Declare war?
The mont the uninvited guest made its move, all the Servants, Demi-Servants, and Pseudo-Servants instinctively placed themselves in front of their respective Masters.
Outside the villa’s broken wall, the ’person’ standing there had a humanoid form, standing about 2.5 ters tall, with an abnormally four-parted mouth. He wore striking brown-yellow armor, with an ornate and grand helt. Golden edges and gaps in the armor emitted a bright blue light.
Before Fujimaru Ritsuka and the others could speak, the figure raised a uniquely crafted, cyan-blue ’clamp-like’ weapon—aid directly at them—where a plasma ball had been charging.
Almost in a blink—
"Master/Shirou! Danger!" Saber and Ruler cried out sharply.
Sizzle—Whoosh!
In an instant, a sky-blue plasma beam shot through the gap in the wall like a cot.
BOOM!
The building trembled violently. Debris and rubble exploded outward, scattering across the empty ground.
Clatter—
Even in broad daylight, the sparks and plasma fragnts were vivid and dazzling, scattering nearly ten ters away, blooming into a silvery-blue explosion like fireworks bursting from the ground.
At the center of the blast—
The plasma’s high-temperature shockwave carved a deep, scorched trench into the ground, like molten lava plowing through. Bricks, wooden floors, and furniture alike turned into burning charcoal as thick smoke poured from the villa.
"Cough, cough...."
At the far end of the blast trail, Mash held her large shield firmly against the ground and let out a long sigh. "Senpai, everyone... is everyone alright?"
"Cough... yeah, we’re fine... right!" Fujimaru Ritsuka quickly turned to look at the summoning circle behind them. "Gilgash, Jeanne, is the summoning circle okay...?!"
"Unhard."
"Ahhhhh—!"
Suddenly, a sharp screech interrupted them. They turned to see Ishtar clutching her head, letting out a high-pitched wail like a distressed groundhog.
Although her body was still crackling with plasma currents, her skin scorched in places, Gilgash knew what truly hurt her most: her money.
Glancing at the workshop—now half-lted precious tals, ruined gems, burning yen, pounds, dollars—Gilgash silently thought:
This foolish woman—just like her vessel, Rin Tohsaka—was miserably poor yet obsessed with wealth.
Having rged with Rin’s mories and a portion of her personality, it was no wonder Ishtar was heartbroken over the destroyed property that ’belonged’ to her.
"My house! My ho! My money! You four-mouthed freak—I’m going to kill you!!"
In the next mont, Ishtar roared. Magic power burst from her body, scattering the smoke as her crimson eyes blazed with rage.
"Maanna! Blow them away!"
With a loud bang, another gaping hole blasted open in the villa’s roof. Shooting into the sky, Ishtar surveyed the alien figures that had suddenly surrounded the villa—especially the brown-armored one who fired—and her eyes burned even fiercer.
In a flash, from the strange flying vessel shaped like a massive bow—the Boat of Heaven, Maanna—countless golden beams shot downward, like laser-guided missiles raining destruction onto the alien invaders.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!
"Shirou! Protect yourself!"
"Master! Be careful!"
Bang, bang! Two more human-sized holes appeared in the villa walls. Feeling the tremors through the ground, hearing the roaring and explosions outside, Shirou Emiya and Waver Velvet—both ’ordinary humans’—couldn’t help exchanging glances.
The ’secret’ magecraft workshop was now completely exposed. Above their heads, the entire roof had been blasted away, creating a huge open channel to the sky, sunlight streaming down.
"That foolish woman... well, at least she’s sowhat useful, despite always dropping the ball."
Golden ripples manifested. While grumbling, Gilgash shattered the collapsing debris and set up one defensive Noble Phantasm after another around the periter, calling out to Fujimaru Ritsuka to continue the summoning.
As for Mash, she was a shieldbearer—her true role was never front-line combat, but always to protect Fujimaru Ritsuka, the last Master of Chaldea.
"Mr. Waver...."
Dust and fragnts rained down. Clenching his fists, Shirou showed a look of confusion before speaking after a brief silence. "Didn’t Tohsaka say the Holy Grail War is supposed to be conducted secretly at night?"
"Sigh..."
Waver brushed the dust off his coat, sighing heavily. "Emiya, you still don’t truly understand the world of mystery."
"Take mages, for example. What binds them—laws? Rules? Consensus?"
"Heh. To them, those are just scraps of paper. The only thing that binds a mage—is strength."
While speaking, Waver smoothly pulled out a cigar, clipped it, flipped open a butane lighter, ignited it, and carefully heated the cut end before taking a leisurely puff.
Stay calm—first, a cigar to steady the nerves.
It wasn’t purely showing off... well, maybe a little. But it also had a function.
In the past, when Waver panicked about how to present himself as a "Lord," a certain alcoholic mage had advised him: "A cigar and a suit are a man’s armor."
Thus, the timid Waver Velvet disappeared, replaced by the impeccably dressed, cigar-in-hand Lord El-lloi II.
Besides, Waver didn’t smoke cigars for the taste. They were one of his few pieces of magecraft equipnt—the tobacco infused for various effects like defense, barrier reinforcent, ntal stabilization, or magic circuit catalysis.
This particular cigar stabilized his ntal state.
Exhale— Waver puffed out a breath of smoke, crouched down to continue working on the summoning circle, and said gravely:
"After obtaining such powerful Servants, naturally, those so-called rules we third-rate mages cling to an nothing to them."
"The world of mystery—the mundane world—they’re the sa. Survival of the fittest, if not worse. Magecraft has never been as beautiful as its rituals make it seem."
Shirou froze, falling into silence.
