Chapter 77: Marching Upon the Einzberns
Failure, failure, failure...
The moment a total of eight [Pseudo-Anubis] blades were thrust into Berserker's body, it already heralded one thing:
Illya was out.
The Holy Grail War would no longer have anything to do with her... No, an Illya without Berserker's protection would fare far worse in this war than simply being disqualified.
After all, Illya herself is the Lesser Grail. For any Master or Servant participating in this war—provided they didn't wish for something incredibly extravagant—they wouldn't even need to wait for the war's conclusion. Once five out of the seven Servants were defeated and their souls entered the Lesser Grail, a wish could be made without having to settle the score with the final Servant.
In the Fate/Unlimited Codes game co-released by Capcom and Type-Moon, Caster used this very method to resurrect Kuzuki Souichirou. One can imagine how attractive Illya would be to other participants.
Furthermore, there was Matou Zouken. Having obtained a shard of the Grail destroyed by Saber in the fourth war and implanted it into Matou Sakura to turn her into an incomplete Lesser Grail, he would need to eliminate Illya first to prevent her from being a competitor to Sakura.
It could be said that the moment Berserker lost, not only would the Einzberns abandon Illya, but her very existence would be...
"Eh?"
Illya, who had been wrapped in the terror of this grim future, suddenly looked at Emiya Shirou in a daze. Because in the very next second, just as Shirou could have declared victory, he suddenly canceled all the [Pseudo-Anubis] blades impaling Berserker.
Only a single [Pseudo-Anubis] remained, held in his hand.
"Good grief, you really are impatient."
Shirou parried Berserker, who had lunged and swung his axe the instant he broke free of the restraints.
He spoke to Illya: "Illya, are you sure you don't want to make Berserker stop?
I did just release his restraints, but that doesn't mean I can't thrust [Anubis] into Berserker all over again.
I might not be so easy to talk to next time. Or rather, do you want to bet on whether my next attack will hit Berserker again?"
Unlike the Projection Magecraft of an ordinary magus, Shirou's method wasn't simple projection. It was a process similar to Marble Depiction, materializing objects into a mental world before "projecting" them out. His projected [Pseudo-Anubis] wouldn't just vanish after a few seconds.
Stalling tactics were useless against him. The disappearance of the blades on Berserker wasn't because his "time was up," but because Shirou had actively dispelled them.
"...Stop, Berserker."
Likely realizing this, Illya remained silent for a long time before finally speaking to stop Berserker's intent to continue the fight. Otherwise, Shirou—who had used the force of Berserker's swing to put distance between them again—wouldn't have minded projecting more blades.
He wouldn't continue with the time-consuming method of crushing him with stats; he would simply use continuous projections to overwhelm Berserker's remaining lives with sheer numbers, just to help Illya cool her head.
"See? It would've been better to do this from the start."
Looking at Berserker, who was still roaring in pain and seemed to want to say something but remained stationary under Illya's command, Shirou stopped his own movements. "By the way, Illya, I trust you've seen Berserker's weakness?
Since you don't believe me yet, I won't force you to accept my words. However, I suggest you listen to what I say next, whether you believe me or not—
In this Holy Grail War, I'm not the only one who uses this kind of combat style to counter Berserker.
For instance, a certain Servant who competed with Kiritsugu for the final victory is participating in this war once again."
Leaving Illya with that hint, Shirou returned to Rin and the others. He waved at Illya as they prepared to leave.
"Work hard on overcoming that weakness. Ciao~~"
"Wait!"
Just as Shirou signaled Rin's group to head toward their original goal—the church, to take down Kotomine Kirei, a man many of them had a grudge against—Illya called out to him again.
She used a voice that even she might not understand. Why call out to him? Why call out to this "brother" who had almost—if not killed her—robbed her of her entire reason for existing?
"Why...?"
'Why let the Servant go? Why let... me go?'
Illya didn't speak the rest of the words. But looking at her expression as she struggled not to admit defeat, those were likely the questions she wanted to ask. After all, her relationship with Shirou wasn't good; she had been the one to provoke him first.
"Why? ...Didn't I already say?"
Ignoring Illya's final bit of stubbornness, Shirou felt something and turned his head back to look at her.
"Because Kiritsugu cared about you until the very end. He was worried about whether you could live well on your own.
Since I was entrusted with so many things by Kiritsugu, naturally I have to help him make sure of that.
Of course, my plan to march upon the Einzberns is real. Even if you don't want to come with me, I will seek out the Einzberns for Kiritsugu's sake—and yours—to find justice."
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