No...
The entire island of Greenland—roughly a hundred thousand tourists—was stunned!
Above the castle, that cluster of beautiful phosphorescent light kept shifting, somehow unfolding into an incredibly lifelike "mirage," as though dragging people's memories back to ancient times, to the glorious beginning of ancient Britain.
Within the nearly real illusion appeared a field of golden wheat.
An ancient stone dais stood amid the stalks, with a sword embedded in it, its guard inlaid with gold.
As the breeze swept over it, it radiated the extraordinary, noble aura of a king.
It was as though a bewitching voice were whispering.
"—Whoever draws this sword shall be King of Britain!"
Everyone shuddered, but their gazes soon turned burning-hot as they stared at the sword.
There was no mistake. This was the scene of King Arthur drawing the Sword of Selection!
But questions swiftly followed.
Where was King Arthur?
Where was King Arthur?
Suddenly.
A humble, gentle, yet magnetic voice sounded.
"Before picking up that sword, you'd better think it over carefully."
The tourists were somewhat startled, but the scene shifted toward the source of that mysterious male voice.
The newcomer was a handsome man in a white cloak, with a dashing smile and long silver hair cascading down his back. Like a warm breeze blowing across the grasslands, he made people instinctively want to relax in his presence.
Yet he seemed lacking in tension and responsibility, sometimes giving people the impression that he was a suspicious con artist.
Who was this again?
What did he have to do with Britain?
Everyone's hearts were filled with confusion.
Soon, accompanied by the mysterious man's warning, the illusion underwent another change.
In those ancient days, a blonde girl suddenly approached the stone dais where the sword was embedded.
She let out a breath and stood beside the silver-haired man, whose hair was as dazzling as scattered flowers.
"Merlin, this is my first time seeing you somewhere other than in a dream..."
It was him?!
Countless Britons were shocked. The instant they heard that name, they understood everything.
He was the great mage from the legends of King Arthur, the king's guide.
He was also King Arthur's trusted aide and close friend, like her right hand.
—Grand Sorcerer Merlin!
Wait, then didn't that ahoge-haired girl mean she was the legendary King Arthur?!
Everyone's jaws dropped.
Although they had learned from the Observer Net's promotional video that King Arthur in a Parallel World was a girl, the common knowledge ingrained in them since childhood made it difficult to believe...
Only after witnessing it firsthand did it feel even more unbelievable!
Now, they too were uncertain, and their firm convictions began to waver.
In the illusion, Merlin's mocking laughter drifted out once more.
"I'm only saying this for your own good. You should give up instead~."
The corners of this Mixed Nightmare's lips twitched. Even the heavy shadows could not conceal his mischievous smile.
Then, as if threatening her—or perhaps advising her—he explained.
"If you draw that sword, you will no longer be human."
"Not only that, once you hold it in your hand, you will be hated by countless people and meet a painful death..."
The moment his words fell...
The Mixed Nightmare's lips curled upward. He waved his staff and, with his profound mastery of magecraft, extracted the "future" he had observed.
He forced those intensely immersive scenes into Artoria's mind, making the girl's pupils contract sharply.
Battle after battle,
Brutal wars that seemed to stretch on without end...
A raging sea of flames consumed the entire glorious dynasty, revealing the end of an era.
When prosperity faded away, she would face the cruelest betrayal. The loyal Knights of the Round Table would collapse, while countless brave soldiers beneath her command would die in the wilderness.
No one could avoid being afraid of that...
After drawing the Sword in the Stone, she would no longer have anything to do with the word girl. The love, marriage, and happiness that people longed for would all become vast graves like "poison" to her, filled with bleak desolation.
But...
"Many people are smiling. I think that can't be wrong."
Her firm, powerful voice carried from the illusion as her fair hand gripped the hilt of the Sword in the Stone.
Clang!
Accompanied by a crisp scraping sound.
The blade rose high, gleaming with an incomparably dazzling radiance beneath the sunlight!
Through the endless long night of blood and iron, a girl turned herself into a torch, shining with her own will in that age of despair.
...Who could possibly know of that noble oath?
Silence.
Utter silence.
Everyone was struck speechless by the overwhelming shock.
"That was... King Arthur...?"
