Chapter 524: Save The World
[You completed the Purge Mission]
A scarlet light mixed with golden radiance condensed in front of Kaito Shirogane. A special scarlet Drop Card exclusive to [Scavenger] condensed in front of the pure white Kaito Shirogane.
Kaito Shirogane was not in a hurry to pick it up, but instead kept his eyes closed, feeling the various surging and agitated emotions in that boundless sea of consciousness.
Humans are an eternally lonely species. Between one person and another, there is a skin bag that can never be erased.
But at this very moment, the Wall of the Heart dissolved. These millions of humans fused into one, and there was no longer any distinction between anyone.
Various memories, emotions, and thoughts were all laid bare. They faced each other with their truest faces.
Kaito Shirogane saw a couple confronting each other angrily, blaming the other for hiding too many things in their heart, that everything before was hypocrisy.
He also saw innocent boys and girls blushing as they saw each other's green and straightforward affection.
Kaito Shirogane looked down from above, overlooking all living beings like a deity, watching people's joy, watching people's anger.
After all humans displayed their complete and true selves, this species still behaved inconsistently.
The noble ones seemed like saints descending to the mortal realm, while the despicable ones were like Satan coming to the world.
"[Humans] are truly interesting..."
Kaito Shirogane's huge head overlooked this world. Finally, in a snow-covered forest, he saw that silver-haired girl hugging her knees.
Illya sat at the edge of the forest, looking at the ancient castle where her family resided from afar, but she didn't choose to go back, because there were no true relatives there.
And in this forest, that giant who used to always protect her also didn't appear.
Illya sat in the wind and snow like a heartless puppet.
She had always been isolated from the world. As the daughter of the Einzbern family's previous generation homunculus and Emiya Kiritsugu, she had never been treated as a human being.
Pat~ Tap.
A light landing sound appeared. Illya raised her head and saw a white giant land on the ground. The other party's originally black long hair had turned fluorescent white.
Unlike her silver-white hair color, that fluorescent white seemed to be glowing.
"Assassin..."
Illya merely opened her mouth, the sound already emitted, but she didn't accept this new Servant, Assassin · Mercenary Tao, as quickly as she did in the real world.
Only at this time did Kaito Shirogane know that this girl, who looked innocent and pure, like a heartless puppet, also had complex thoughts.
Kaito Shirogane narrowed his eyes slightly. It was the first time he scrutinized the heart of a weak girl so carefully.
As the daughter of the homunculus Irisviel, the family completely treated her as a tool to complete the Holy Grail War. Through massive modifications while she was an embryo, they made her possess an abnormal number of Magic Circuits and Command Spells all over her body.
Similarly, this also doomed Illya to be a tool that couldn't survive for too long. Her destiny was to die in the Fifth Holy Grail War.
The young girl lacked normal ethics. Risking her life to save others, or letting Berserker kill tens of thousands of people without changing her expression, were both perfectly normal things to her.
Because in her short and almost colorless life, good and evil had completely no meaning.
While she desired to kill her biological father, Emiya Kiritsugu, who betrayed her family and mother, she was also curious about that "younger brother," Emiya Shirou, who was raised by her biological father.
In that delicate and fragile heart, probably only that pitch-black giant, Heracles, whose every extraction of magical energy made her feel pain worse than death, was the only existence who treated her as a human rather than a tool.
Similarly, this girl also became the only anchor for Heracles, after enduring Mad Enhancement as the [Berserker] Class, to maintain an abnormal rationality.
Kaito Shirogane crouched down. Even so, he was still much taller than the young girl.
Various pieces of information flowed in his eyes.
"I see, so this is the process of the birth of a [Heart]. Interesting..."
Kaito Shirogane reached out his hand and placed it in front of Illya.
"Oh, my Master, thank you for your magical energy supply. Servant Mercenary Tao will win the Fifth Holy Grail War for you..."
Like a declaration of victory, and also like some kind of special pledge.
In this space, Illya felt she could also perceive the emotions and thoughts of this strange Assassin.
That was a guy as cold and hard as an iceberg. No, or rather, that was a non-human creation even harder and colder than cold steel.
Before this, she could hardly feel any emotional fluctuations.
Even if there were, they were some fake emotions, like the smiles she showed to deal with other people, or the smiles of those predators that completely didn't seem human.
When the other party suddenly appeared and voluntarily came under her command, Illya didn't feel much. With her magical energy, it was enough to support more Servants.
But almost the same as Berserker, every time Assassin extracted magical energy, it similarly made her feel immense pain.
At this very moment, those pains and that incomprehension all began to dissipate.
Only in this world where it was completely impossible to hide could she see Mercenary Tao's true self.
There... was a patch of nothingness.
Illya slowly stood up and took the initiative to approach Mercenary Tao. In her eyes, it was as if she saw a "kindred spirit" she had never met before. Before joy could emerge, it had already turned into pity.
Yes, the emotion that appeared after Illya saw Mercenary Tao's true self was pity.
Kaito Shirogane clearly perceived this. Illya's cold hand raised, seemingly wanting to touch Kaito Shirogane's forehead, but the size difference was too great, making it impossible. Finally, Illya only lightly patted Kaito Shirogane's arm.
"Assassin..."
"I am Illyasviel von Einzbern. Please, win the Holy Grail War for me~"
Her eyes were crystal clear, possessing a thoroughness that saw through life and death.
Or rather, her concept of life and death was similarly abnormal; she didn't understand the fear of death.
She hadn't yet experienced too much pain of separation.
Kaito Shirogane shook his head and reached out to grab the young girl.
"Sorry, Master. I might have to take away the only meaning of your short life so far..."
Boom!
In the next moment, because Illya rejected the instrumentality, and simultaneously, as the ritual leader who replicated the properties of the white giant, Kaito Shirogane,
Unlike the indecisive boy Shinji Ikari, completely gave [Humans] no right to choose, and directly reversed the power of the mind again.
Almost instantly, the fusion and mutual understanding of human consciousnesses that had finally appeared vanished in an instant.
Barriers appeared one by one, and subsequently, consciousnesses were bounced away from here one by one.
The Walls of the Heart collided with each other, and humans could no longer blend in the LCL water.
During the process of being bounced away, due to the constraint of the Wall of the Heart, the human bodies re-formed.
Humans appeared out of thin air one by one in the places where they disappeared before.
The ocean of orange juice began to disappear on a large scale.
Leaving only humans at a loss, standing on the devastated earth. Some panic-stricken people quickly looked for their clothes to cover their bodies, while others still couldn't believe what happened, constantly confirming their bodies.
Even more people, because of the previous fusion of consciousnesses, looked at the familiar people beside them with complex expressions.
The white color on Kaito Shirogane's body slowly disappeared, and his body size also slowly returned to normal.
In front of him, the naked young girl took shape bit by bit. He thought for a moment and threw the clothes from the real world from his inventory onto the young girl.
[Despairing Savior Mode deactivated]
[Despairing Salvation bonus effect vanished]
[You triggered Special Milestone · True Savior (Wonder of the World), Current progress: 1/3]
(End of Chapter)
~~~
Get early access to 50+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
~~~
Every 5 new reviews = 2 extra chapters
Every 100 Power Stones = 1 extra chapter