Rin's First Robbery; The "Heartless" Lion King! / Chaos in Fuyuki City; The Lion King Strikes!

Gilgamesh suddenly scooped Rin up and leaped onto the castle tower, avoiding the Black Mud that had surged at them without warning.

"Rin Tohsaka! Hahahahaha! It really is you, Rin Tohsaka! I'm going to kill you! I have to kill you!"

Standing atop the tower, Rin looked at Angra Mainyu, who had suddenly appeared below. She reinforced her eyes with magical energy and glanced at Zouken Matou beneath him. Sure enough, Command Spells covered both of Zouken Matou's hands. It seemed Angra Mainyu had formed a contract with Zouken Matou as a Servant.

"Hehehehe, Rin Tohsaka! How do you intend to choose in this situation?"

Rin grinned at the smug Zouken Matou below, then turned to Gilgamesh.

"Gil, keep them occupied. Leave Angra Mainyu to me!"

With that, Rin leaped from the tower. Her eyes instantly turned gold, and terrifying magical energy rose and fell with every breath she took. In the next instant, she entered Starlight Mode, countless beams of light shooting toward Angra Mainyu.

Jeanne d'Arc Alter blocked Berserker's axe with her War Banner, twisted at the waist, and kicked Berserker flying. Then, with a few effortless bounds, she arrived beside Zouken Matou.

Watching Angra Mainyu howl beneath Rin's relentless magical bombardment, Jeanne d'Arc Alter spoke to Zouken Matou.

"Retreat! Let that disgusting thing cover our escape!"

"Hehehe. Since the Saintess does not wish to continue fighting, Emiya, we shall retreat."

Kiritsugu Emiya nodded. A stroke of the Command Spells on the back of his hand vanished. After strengthening Assassin, he decisively threw a smoke grenade and disappeared into the smoke with Zouken Matou.

Jeanne d'Arc Alter saw Berserker pursuing them and no longer wished to fight. Without hesitation, she unleashed her Noble Phantasm, creating a wall of fire to block Berserker. Then she nodded to Assassin and vanished into the forest after several leaps.

After seeing that his Master and Jeanne d'Arc Alter had both withdrawn, Assassin hurled a barrage of throwing knives at Gilgamesh, then charged at him with his dagger raised.

"Mongrel!"

Seeing that Assassin still dared to resist, Gilgamesh immediately opened the Gate of Babylon. A golden downpour once more descended upon Fuyuki City.

"Scapegoat!"

Facing Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasm rain, Assassin immediately activated his innate ability. Using "Scapegoat," he switched places with Angra Mainyu, taking Rin's magecraft himself while Angra Mainyu received Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasm barrage.

Assassin then endured Rin's magecraft and rapidly retreated into the forest, disappearing from sight.

With all his companions gone, Black Mud continuously poured from Angra Mainyu's body, swallowing the Noble Phantasms embedded in him. Yet he still stubbornly continued attacking Rin.

"Rin Tohsaka, I'll definitely kill you!"

"Damn it! They all got away and left us with this troublesome lump of rotten meat!"

As she spoke, the wings of light behind Rin trembled, and she swiftly rose higher to evade the surging waves of mud. At the same time, she took out a Shorthand Codex covered in Runic Alphabet and poured magical energy into it without restraint.

"I've wanted to do this for a long time! Great Rune Imprint!"

Using an entire Shorthand Codex filled with Runic Alphabet and an enormous amount of magical energy as the price, Rin instantly unleashed magecraft comparable to the release of an ordinary C-rank Noble Phantasm.

Countless runes took on various attributes as they were imbued by the Shorthand Codex, then merged into a massive imprint. In the blink of an eye, it arrived before Angra Mainyu. Boom! A tremendous explosion erupted.

Angra Mainyu, blown into a puddle of Black Mud, stubbornly reassembled his form and emerged again.

The instant Angra Mainyu reappeared, Berserker cleaved him in half with an axe. Then came another wave of Rin's magecraft, followed by a beam blast from a Noble Phantasm wielded by Gilgamesh.

Standing to one side, Illya watched them take turns tormenting Angra Mainyu and trembled as she prepared to slip away.

After viciously tormenting Angra Mainyu for a while, Rin turned around and spotted Illya sneaking toward the castle's back door with two maids carrying luggage.

Rin smiled faintly. The wings of light behind her fluttered, and she appeared before Illya in an instant, blocking her path.

Seeing Rin descend from the sky, Sella and Lieseltotte drew out their enormous axe-spears and shielded Illya behind them as they shouted.

"Run, Miss!"

