Chapter 192

As instructed by Li Yue, Kiritsugu Emiya summoned Assassin again, and then explained how Assassin escaped by breaking Command Spells Seals. As for why Kiritsugu Emiya became Heroic Spirit in the future, he simply explained to everyone what Li Yue had said during the Fourth War.

"So, in other words, after your defeat in the Holy Grail War, you watched all your loved ones die before your eyes, and felt that this tragedy was caused by your past naivety. In extreme grief and anger, you became Heroic Spirit and even answered the Holy Grail's call to return to this Holy Grail War?"

"That's right, that's exactly it."

Rin Tohsaka stared in shock at Li Yue transforming into the Emiya Kiritsugu. Could one really become Heroic Spirit so casually?

You're basically saying that there's a fundamental difference between people, and that I once became Heroic Spirit in a fit of extreme Wrath!

The Emiya was even more surprised. "Dad, you're even more amazing than me! I went through a lot of things and saved so many people before becoming Heroic Spirit. Your becoming Heroic Spirit is just too unreasonable. All you need to do is be Wrath."

"So, you summoned your future self, and I was summoned by your son."

Saber lowered his head to think, but then realized something was wrong.

"But what does that have to do with him being your son?"

Well...

Kiritsugu Emiya also wanted to know, but he didn't understand the situation in this world. He looked at Li Yue beside him, thinking that Li Yue should know how to explain it.

"He was adopted."

Li Yue also offered her own explanation.

"Yes, I was Kiritsugu."

Shirou Emiya, on the other hand, achieved perfect coordination.

"Adopted? Okay."

Saber was inexplicably disappointed that he wasn't her biological son.

"Our purpose in participating in the Holy Grail War is very clear: to save Illya. As for anything else, we don't care."

"If you can save Illya, I can help too!"

Saber felt she could help because she also felt guilty towards Irisviel, and if possible, she could also participate in saving Illya.

"If that's the case, we could say there's no conflict."

Rin Tohsaka, who was listening nearby, couldn't help but chime in.

"How about the three of us form an alliance?"

334. Kirei Kotomine's Doubts

Inside the church in Fuyuki City, Lancer returned in a disheveled state, covered in injuries. When entering the church, he deliberately entered from the side rather than from the front, because the church was responsible for supervising the Holy Grail War. If the magicians participating in the Holy Grail War found out that Lancer was in cahoots with the supervisor of this Holy Grail War, it would be troublesome.

Just like the previous Holy Grail War, the Overseer of the Fifth Holy Grail War also stepped in.

However, in the last Holy Grail War, the supervisor Risei Kotomine, secretly intervened as a referee. This time, the supervisor is Kirei Kotomine, a participant in the last Holy Grail War. Logically speaking, Kirei Kotomine, as a participant in the last Holy Grail War, is not qualified to serve as the supervisor of this Holy Grail War.

However, within these ten years, with Gilgamesh's help, he completely took control of Fuyuki City. The former head of the Tohsaka family Tokiomi Tohsaka, had died, and the head of the Tohsaka family had become Rin Tohsaka. Rin Tohsaka was unaware that Tokiomi Tohsaka had died at the hands of Kirei Kotomine.

Zouken Matou of the Matou family has his own agenda, so he has become increasingly reclusive over the past ten years, basically ignoring outside affairs. As a result, the entire magic world of Fuyuki City has been taken over by Kirei Kotomine.

The price was that the Fifth Holy Grail War, which began again in just ten years, was actually completely under his control.

He pretended to be kind and helpful to Rin Tohsaka in the Holy Grail War, but in reality, he was monitoring everything in the Holy Grail War. He did this purely for his own pleasure.

To this end, he not only partnered with Gilgamesh, but also ambushed Lancer's master in this Holy Grail War, threatening the master's life to seize Lancer and then sending him out to carry out various espionage missions.

This is also why Lancer retreated after fighting Archer before. Unfortunately, he encountered Li Yue, a guy who never engages in direct combat, and ended up losing his spear after being blown away by Li Yue's three explosions.

Now, having lost his weapon, which is also his Noble Phantasm, Lancer has no choice but to return to the church.

"Lancer, you're back."