Mashiro Shiina breathed carefully. Looking at that noble scene, a hint of life appeared in her vacant eyes as she clenched her paintbrush.
Within that incomparably beautiful, shining light of humanity, even her doll-like soul ignited with a fire of longing.
The illusion gradually faded, revealing grand, epic scenes of magnificent scale!
They recounted the legendary life and enduring monument of King Arthur!
There were scenes of the Knights of the Round Table seated at their round table, discussing affairs in Camelot, the "City of White Walls." There were scenes of King Arthur completing twelve battles, raising the holy sword high, and repelling the Saxon invasion...
Without exception, they all recorded King Arthur's great achievements!
In the end, they converged into an image of thirteen Knights of the Round Table solemnly protecting King Arthur from behind.
They symbolized humility, honesty, compassion, bravery, justice, sacrifice, honor, and soul.
The unease and anxiety deeply rooted in everyone's hearts were gently wiped away by that radiance.
This light was the crystallization of every knight's ideals!
"Arthur!! Arthur!!"
Countless spirits buried beneath this ancient land shouted passionately into the Void.
"Arthur!! Arthur!!"
Many Britons shouted with unmatched excitement, pride rising in their hearts, along with exhilaration and a sense of identification with their Irish bloodline.
King Arthur was not called the King of Knights simply because she was both a knight and a king.
She was called the King of Knights because she was worthy of being followed and revered by every knight in Britain!!
"I have to draw it... I absolutely have to draw it..."
Mashiro Shiina's hand holding the paintbrush trembled lightly, but her tone was firmer than ever before.
Beside her, the old man watched his granddaughter with a gratified expression.
Mashiro...
She was finally about to take this crucial step.
Nearby, countless wildly excited tourists shouted as they snapped photo after photo.
They had never imagined that an ordinary trip would allow them to witness such a noble miracle firsthand!
They had struck it rich!!
However.
One tourist looked doubtfully at the photo in his camera.
It was the one he had taken at the very last moment before Merlin's illusion vanished.
He did not know whether it was an illusion, but he always felt that in the picture, Merlin had not been looking at King Arthur in the end. Instead, wearing a faintly mischievous smile, he seemed to be leisurely gazing at the future, at the hundred thousand tourists in Glastonbury.
The thought made the man's scalp tingle.
But curiosity led him to keep the photo and repost it on his Twitter.
Afterward.
Rumble...!!
All the illusions vanished. The pale white light above Glastonbury transformed into a pillar that reached the heavens, instantly streaming into the Heavenly Curtain beyond the atmosphere.
Then, Fate/stay night reached a crucial part of its story!
The Heavenly Curtain flowed and shifted, seeming to become even more real and even more stirring.
Under the moonlight, inside Hohzuki Academy's warehouse.
The purple-haired girl raised her slender hand high and hurled out the final chain with all her strength.
—Its sharp sword tip gleamed coldly, as vicious as a cobra.
On the ground, Shimo Yukino bit down helplessly.
It was all over...
Medusa let out a breath, but upon sensing the dazzling divine light before her, her expression abruptly changed to horror. That ancient aura of the Age of Gods could not possibly be false, and the sword light surged toward her like an untamed river!
"A seventh Servant?!"
The sharp sword light was as fast as lightning, tearing through the air as fierce winds roared.
Caught off guard, Medusa instinctively raised her chained Noble Phantasm to block it.
Clang!!
Along with a crisp metallic collision, countless sparks burst forth in an instant.
The mighty Rider let out a muffled groan and was sent flying directly away.
At the center of the Heroic Spirit summoning circle.
A female knight with shoulder-length golden hair appeared.
She had a lovely face, skin as fair as snow, and an elegant bearing. An ahoge rose from the top of her head, and she wore armor over a blue dress. Bathed in moonlight, she resembled a beautiful Valkyrie.
Then she turned around, looked levelly at the girl with jade-green eyes full of justice, and asked solemnly, "I have come in response to your summons. I ask you, are you my Master?"
"Ah...?"
Shimo Yukino blinked in confusion, her eyes filled with pure stupidity.
The King of Britain from Celtic Mythology had appeared here!
Excitement—unparalleled excitement!
Countless people around the world instinctively held their breaths, afraid of disturbing the most beautiful scene.
"It's so beautiful it takes my breath away."
Before you continue