The sisters immediately swung their axe-spears down at Rin. Unhurriedly, Rin reinforced herself with Reinforcement Magecraft, and two defensive magic circles appeared over her arms. She easily blocked the sisters' attack, then snatched both axe-spears away and tossed them aside.

"Wait. I'm not after Illya's Lesser Grail. I came looking for a partner. Illya, are you willing?"

Looking at Rin standing before her, fists clenched with cracking sounds, Illya immediately nodded.

"Then that's good, Illya. We're companions now. How about lending me your castle for a while?"

Rin's First Robbery, and the "Heartless" Lion King!

On the outskirts of Fuyuki City, Sella gloomily led Rin through the castle as Rin looted every piece of jewelry that caught her eye.

After making a full round, Rin followed Sella into the main hall. Looking at Angra Mainyu imprisoned within the temple, she let out a soft chuckle and walked up to the Temple Spell's magic circle.

"So, now that your contract has been severed, you probably won't get another chance to come out and cause trouble. How do you feel about that?"

"Rin Tohsaka! I'm going to kill you! I'll definitely kill you!"

"Hah! Looks like you've lost your mind. But you probably won't get the chance. Let's go, Illya."

Rin no longer paid any attention to the roaring Angra Mainyu and slowly left the castle with Illya and the others.

Walking at the rear, Sella secretly approached Berserker and asked Illya, who was seated on Berserker's shoulder.

"Miss, are we really going to listen to that... 'robber'?"

Illya looked at her lively maid with a suppressed smile. It looked like Sella was very unhappy about Rin Tohsaka's looting.

"Sella, can we resist?"

"No!"

"Sella, are you willing to die before we achieve our wish?"

"No!"

"I'm not willing either. I have to find out why Kiritsugu became like this! So I can't die yet!"

"I understand, Miss."

Up ahead, Rin occasionally stopped to take out jewels scavenged from the castle, admiring and playing with them. Gilgamesh finally could not help saying.

"Rin, what is there to care about in this trash?"

"No! Gil, these are the most beautiful treasures in the world. Look at this color, look at this texture..."

Gilgamesh's forehead twitched with veins at Rin's words. He casually summoned a fist-sized crystal and tossed it into her arms.

"Didn't I already give you one-third of the wealth in my treasury?"

Rin caught the crystal Gilgamesh tossed her. Holding it, she swallowed as her eyes turned unfocused. Then, breaking free from the crystal's gleam, she wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth and asked.

"Does the way I look now differ from the future you saw?"

Gilgamesh carefully examined Rin, then suddenly noticed the faint golden gleam in her eyes and seemed to understand something.

"Hmph! You still have far too little control over the Dragon Factor. Perhaps once you become proficient with it, you'll become the way I remember you."

Rin froze upon hearing that, and the golden gleam in her eyes instantly faded. Freed from the greed brought by the Dragon Factor, she blushed furiously as she recalled her embarrassing behavior just now and shouted in grief and indignation.

"Damn it, Da Vinci! I'm going to kill you!"

In the laboratory, Da Vinci was intently repairing equipment when she suddenly sneezed, snapping apart a pipe she had just reconnected. Her face instantly filled with despair.

"Ahhhhh! Why did I suddenly sneeze? Two hours of work went completely to waste!"

Inside Fuyuki City's doll factory, Aoko glared furiously at Touko, who stood in her way.

"Touko, why are you stopping me? If we don't break the barrier, most of Fuyuki City's hundreds of thousands of people might die here!"

Arisu, holding a Mystic Code at one side, also looked at Touko in confusion as Touko blocked both her and Aoko, waiting for an explanation.

Touko said nothing. She simply took out a jewel and released the image contained within it.

After the recording finished, Aoko looked at Touko dejectedly and asked.

"Touko, is there really no way?"

Touko shook her head, took out a cigarette, lit it, and said.

"No. The combination of Sajyou Manaka, someone directly connected to the Root, and Solomon, the King of Magecraft, would be difficult to defeat even if all of Fuyuki City's forces gathered together right now. Let alone in such chaos. Unless Shiki could come here now—but if it were that 'Shiki,' it would be hard to say who she would help!"

Aoko irritably scratched her hair, then snatched the cigarette from Touko's hand and took a deep drag.

"Cough, cough, cough."

Touko found Aoko's choking on the cigarette rather amusing. She gently patted Aoko's back, then took the cigarette back from her hand.

"Aoko, if you really feel awful, let's get thoroughly drunk together. It seems we've never had a drink together before."

At that moment, Arisu spoke with some hesitation.

"Maybe I can."

Hearing Arisu's words, Aoko excitedly came before her. But just as Aoko was about to speak, Touko instantly poured cold water over her hopes.

