Astraea Familia Residence — Front Courtyard.
Boom!
A violent blast shook the ground and sent dust and rubble flying. The arrogant Level 5 executive of the Evils—Valletta's deputy (Disposable Thug A)—went sailing through the air like a baseball smashed clean out of the park, before crashing hard into the ruins.
"Cgh… cough…!"The hulking man clawed his way out of the broken stone, face smeared with blood, eyes wide with disbelief and terror.
"How is this possible…?! Your presence was only Level 2…! Why do you have power like this?!"
Across from him, Emiya Shirou held a massive pair of black-and-white winged twin blades, still frozen in the aftermath of a finishing swing. Violent mana turbulence coiled around him like a storm, and his skin flushed an unhealthy red from the strain of Overload.
"Because I'm… a pay-to-win player," Shirou exhaled, voice flat with exhaustion as the twin blades slowly dissolved into light.
Trace—Overedge (Crane Wing: Greater Form).
It was a forced runaway of Kanshou and Bakuya's circuits—an explosive, momentary burst that exceeded his level limits by brute violence. The downside was simple: there was a very real chance his arms were about to break.
But when the choice was "look cool" and "save people," he'd decided the cost was acceptable.
"S-so amazing…"Lylia peeked out from behind her shield, only half her head visible. "That was a Level 5! You sent him flying in one hit?! Emiya, did you secretly turn on an invincibility cheat?!"
"Don't say weird things. I just used a little 'technique.'"Shirou shook out his numb arm.
Truthfully, that strike had been a cocktail of ambush timing, a hard counter in attributes, and the enemy underestimating him. If it turned into a drawn-out fight, his three-minutes-of-glory "fake Level 5" would get ground down and killed.
"Damn you… stop acting so smug!"The Level 5 executive roared, yanking a red vial from his coat—
A Berserk Elixir.
"If I can't win, I'll take you with me! For the cause!"
He tilted the vial toward his mouth.
"Not a chance!"Alise and Kaguya lunged at the same time.
"Justice gank squad—!!"
"Too slow."
A voice colder than death fell from above.
It wasn't loud. It didn't need to be.
It rang directly inside everyone's skull like a funeral bell.
The space around them congealed.
Alise's sword froze in midair.Kaguya's draw stalled halfway from the scabbard.Even the executive, mid-drink, locked up like a statue.
It wasn't time stop.
It was gravity—suppression.
A pressure so heavy it stole breath slammed down from the sky.
"This presence…"Ryuu Lion looked up. Her sky-blue eyes shrank to pinpoints, her body trembling with the instinctive terror of prey sensing an apex predator.
On the shattered wall of the residence stood a woman in a gray dress.
Long ash-colored hair.Mismatched eyes.A chill so absolute it made the world feel smaller.
She held no staff.She assumed no stance.
She simply stood there—and everything else became secondary.
Silence.
Alfia.
"Annoying."Her gaze swept the battlefield with bored contempt, then landed on the executive still trying to drink.
"Weaklings should behave like weaklings.""Don't contaminate my air with disgusting drugs."
She lifted one finger.
And flicked.
Pop.
No chant. No buildup. No warning.
A wind blade—too fast to be seen—punched through the executive's skull. The vial in his hand shattered in the same instant, both man and elixir reduced to dust and fragments.
A Level 5.
Deleted like an insect.
…
The courtyard fell dead silent.
Evils and Astraea Familia alike were paralyzed by the sheer finality of it.
"Th-that's… it?"Lylia's teeth rattled. "Why is that monster here?!"
Alfia ignored their fear.
She hopped down from the wall as lightly as a leaf, her gray skirt never brushing the dirt, never catching a speck of ash.
She walked straight to Emiya Shirou.
"Again, kid."Her eyes lingered on him—wounded (mostly old wounds), battered, yet still standing—and the corner of her mouth tilted in something like amusement.
"Your 'after-dinner exercise' seems… intense."
"Lady Alfia…"Shirou let his projection fade. In front of her, weapons were pointless. "Are you here to kill me… because I didn't do the dishes?"
"Heh."A laugh—thin, cold—escaped her.
"Dishes aren't worth my effort."
She turned away from Shirou and looked at Alise and the others. Her mismatched eyes carried the weight of appraisal, like a judge examining defective goods.
"So this is the 'justice' you want to protect?"
She pointed at the girls—frightened, shaking, yet still keeping their weapons raised between the attackers and the children sheltering behind them.
"Too weak.""So weak it's laughable."
"Y-you…!"Alise clenched her teeth. Her legs shook, but she forced herself forward anyway.
"I'm the captain of Astraea Familia!""If you want to hurt my family, you'll have to step over my corpse first!"
"Captain?"Alfia's eyes were empty. "That means nothing in front of absolute power."
Wham—
She waved a hand.
A shockwave erupted.
Alise didn't even have time to react before she was blasted off her feet and slammed into a wall.
"Alise!""Captain!"Kaguya and Ryuu cried out and moved—
"Don't."
Alfia's voice wasn't loud.
It was law.
"Move one more step," she said, "and I'll kill you."
Killing intent flooded the courtyard, thick and tangible. Everyone felt it at the throat, like a scythe poised to drop the moment they twitched.
This was dominance—the kind only a Level 7 could impose.
"Stop, Alfia."
Emiya Shirou stepped forward, placing himself in front of Ryuu and Kaguya. He looked up at the witch who stood above them all—not with fear, but with a weary, almost helpless resignation.
"If you're here to settle something, do it with me.""Bullying kids—" he paused, then added, "even if we're basically the same age—doesn't suit 'the strongest.'"
"Kids?"Alfia raised an eyebrow. "In this hell, there are no children.""Only the living and the dead."