Kirei Kotomine was facing the cross in the church, seemingly in prayer. Hearing the noise behind him, he immediately realized that Lancer had returned.

"Ah, I'm lucky to be back alive."

Lancer plopped down on a church pew and answered Kirei Kotomine.

"Oh? For someone as the Child of Light to say something like that, it seems the Servants in this Holy Grail War are stronger than I imagined."

Kirei Kotomine turned to look at Lancer, and then slightly opened his mouth in surprise.

"How did you become like this?"

"Like I just said, I was lucky to come back alive, so this is how I ended up."

Lancer spread his hands and shrugged helplessly.

Is it Saber or Archer?

Kirei Kotomine immediately thought of the remaining two classes among the three upper riders: Saber, who is known as the strongest, and Archer, who is good at ranged attacks.

"Neither, it's assassin."

"Assassin?"

Kirei Kotomine looked puzzled.

Are you sure you haven't made a mistake?

"I didn't make a mistake, and as the supervisor, you should know best whether Saber has been summoned or not."

The church has a compass specifically used to monitor the Holy Grail War. The compass shows which Servants have been summoned and which have not. When Lancer went out, Saber had not yet been summoned, so it was impossible for Saber to have attacked Lancer. As for Archer, Lancer felt something was off when he thought of Archer, who was wearing red clothes and wielding two swords. Was this guy really Archer?

As for Assassin, who blew him up like this and stole his Noble Phantasm, that's even more speechless.

Who is this Assassin's subordinate? He is so terrifying. As a Servant who responded to the Holy Grail, he was also instilled with some basic modern knowledge by the Holy Grail. He was able to determine that the Assassin was using modern firearms. What does this mean? It means that the Assassin is at least a figure from World War II, and can basically be said to be a modern figure.

There's not much mystery left in modern times, yet such a terrifying Assassin has suddenly appeared. This shouldn't be the case. Could it be that our era is too ancient, and we can't keep up with the pace of these modern Heroic Spirit?

"Assassin, how did he manage to beat you like this? Did he use his Noble Phantasm?"

"If grenades and bombs are considered Noble Phantasm, then this should be considered as using Noble Phantasm."

"Wait, what did you say, a grenade and what?"

"He uses grenades and bombs, and he can even shoot bullets that explode."

"This..."

Kirei Kotomine was a little confused when he heard Lancer's description. This sounded like a modern-day Heroic Spirit, but the question was, could a modern-day Heroic Spirit beat up a demigod hero from the Age of Gods?

"I don't even have my Noble Phantasm anymore. I'm afraid I'll have to fight with runes for now."

As a demigod, Lancer is the son of the sun god in Celtic mythology and wields runes. Each rune possesses unique power, and Lancer, who wields runes, can also serve as a caster. So, although he no longer has his own spear, he can continue to fight thanks to his runes.

However, due to the influence of his class, as a Lancer, the effect of using runes is somewhat affected, and the effect is not as good as when he appears as a Caster.

"Then continue fighting with your runes. I'll also try to find out about Assassin and find a way to get your Noble Phantasm back."

Seeing Lancer's disheveled state, Kirei Kotomine chose to offer some help, but he was also very curious about who this assassin was.

While Lancer was reporting his encounter to Kirei Kotomine, on the other side, the three factions of the Kiritsugu family had already formed an alliance.

The alliance was formed naturally. Li Yue and Kiritsugu Emiya weren't after the Holy Grail, so it didn't matter to them. Shirou Emiya also didn't care about the Holy Grail, since he had even mistakenly entered the Holy Grail War. Saber was also willing to save Illya. As for Rin Tohsaka, because of Emiya's persuasion, she was the one who initiated the alliance, so there was naturally no problem with her joining.

After forming an alliance, the three did not rest immediately, but instead set off together.

In the original storyline, Rin Tohsaka took Shirou Emiya, who knew nothing about the rules of the Holy Grail War, to the church where Kirei Kotomine was, so that he could broaden his horizons. But now, with Kiritsugu Emiya, a veteran of the Fourth War Holy Grail War, there's no need for her to take anyone to the church anymore. Instead, she followed Kiritsugu Emiya to the outskirts of Fuyuki City.

"Is there really such a big place outside Fuyuki City?"