"The Bridge Giant? But Arisu, we have neither the materials nor the magical energy for you to sustain the final stage of the Bridge Giant. It can't be done!"

Arisu shook her head at Touko.

"No, Touko, you've forgotten Sakura. You told me Sakura's Origin had awakened, and that it was the Origin of emotion. If I can help Sakura gain control of her Origin for a short time, then combine the strength of the two of us, we can use it. As for materials, Rin, who summoned that most ancient King, should be able to help us solve that problem!"

At the Fujimura family home.

Shirou Emiya was busy in the kitchen, rapidly preparing dish after dish of delicious food. But faced with the Lion King's bottomless-pit appetite, even though he was drenched in sweat and his limbs were weak, he could barely keep up.

Taiga Fujimura, who had already learned part of the truth about the world from Kallian, stared in dumbfounded disbelief at the legendary King of Knights before her.

"Hey! You didn't become a King just because you could eat, did you?"

Martha teased her as well.

"No, she became capable of eating this much because she became a King. What ordinary household could afford to feed someone with an appetite like that?"

Faced with Taiga Fujimura's question and Martha's teasing, the Lion King unconsciously slowed her eating, her face turning slightly red. Normally, given the Lion King's temperament, she should have slammed the table and risen in anger at such remarks. But with so much delicious food before her, she truly did not want to waste any time.

Suddenly, the sound of bowls and chopsticks shattering came from nearby. Everyone turned to look and discovered that Shirou Emiya had collapsed to the floor when his legs gave out, knocking over a stack of bowls and chopsticks.

The Lion King hurriedly stuffed the remaining food in her bowl into her stomach, then awkwardly went over to Shirou Emiya. Looking at Shirou Emiya being treated by Martha, she stared at him on the floor with some embarrassment.

Kallian raised her head and looked at the Lion King with displeasure. Big brother collapsed from exhaustion because of her, and she hasn't even said thank you. This woman...

Of course, Kallian did not know that the King of Knights Shirou Emiya had summoned using Gry's blood was the Heavenly Spirit from another timeline who had personally reclaimed the Holy Lance at the Hill of Camlann and returned to the earth. Unable to die when she should have embraced death, she became an undead spirit wandering the world with the Holy Lance in hand. Holding the Holy Lance for so long had caused it to deify her.

In theory, the already deified Lion King possessed almost no emotion or humanity. Having become a divine spirit, she should have been controlled by the Holy Lance.

However, because this was not her true body but the Lion King descending with a Servant vessel, she had been affected by Gry's blood and gained a portion of humanity and emotion.

Naturally, Kallian knew none of this. But although Martha had lost most of her abilities as a Ruler, she retained the ability to discern True Names. Knowing the Lion King's origins, Martha quickly grabbed Kallian, who was about to flare up, and shook her head at her.

"Kallian! The Lion King is 'heartless.' Help Shirou go rest!"

The Chaotic Fuyuki City, the Lion King Sets Out! (Please Subscribe!)

Early the next morning, chaos had already engulfed all of Fuyuki City.

The abnormal events from yesterday had spread throughout Fuyuki City. By now, the vast majority of ordinary citizens knew that Fuyuki City had been completely cut off from the outside world.

Since last night, daily necessities in the city had been frantically looted. With the sun rising, the situation only intensified, and the entire city took on the appearance of the apocalypse.

The Magi and Church personnel who had once hidden in the shadows no longer cared about the principles of secrecy. They began openly walking and fighting in the streets.

An explosion rang out from the second floor of a department store in Fuyuki City.

The Magi outside the store cast aside their disguises and began mercilessly clearing out panicked civilians. Meanwhile, on the second floor, several Magi alternated their spells as they fought a fierce battle against Executors who had also come to gather supplies.

Facing the incoming fireball, an Executor nimbly ducked behind a display shelf. After signaling to his companions around him, he drew a Black Key, leaned out from the side of the shelf, and ruthlessly hurled it at the encircling Magi.

The Magus at the front saw the incoming Black Key and casually swung the metal rod in his hand, knocking it aside. Reinforcement Magecraft then activated around his body. With a huge leap, he smashed the shelf to pieces with all his strength.

Taking advantage of the instant when the flying merchandise obscured the Magus's vision, a female Executor tore open her nun's habit and threw it toward him.

Without caring in the slightest, the Executor rushed after the fluttering habit in nothing but her underwear, charging at the Magus.

The Magus fell for it. With the scattered merchandise blocking his eyes, he glimpsed only the shadow of clerical robes through a gap and immediately swung his rod down. In that instant, the female Executor closed in, pressed against his body, and drove a Black Key into his chest without hesitation.

"Ah!"