Red Archer: What the Hell Is There to Fight?

Inside the Myriad Worlds Chat Group.

[Dark Knight of Gotham]: "..."

[Snow Queen of the Service Club]: "..."

[The Underdog Who Wants to Be Hokage]: "..."

[Smile Under the Wisteria Flowers]: "..."

Amid that long string of perfectly uniform ellipses, the group members completely lost it.

This was the Holy Grail War, a life-or-death slaughterfest! Such an epic arrival scene, and Lancer's expression as though facing a formidable enemy had practically maxed out the tension!!

Yet the first thing you said was that you were glad you'd scored 1,000 points' worth of travel fare for free?! What did you take the Holy Grail War for?!!!

At the scene, Cú Chulainn clenched his teeth so hard and tensed the muscles in his legs to their absolute limit, barely stopping himself from dropping to his knees before this man.

In the field of vision granted by his proud Beast's Intuition, how could the figure before him possibly be a young man in casual clothes? He was clearly a blazing, scorching star!

"What kind of joke is this..."

Cold sweat streamed wildly down the forehead of Ireland's Child of Light.

Even when facing his incomparably brutal mentor, Scáthach, Lancer had never felt such a despairing, utterly overwhelming pressure from an entirely different dimension!

Fight?

Fight my ass!

His Noble Phantasm was a cursed spear capable of reversing causality and guaranteed to pierce the heart.

But the question was, could you use a needle to pierce the heart of a planet?!

"That bastard priest actually sent me to test a monster this far beyond the norm. I'm a Lancer, not some fucking planet-slayer!"

In his heart, Lancer cursed his Master, Kirei Kotomine, from head to toe.

"Kid! Looks like today's your lucky day!!"

The next second, his entire body began to dissipate.

"Was he... called back by a Command Spell?"

Emiya Shirou, who had collapsed onto the ground, let out a breath of relief.

Lin Xiao walked up to Emiya Shirou and extended a hand toward the red-haired youth, whose face was drenched in sweat.

"Scared stupid? Get up, ally of justice."

Lin Xiao smiled, his tone returning to that of an easygoing modern young man. "That cross-world passage was pretty cramped. Nice to meet you for the first time. I'm Lin Xiao, the group owner."

Shirou stared blankly at the hand extended before him.

That hand was not rough, and it did not even seem to have many calluses. Yet it was that very hand that had forcibly severed the fate of death and directly frightened that terrifying Lancer away.

"M-Mr. Lin Xiao! Thank you for saving me!"

"No need to be so polite. Once you're in the group, you're one of us. Your stubborn streak may be a headache, but I don't dislike it either."

Just as he was about to ask Shirou whether he had any plans.

"Emiya! Are you still alive?!"

Accompanied by hurried footsteps, an exceptionally beautiful girl in a red coat with twin tails rushed over, panting for breath.

Rin Tohsaka.

The genius mage who managed Fuyuki City was covered in sweat, her beautiful eyes filled with anxiety and shock.

She had thought that an ordinary classmate caught up in a battle between mages was about to be silenced, so she had rushed over desperately to save him.

But halfway there, she had seen a red pillar of light tear through the sky. Immediately afterward, that terrifying mana, like a natural disaster descending, had nearly caused her Magic Circuits to shut down entirely!

"Tohsaka...," Shirou said, looking at the classmate who had suddenly barged in.

Rin Tohsaka ignored Shirou.

Her gaze locked firmly onto Lin Xiao.

Rin instinctively raised her right hand, and the Command Spell on the back of it glimmered with a dangerous red light.

"Archer!"

Rin frantically called out in her heart to her Heroic Spirit hiding in the shadows. Who is that man?! Is he a Servant summoned by another Master?

"Rin... listen to me. Slowly lower your hand. Don't show even the slightest hostility."

Red Archer, concealed atop a nearby high-rise rooftop, was currently staring fixedly at the man inside the Emiya Residence through his hawk-like vision.

This nameless hero who had seen through countless despairing futures now had cold sweat seeping from the hand gripping his black longbow.

"That isn't a Servant. No... he isn't a product of magecraft at all."

"This is absolutely not something that should exist in a Holy Grail War... Rin, we may have gotten caught up in some incredible myth."

Hearing such a despairing assessment from her always proud and sharp-tongued Servant.

Rin Tohsaka's heart skipped a beat.

She stiffly lowered her raised arm and looked at the young man before her, who appeared utterly at ease, then swallowed dryly.

Meanwhile, Lin Xiao was also sizing up this famous "tsundere twin-tail" from the Type-Moon World.

He smiled and took the initiative to break the awkward silence.

"The eldest daughter of the Tohsaka Household still has quite the fiery temper."

Lin Xiao pointed in the direction where Red Archer was hiding, his tone lazy yet carrying an unquestionable pressure.

"But since he's here, don't let your Servant stand on the roof in the cold wind. Have him come down. As it happens, I have a few rules regarding this little game I want to discuss with you."

Upon hearing the words "little game."

Rin Tohsaka and Red Archer, far away on the rooftop, smiled bitterly at the same time.

This brutal bloodbath, in which they slaughtered one another for the omnipotent wish-granting machine, was truly nothing more than a children's game in the eyes of this Adventurer whose name they did not even know.

A burst of spiritual particles gathered beside Rin.

The Heroic Spirit Archer, clad in a red coat and sporting short white hair, appeared in the corridor with a grave expression.

The moment he appeared, his gaze uncontrollably fell upon Emiya Shirou.

According to his original plan, he would have found an opportunity during this Holy Grail War to personally kill his past self, thereby ending his endless fate of slaughter as a "Guardian."

However, what left him stunned was this.

When the Shirou from ten years ago saw him appear, there was not the slightest trace of confusion or fear.

Instead, Shirou's brown eyes brimmed with a complex emotion interwoven with pity, anger, and resolve.

"Are you... the 'me' who was betrayed by everyone on the Hill of Swords?"

Shirou clenched his fists tightly as he looked at Red Archer, speaking through gritted teeth with a trace of sorrow.

The moment those words left his mouth.

Rin Tohsaka was completely dumbfounded. "Huh?! Emiya, what nonsense are you talking about? Archer is you?!"

Red Archer, meanwhile, looked as though he had been struck by lightning, his pupils abruptly shrinking to pinpoints!

"You... how do you know that?!"

"Of course I told him."

Lin Xiao cut off Red Archer's shock. "I showed him the future where you were hanged from the gallows. Honestly, your plan to 'kill your past self' now looks like nothing more than a little brat running away from home in a fit of pique."

Red Archer felt as though his breathing had stopped.

He knew?!

This monster had not only broken the Holy Grail's summoning rules, but he could even see clearly the causality and future that Alaya had deliberately concealed from him?! And he had even shown it to his past self?!