappear; after that, who would understand him?

He realized his innate flaw, understanding that there was no answer and no cure, and that he could only walk towards this end.

Kirei decided in his heart to end his own life.

As a husband, if he decided to die, he had an obligation to tell his wife.

Claudia Hresvelgr loved Kirei.

Kirei also believed he felt the same.

Therefore, Kirei knew what he should say to his wife.

As with every meeting, despite being gravely ill, Claudia was still eagerly awaiting his arrival that day. Upon seeing Kirei enter the room with a troubled expression, her face lit up with a saintly, loving smile.

"I couldn't fall in love with you."

That day, Kirei said that to his wife.

"No, you love me."

Saying this, as if she had known this day would come, his wife took out a pre-prepared dagger and plunged it into her own neck.

Kirei also remembered her last words as he held his wife in a pool of blood.

"...Because you're crying."

It was on that day, on that day, that Kirei's wife left the world in a manner inconsistent with doctrine and faith.

So he never dreamed he would relive this day.

Claudia smiled at him, waiting for his next words.

Kirei's throat bobbed, and he spoke in a calm, even voice, repeating the words he had already said.

He could have said something different, yet he chose to repeat the same thing.

His wife, as if following a predetermined script, her smile unchanged, took out a blade from beneath the white sheets and aimed it at her own throat.

"No, you love me."

But this time, before the dagger could pierce her throat, it was snatched away.

To stop a gravely ill woman was a simple matter for the battle-hardened Executor.

He grabbed his wife, and with his other hand, he took the dagger.

Claudia showed a smile Kirei had never seen before, as if surprised by the outcome.

It was a happiness filled with salvation.

He didn't know if it was she or Kirei who was truly saved.

It didn't matter.

"See, you actually love—"

His wife gently negated Kirei as if declaring victory, but her voice abruptly cut off.

The dagger pierced Claudia's heart.

However, this woman who embraced and understood him like a saint, even at the last moment, her eyes did not lose their expression. She merely gently grasped Kirei's arm holding the dagger.

Her lips moved, making a gurgling sound, as if she wanted to tell Kirei something, but could not.

Kirei didn't wait or ask. His hand exerted force, twisting the dagger in Claudia's heart. Then, he heard something inside the woman's body shatter, like exquisite amber that had fallen and shattered beyond repair.

Blood spilled from the corner of her mouth. Her body used its last ounce of strength, and her hand fell limply onto the sickbed.

Kirei watched the light in her eyes gradually dim and finally disappear. He knew she was dead.

Claudia Hresvelgr was killed by his own hand.

Perhaps because the established order was disrupted, the sunlit stone room turned black, swallowed by an endless darkness.

The dagger, his wife, everything else—he lost all sensation.

The only thing that remained was the exhilaration of the moment he killed his wife, filling the emptiness in Kirei's heart.

For the first time in his twenty-plus years of a flawed life, the void in his heart was filled.

He didn't know what the person who created this illusion wanted him to see, but Kirei was grateful. Without this, he might never have had the chance to make a different choice and face his true feelings.

Indeed, he had shed tears when his wife committed suicide before him four years ago.

They were tears of sorrow, but not, as the woman had said, because he loved her.

Now, Kirei could recall it clearly.

He wasn't sad because of the woman's death.

At that time, he thought so.

"How could this be. If I'm going to die anyway, I want to kill them myself."

His sorrow was solely for the inability to enjoy the death of a woman, and nothing more.

Since he could "start over," he would also "choose again."

It was just that, perhaps until the very end, that woman had fully understood the essence of Kirei.

So he felt a little regretful, but that was all.

Chapter 65: Anomaly

Swish—

He swung his sword and severed the head, the black body falling backward.

The seventh.

Within just a few minutes, Xi Jianxi had killed seven Assassins... or rather, seven bodies.

Men, women, old people, youths.

The robust, the frail, the obese.

Those light as a swallow, those with immense strength.

Classified in various ways, none could fully encompass them.

But they were indeed all Assassins, and indeed, all weaker than anticipated.

While each individual surpassed ordinary humans, as Servants, their stats were too low to compare with other Servants.

They were cut down after only a few exchanges with Xi Jianxi.

If they were all the same, Xi Jianxi might have been faster.