Chapter 61: Will You Win? I'll Win!
A Noble Phantasm—the trump card of a Servant.
Just as Stand users do everything in their power to hide their Stand abilities, in battles between Servants, a well-placed Noble Phantasm is enough to turn defeat into victory—unless you are Gilgamesh, who disdains hiding and is powerful enough that it doesn't matter if you're exposed.
Take the Fourth Holy Grail War, for example. If Assassin hadn't possessed the self-splitting Noble Phantasm [Zabaniya: Delusional Visions], their plan to fake the death of one persona to remain hidden from the other participants and monitor them would never have succeeded.
Similarly, if Iskandar hadn't kept his Noble Phantasm [Ionian Hetairoi] hidden, he wouldn't have been able to wipe out the entire Assassin collective in one fell swoop.
This was also one of the few advantages held by Archer (EMIYA)—a modern Servant lacking the fame and legend of ancient heroes to bolster his stats. In this war against heroes of myth and legend, information was everything.
Regarding the Noble Phantasms of the various Servants in the Fifth Holy Grail War, he wouldn't say he knew every single one, but replicas of most of them were already stored within his Reality Marble.
Thus, faced with Tohsaka Rin's dazed inquiry, Archer was no different; his Clairvoyance was wide open. Especially after seeing a massive hole literally open in Emiya Shirou's chest and then instantly restore itself.
Archer, certain his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, felt countless thoughts explode in his brain.
—"Is that how I was saved back then?"
—"I thought it was Rin... No, I remember Lancer's Noble Phantasm shouldn't have that effect."
—"Even if it were another application of [Gáe Bolg]
—using it as an Anti-Army Noble Phantasm instead of Anti-Personnel—it wouldn't have a heart-healing effect."
—"So what exactly is...?"
His head full of question marks, Archer didn't bother pursuing Lancer. Since Rin hadn't issued any new orders, he took the opportunity to observe just what kind of changes the "him" of this era had undergone.
"Oh, it's you, Tohsaka."
Emiya Shirou, having retrieved the Stand DISC from the stray cat, blinked in surprise at the sudden appearance of Rin and Archer. "If you're looking to chase Lancer, he's already gone.
However, once Lancer and his Master realize that I, the witness, am still alive, they'll probably try to attack me again using the same trick. If you still want to fight Lancer then, you can just wait for him to come to me."
As he spoke, Shirou couldn't help but rub his chest. Compared to the original's Power and Speed rank of A, Shirou's projected [Pseudo-Crazy Diamond] didn't lose much in terms of ability, but its physical stats had inevitably dropped to a double-B rank.
Consequently, the sensation of a fist piercing his heart lingered a bit longer. Even now, he felt goosebumps all over his body remembering the scene.
But there was no other way. [Gáe Bolg: Barbed Spear That Pierces with Death], which carries the concept that "the opponent's heart must be pierced," brings more than just a strike that reverses causality. It also carries a curse that makes wounds inflicted by the demonic spear difficult to heal.
Even if this curse wasn't as potent as Diarmuid's [Gáe Buidhe: Golden Rose of Mortality], which directly reduces maximum HP, it wasn't something a normal magus could remove. Not even a magus like Tohsaka Rin, even with the aid of a magical tool storing nearly ten years of her mana, could dispel it; in the original timeline, she had to fashion a "new heart" for Shirou to replace the one punctured by the spear.
That was the only way the Shirou with past-life memories could think of to save himself—not to "heal" the old heart, but to destroy the mangled one and use [Pseudo-Crazy Diamond] to create a new one.
'The method was successful, but the experience was... unpleasant' Shirou critiqued internally.
"Oh, is that so... wait, no! Why would you, Emiya-kun, know about such things?!"
On the other side, Tohsaka Rin had responded subconsciously, only realizing something was wrong after the words left her mouth. She warily shielded herself behind Archer, shifting into a Bajiquan starting stance as she glared at Shirou. "Don't tell me... Emiya-kun, you're Lancer's Master?"
Lancer suddenly appearing at Homurahara Academy. Emiya Shirou "coincidentally" witnessing a Holy Grail War battle in the deserted school right after Lancer appeared. And Emiya Shirou appearing perfectly fine despite being hunted by Lancer.
If Shirou was Lancer's Master, many inexplicable things suddenly made sense. Though Rin didn't particularly want to fight Shirou—due to a certain incident in their childhood and the fact that he was someone Matou Sakura cared about—winning the Holy Grail War was the long-standing wish of the Tohsaka family.
If the time truly came where she had to fight... Rin looked at Archer.
'Will we win?'
Feeling Rin's gaze, Archer also wore an excited expression. Others might not know Emiya Shirou's depth, but as the man himself, didn't he know exactly how weak the current Shirou was?
Thus, Archer gave Rin a reassuring look full of confidence, silently responding to her expectation.
—I'll win!
"How do I know? Well, my old man was a participant in the previous Holy Grail War. He was the Master hired by the Einzbern family, one of the Founding Three, during the Fourth War.
By the way, the Einzbern Master for this war should be my sister," Shirou shrugged, ignoring the silent exchange between Rin and Archer. "But because of my father, our relationship isn't exactly great right now.
So Tohsaka, if you run into my sister, run as fast as you can. You definitely won't win against that guy."
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