Looking at the vast forest before him and the enormous castle nestled within it in the distance, Shirou Emiya gaped in astonishment.

"This is the territory of the Einzbern family, one of the participants in the Holy Grail War."

That's right, the three of them came to the Einzbern family's residence together, intending to go directly to Illya!

335. berserker, kill Kiritsugu!

"You were actually the representative of the Einzbern family in the last Holy Grail War."

"That's right."

"And what you summoned was Saber!"

"Yes."

"My goodness, you're so lucky!"

"Unfortunately, I failed."

"Um... sorry."

Outside Fuyuki City, in the forest of the Einsbern Castle territory, Kiritsugu Emiya the lead and headed towards the castle. Along the way, Rin Tohsaka and Shirou Emiya kept asking Kiritsugu Emiya about the last Holy Grail War.

Kiritsugu Emiya was patient and would explain to either Shirou Emiya or Rin Tohsaka when asked. Of course, there wasn't much he could explain, as he didn't have much experience in the Fourth War. All he could do was briefly talk about the preparations he made during the Fourth War.

"So, Dad, you actually lived here when you first came to Fuyuki City?"

As Shirou Emiya walked, he looked at the castle that was gradually growing larger in the distance and couldn't help but sigh.

"This place is really big."

"Strictly speaking, I am merely living here because this place belongs to the Einzbern family, and I am just an agent hired by the Einzbern family."

As he spoke, Kiritsugu Emiya gestured with his chin towards the front.

"Looks like someone's come to pick us up."

"Um?"

Rin Tohsaka looked over in confusion and found two people dressed in traditional European maid dresses standing in front of her group, staring at them expressionlessly.

"This is?"

"The Einzbern family's androids are created by the Einzbern family to serve them. In addition to ordinary androids, there are also combat androids. These two should be combat androids."

"Artificial humans?"

Shirou Emiya stared in surprise at the two expressionless maids in front of him. Apart from their blank expressions, the two maids were basically no different from normal people. In fact, one could say that their faces were more delicate and beautiful than those of ordinary people.

Why are they described as combat-ready androids?

"Because they were hiding weapons on their backs."

Rin Tohsaka saw the long poles behind the two maids and pointed at them.

"Arms?"

Seemingly to verify Rin Tohsaka's words, under Shirou Emiya's questioning gaze, the two maids revealed what was behind their backs.

One was a large, all-metal axe, and the other was a long, all-metal spear.

Clearly, both of these maids are combat maids.

"Should we resolve this?"

Emiya asked from the side.

Kiritsugu Emiya shook his head and looked up at the sky.

"No need. If Illya is here, we don't need to fight. We just need to wait for Illya to appear."

"There is a barrier around the forest surrounding this castle, and the barrier is connected to the crystal inside the castle. I sensed that barrier when I came in, so Illya should already know we are here. These maids are just Einzbern's alert mechanism, coming out to meet the enemy first. Illya herself should come out later."

As expected, just as Kiritsugu Emiya had said, after waiting for a short while, the two homunculus maids who had been on guard with weapons stepped aside, and Illya, dressed in winter clothes and wearing a fluffy little hat, appeared in front of everyone.

"Welcome to the territory of Einzbern. I am..."

Upon appearing, Illya immediately bowed slightly to the crowd.

But Illya stopped mid-sentence because she saw Kiritsugu Emiya.

"Kiritsugu?"

Illya stared in astonishment at Kiritsugu Emiya standing at the very front of the crowd. She couldn't believe her eyes and wondered if she was seeing things.

"Ah, Illya, it's me."

Kiritsugu Emiya looked at the slightly grown-up Illya and couldn't help but smile. Is this Illya ten years later?

It doesn't look like it has grown much; it still looks so small. Although it has grown a bit compared to when it was small, it hasn't grown much, probably because it's an artificial human.

Although Illya is the daughter of Kiritsugu Emiya and Irisviel, she is actually a homunculus. Her body is filled with Magic Circuit, and her purpose is to become the vessel for the Holy Grail.

Although she didn't grow up to be the sixteen or seventeen-year-old high school girl she had imagined, her current height, which looks like that of an elementary school student, is still quite cute.

"Illya, I..."