She walked closer until there was less than half a meter between them. A cold, faint fragrance—almost floral, almost medicinal—slipped into Shirou's lungs.
"Emiya Shirou," she said softly. "I gave you a chance.""I let you live because I wanted to see what kind of light you could produce."
Her gaze slid past him, toward the girls trembling behind.
"But now…""You're not as 'special' as I thought.""Being bound by something as boring as 'bonds' will only make you weaker."
"Is that so?"Shirou didn't deny it.
Instead, he asked a question.
"Then, Lady Alfia… are you so strong because you threw away every bond you ever had?"
…
Alfia's pupils tightened.
That sentence—like a needle—stabbed into something she kept sealed and scarred over.
Zeus Familia.Hera Familia.A sister who would never return.
"You…"Her voice turned razor-cold. Frost began to bloom in the air. "What do you know?"
"A counterfeit like you—who's never tasted true despair—has no right to judge me."
"I don't," Shirou admitted, fists clenching as his circuits started to turn again.
Even if it killed him.Even if there was no hope.
He couldn't back down here.
"But I do know one thing."
"If becoming stronger means abandoning the people beside you…"
"Then I don't want that 'strength.' Not ever."
"Trace!"
The black-and-white twin blades returned.
This time, not for style.
This time, for survival.
"Good."Alfia looked into his eyes—eyes burning stubbornly in the face of annihilation—and she smiled.
It was a smile full of madness.
Full of anticipation.
"Then show me.""Can your 'bonds' stop my 'despair'?"
Gospel.
No chant.
Only intent.
A catastrophic mana storm erupted around Alfia—power enough to erase the entire residence from the map.
"Unlimited Blade Works—Shield Mode!"
Shirou roared, slamming every drop of mana he had into the earth.
"Come forth—my swords!"
Clang—clang—clang—clang!
Blades erupted from the ground like steel trees, not aimed to kill, but to lock together—crossing, stacking, bracing—until a wall of iron rose between Alfia and everyone behind him.
A sword-made fortress.
Rho Aias—replicated in the language of his reality marble. Not the original shield, but the concept forced into being through countless blades.
The impact came.
A white hymn of destruction crashed into iron.
The explosion tore the world apart with sound.
First layer—shattered.Second—pulverized.Third—melted.
"Nngh…!"
Blood poured from Shirou's eyes, nose, and ears. His knees hit the ground. Mana backlash hammered his skull like it wanted to split him open.
But he stayed up.
Barely.
"I… can't…" he gasped."…fall…"
"Because…""…someone…""…is behind me…"
"Emiya!"
Ryuu stared at his trembling back, tears spilling free.
Why?
Why would he go this far?
He was just a passerby…just someone who didn't belong…
"I'm helping too!"
Ryuu ran in and slammed her palm against Shirou's back.
"Take my mana…!"
"Me too!"
Kaguya. Lylia. Even Alise, injured and shaking—everyone surged forward. Hands layered over hands, warmth pressed against warmth, and their small, imperfect mana flowed into the red-haired boy trying to stand between despair and life.
"So this is…" Shirou whispered, feeling that heat at his back—weak, fragile, yet unbelievably warm.
"…bonds."
"AAAAAAAAH—!!"
He screamed.
The iron wall grew again—thicker, denser, brighter—steel blooming from the earth as if answering that shared will.
"You blocked it?!"For the first time, Alfia sounded genuinely surprised.
She'd only used a fraction of her strength, but it was still Level 7 magic.
A handful of Level 3s and 4s—plus a "blacklisted" smith who'd already emptied his mana—shouldn't have been able to hold.
"Hmph."Alfia lowered her hand.
The light vanished.
Smoke and dust rolled away.
The wall of swords was ruined—pierced, cracked, half-collapsed.
Shirou remained on his knees, breathing like he'd been drowned and dragged back. His vision swam. His mind flickered.
But the girls behind him—
were unharmed.
"…Passable."
Alfia's tone was indifferent.
Her gaze shifted from Shirou to the girls still holding him up despite their fear.
"This time…""I'll let you live."
She turned to leave.
"W-wait…"Shirou forced his head up, voice ragged. "Why…?"
Alfia paused and glanced back. In her mismatched eyes, a softness appeared for the briefest instant—so small it almost felt imagined.
"Because…" she said.
"Your food isn't finished yet."
"Next time, if you don't make me something better…"
"I'll really flatten this place."
It was, perhaps, the most awkward excuse for mercy imaginable.
"And one more thing."
She looked toward the distant Babel Tower.
"The Great Feud has only just begun."
"If you don't want to die…"
"Struggle like hell."
"In this era called despair…"
"Prove it to me."
"Show me whether 'justice' can actually save the world."
Then her figure melted into the night—like a nightmare that arrived too fast and left too fast.
Only when the pressure was truly gone did everyone collapse.
"We… we lived…"Lylia clung to Kaguya and sobbed.
Alise stared at Shirou with gratitude—and something else she couldn't name.
"Emiya…"Ryuu held him up, eyes fixed on the wounds covering him, heart aching so hard it stole her breath.
"You… absolute idiot."
"…Yeah."Shirou managed a weak smile. "But…"
"…as long as everyone's okay…"
"…that's enough."
His eyes slid shut.
And he finally lost consciousness.
In the last fading moment before darkness took him completely, he thought he heard a voice—cold, mechanical—echo inside his mind.
SYSTEM: Hidden Objective Completed — "Protect Justice before the Strongest."Reward: Heroic Spirit Emiya (Archer) Synchronization Rate increased to 40%.New Skill Unlocked: Crane Wing Triple Strike — Ultimate Version.
Looks like…
getting beaten half to death…
wasn't a total loss after all.
....
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