Chapter 534: The Girl, Mercenary Tao, and the So-called Justice
Emiya Kiritsugu watched despairingly as the black mud spread, and the great fire began to sweep across everything.
Although Fuyuki City had completely turned into ruins in the previous unknown battle, those people had not all died.
At a time like this, once these things fully spread out,
Probably the most terrifying massacre event in human history would be born in Fuyuki City today.
This event would be recorded in human history and circulated forever.
"Go!"
Emiya Kiritsugu had felt the pain of the black mud pollution. He grabbed his adopted son with one hand, ran quickly towards his biological daughter, and reached out his hand wanting to pick Illya up.
But the young girl merely looked at him coldly. Her hair fell and turned into silver-white sharp swords and familiars.
Illya wanting to kill Emiya Kiritsugu wasn't just a family mission...
"Illya, you..."
Boom!
A terrifying explosion suddenly occurred in the rear. In the next moment, the black mud began to pour backwards.
That man standing at the center of the explosion had been completely covered by the black mud.
A massive amount of magical energy and terrifying malice continuously eroded everything around.
And that man, turning into something like a black hole, continuously absorbed [All the World's Evils] into his body.
This action made Emiya Kiritsugu's expression freeze.
"Assassin..."
Illya was startled, revealing a look of worry. At this time, she had completely understood everything. Assassin saying he wanted to take away her only mission in this world was probably the alternative "gentleness" of this powerful, cruel Servant.
She didn't care what purpose Assassin himself had, or what "conspiracy" he held.
There were too many things like that. Since her birth, everyone around her had various purposes and held a massive amount of conspiracies in their hearts.
Whether they treated her well or not, it all pointed to their own purposes.
Even if Assassin was like this, so what.
Just like Berserker. Although every time he extracted magical energy, it made her feel pain worse than death, but so what. She had value to Berserker, and correspondingly, Berserker also answered her expectations.
Only a person who is needed has value.
Assassin took away her mission of existing as the "Lesser Grail," but let her survive.
Berserker voluntarily went to his death precisely because he understood Assassin's purpose.
The two cruelest Servants in this Holy Grail War gave her the greatest gentleness.
Illya raised her arms high, all the Magic Circuits on her body lighting up. She even wanted to rummage for that Mystic Code of hers, but because she suffered an assassination attempt earlier and the apartment was bombed, she completely couldn't find it now.
She could only use her greatest effort right now to let Assassin survive.
As the Lesser Grail, standing on the earth of Fuyuki City, Illya could naturally extract magical energy from the leylines.
But at this very moment, the Greater Grail had manifested, and the leylines had also been massively destroyed by the previous battle between Kaito Shirogane and White Mask.
Therefore, Illya felt that her magical energy was actually not as inexhaustible as in the past.
She raised her other hand again, and the Command Spells in her body also lit up completely.
"Assassin! Survive!"
A Command Spell disappeared instantly, and at the same time, a massive amount of magical energy was extracted.
Illya seemed to see hope and used a Command Spell again.
"Assassin, I order you to survive!"
The young girl's crisp voice echoed in the empty city. That churning black mud and great fire were just hundreds of meters in front of her. Once it swept over, the young girl absolutely had no possibility of escaping.
Emiya Kiritsugu stood a few meters away from Illya. The Emiya Shirou he was holding also struggled to land on the ground.
Emiya Kiritsugu looked at the gun in his hand.
He had no way to subdue his daughter. Was he going to shoot his daughter and then forcibly take her away...
Scenes of choices in his life seemed to begin flashing through Emiya Kiritsugu's mind again.
Because his father conducted Dead Apostle experiments, the girl he liked turned into a monster. Wanting the other party to survive, he concealed the girl's whereabouts, which led to everyone on the island being infected, and eventually everyone was purged;
To prevent his father from continuing to run away and conduct Dead Apostle experiments, he chose to personally kill his father...
Choice after choice, every time he had a full reason to tell himself that doing so was the best and most in line with "Justice"!
But ultimately, he was only losing time and time again.
He lost the girl he liked in his green youth, lost his father, lost...
Hum!
The Projection Magecraft between Emiya Shirou's hands was cast again. An overly long nodachi had appeared. That was Sasaki Kojiro's [Monohoshizao].
"Shirou, you..."
A terrifying scene appeared in Emiya Kiritsugu's mind. He subconsciously raised his gun to aim at his adopted son, but Emiya Shirou had already turned and ran in front of Illya.
Gripping that nodachi, which was too long and narrow for him, with both hands.
"You're Illya, right? I will protect you!"
The red-haired boy looked at that black mud and flames that seemed able to swallow everything. His voice trembled slightly, but was still firm.
Even though the person inside that black mud was his "enemy," the terrifying guy who assassinated Tohsaka Rin and Matou Sakura, and killed Saber in battle.
But since the young girl was his adoptive father's daughter, since the young girl simply wanted to save, then he also wanted to save this young girl.
Because... this was the simple justice in his heart.
The gun Emiya Kiritsugu had subconsciously aimed at his adopted son suddenly dropped to the ground.
He covered his face and sat down dejectedly.
Emiya Kiritsugu seemed to recall that in a certain moonlit courtyard, he told Shirou that he once dreamed of becoming an ally of justice.
But that was just a youth's delusion. He had grown up, so he gave it up.
But the red-haired boy told him that because he was still a child, he would go and realize that dream.
Like a dream reflecting reality, at this very moment, the boy's body burned with a radiance that made Emiya Kiritsugu feel ashamed of his unworthiness.
This is good too. This is good...
Emiya Kiritsugu suddenly lifted his foot and actively walked forward.
"Shirou, take good care of Illya for me... No..."
"Illya, please take good care of Shirou for me in the future, okay? After all, he is your younger brother..."
Emiya Kiritsugu was very good at psychological warfare. In the past, he used this ability to target and assassinate those magi.
But today, he used this to deliberately "force" his daughter to survive.
He could feel that Illya had a self-destructive tendency. Therefore, to make her survive, he said Emiya Shirou was a younger brother needing care, wanting Illya to bear the responsibility to live on.
The young girl raising both hands high to release magical energy and Command Spells, and the boy holding a sharp sword and trembling slightly, were both stunned. In the next moment, they had already seen Emiya Kiritsugu running and charging into the black mud and flames.
[Based on the Class Assassin, you obtained an extra enhancement from the Command Spells]
[You suffered the erosion of All the World's Evils. Body functions decreased]
...
These two kinds of prompts constantly popped up like a system bug, but Kaito Shirogane completely couldn't be bothered to look.
He merely spread his hands, feeling that illusory malice constantly washing over his nerves. Conversely, there was an even grander power constantly washing over his soul and consciousness.
His physical body had long been eroded to be riddled with holes, and amidst the continuous high-speed self-healing, various changes occurred.
[You underwent the baptism of All the World's Evils. Immortality · Intermediate has been upgraded. Current: Immortality · Advanced]
Finally, a prompt appeared. Kaito Shirogane seemed to feel as if some kind of shackle within his body shattered.
Immediately following, that [Transcendent Helix] which hadn't moved for a long time, intensified its rotation once again.
Along with the Noble Phantasm Form · Swirl of the Heart, it frantically began to rotate.
Like monstrous tentacles, they reached straight towards that scarlet moon in the sky, or perhaps it was a pitch-black cavity.
(End of Chapter)
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