Honestly, he still couldn’t fully make sense of everything Fujimaru Ritsuka, Romani, Da Vinci, and Gilgash had said—about Singularities, the incineration of humanity, human history, King Solomon, foreign gods.
But he understood this much—it was wrong.
What that foreign god was doing clashed fiercely with his ideals.
A Holy Grail War fought at night, even if violent, even if it endangered his life—that he could grudgingly accept.
Because Servants were overwhelmingly powerful—he understood that battles would inevitably get out of control.
But now, brazenly launching attacks in broad daylight, ignoring the safety of ordinary people, risking the exposure of magecraft to the world—
This, Shirou Emiya could not forgive.
Call it impotent rage or needless worry—either way, having lived through the disaster that was the end of the previous Holy Grail War, Shirou Emiya didn’t want anyone else to experience such tragedy.
He had to do sothing. Even if it cost him his life!
Just like the promise he made to his father (Kiritsugu Emiya)—wasn’t being a champion of justice precisely about stepping up at tis like these?
"Yo, kid, what’s on your mind?"
Shouldering his crimson death-piercing spear, Lancer Cú Chulainn smirked casually, flashing his pearly teeth as he clapped Shirou on the back, nearly knocking him over.
"Lancer, you’re—"
"Yeah, yeah, that homunculus girl? I hit her with so healing Runes. But... you know my class isn’t Caster. That’s about all I could manage."
"Since the enemy’s already at the door, you take care of her, little brother—as for ..."
"Saber and Ruler are outside fighting like mad. Hiding behind won isn’t my style."
After tossing out those words, Lancer twirled his crimson spear, spun a few brilliant arcs, and vanished with a whoosh.
"Lancer, wait—I also..."
Before he could finish, Shirou’s expression twisted. He collapsed straight onto the ground—numbness, pain, as if countless ants were gnawing away inside his body, tearing his flesh apart.
"Ugh... ngh...."
Accompanied by arcs of magic particles swirling around him, his muscles convulsed violently. Suddenly, high-quality magic circuits—completely incompatible with his previous magecraft level—flickered into view.
"No way... this guy’s magic circuits weren’t even activated?!"
Seeing this, Waver frowned deeply. After so many years teaching at the Clock Tower, he had seen all kinds of students—
But never anyone like Shirou Emiya.
He had magical energy, could perform reinforcent and projection magic—yet hadn’t even properly activated his own magic circuits?!
"You’ve been using your nerves as substitute magic circuits this whole ti?! Who the hell taught you—what a hack job!"
Blue magic light glowed in his palm as Waver helped Shirou up, probing his physical condition—only to be utterly shocked.
His professional instincts imdiately turned his anger toward whoever had ’trained’ Shirou.
"Wait a second... his physique—what’s going on?"
"Clearly," Gilgash spoke up, eyes narrowing slightly, "this boy is undergoing a transformation into a Pseudo-Servant. And his Spirit Origin..."
"Interesting, very interesting—it’s Archer. Seems he’s resisting pretty hard."
Unlike the near-perfect fusion between Rin and Ishtar, Shirou’s situation was different. The Archer’s Spirit Origin was clearly rejecting the fusion process.
Laughing in amusent, Gilgash casually waved his hand. A golden ripple appeared, tossing a vial of elixir to Waver.
"Make him drink this. We don’t have ti to wait for natural adaptation. We need combat strength now."
"Wait, King Gilgash—"
"Hm?"
Even while enduring the searing pain, Shirou’s firm gaze made Gilgash’s opinion of him rise slightly.
"That elixir... could it heal Illya too?"
"Illya? Hah—the homunculus girl who’s got just a few days left to live?"
Gilgash chuckled, red eyes gleaming wickedly.
"Boy, this is a treasure from my Vault—what do you think?"
"Still, you’ve reminded —the Lesser Grail...."
Without another word, Gilgash retrieved another vial from the golden ripple, dropping it in front of Shirou.
"Hurry up and fuse your Spirit Origin. We need to strengthen our forces as much as possible right now."
Only the Wise King Gilgash could have such sentint. If it had been Archer Gilgash, it would have just been pure arrogance—giving Shirou a secret elixir, treating a dying homunculus like Illya? Not a chance!
"Gilgash, Doctor Romani and the others are ready!"
At that mont, Fujimaru Ritsuka’s delighted voice rang out, and from the composite summoning circle, brilliant golden light burst forth magnificently.
"Good! Ritsuka, now!"
"Yes!"
...
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Ratatatatat!
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!
"Die! Die! Die! Die die die die—!!"
Hovering midair like a furious bomber, Ishtar’s raging beam bombardnts engulfed the entire area.
The explosions roared nonstop, forming a continuous wall of shockwaves that rattled the air like a violent storm, making everyone’s eardrums tremble.
"ROAR—!"
A brown-armored Sangheili commander at the front was struck by over a dozen golden beams. Its energy shield shattered, and it stumbled, dropping to one knee. Even though its armor was riddled with holes and blood gushed out, it never loosened its grip on its Type-25 plasma rifle.
"For Selene—!"
After launching a few more scattered plasma blasts into the sky, its head was finally pierced by another golden beam, and it collapsed completely.
Ishtar — Magic Resistance: A
But it was useless. Even more plasma shots began pouring toward her. On the ground, the forr Covenant troops were gathering—heavier weaponry and armored vehicles had begun to appear.
A red-armored Sangheili commander roared, waving his Type-1 energy sword:
"Suspend attacks on all other ground targets! Focus on her! Concentrate all firepower! Fire!!"
Crack-Boom!
Shockwaves thundered across the battlefield!
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