It's time to improve the strength of the infinite world

Chapter 31 The enemy is there!

Late at night.

Everything is silent.

Although Shirou Emiya resolutely declined the invitation of the strange Servant and did not choose to go to Ryudo Temple to keep the appointment, after the refusal, he was also confused and at a loss as to what to do next.

Home is no longer a safe haven. Besides its location being exposed, the house was also destroyed at the last minute. No matter how you look at it, going back is not a good option... But other than that, the rookie magician was shocked to find that he seemed to have nowhere to go.

It feels like nowhere is safe.

During this long night, the city is like a giant beast lurking on the earth, quietly accumulating strength and ready to devour its prey at any time.

Emiya Shirou's heart was filled with worry and uneasiness, as if "Fuyuki is so big, but there is no place for me to stay". A strong sense of loneliness arose spontaneously, but he had no way to explain it to Saber.

In fact, the aloof swordsman girl also did not realize the Master's mentality. It was not because she was not careful enough, but because she herself had a lot of feelings about this Holy Grail War.

But she didn't want to show it.

Subconsciously unwilling to reveal one's own sentimentality and weakness.

In fact, this is already Saber's second time stepping onto the stage of the Holy Grail War in Fuyuki City. In that battle ten years ago, she was also one of the summoned Heroic Spirits, summoned by Emiya Kiritsugu, the adoptive father of Emiya Shirou.

Unfortunately, at that time, due to the huge differences in the philosophies of both sides, the relationship between Masters and Servant was extremely tense and almost on the verge of a breakup. Even with Irisviel's best efforts to mediate, she was unable to completely bridge the gap between them.

The final outcome is even more so.

At the moment when the Holy Grail was about to be touched, Emiya Kiritsugu even used the Command Seal to force Saber to release the Noble Phantasm, and destroyed the descending Holy Grail with the unparalleled power of the Holy Sword...

Recalling that nightmare-like scene, the swordsman girl clenched her fists tightly. She still couldn't understand why.

Normally, summoned servants would not carry records of other summoning experiences, but she was an exception. Strictly speaking, she was an incomplete Servant, an incomplete Heroic Spirit, who was not dead at all and could not become a spirit.

The true existence of this swordsman girl is still anchored in her time - the hills of Camlann where the war had just ended.

Before he took his last breath, the primate's restraining power made a heroic contract with her, promising to give her the opportunity to pursue the Holy Grail that can fulfill all wishes.

Her "summoning" is essentially a time jump. She does not pass through the Throne of Heroes. She is summoned to a different era at the moment before her death. After completing the Holy Grail War, she returns to that moment. As long as she does not obtain the Holy Grail, she will continue to be summoned and will not die.

Therefore, for this swordsman girl, all the details of the Fourth Holy Grail War seemed to have reappeared yesterday, clearly imprinted in her memory.

She knew that Shirou Emiya was the adopted son of that man, and she also knew the identity of Illya who had attacked her earlier. This inevitably reminded her of Irisviel, the ending and regret of that princess who was as pure as a snowflake...

For a moment, strolling on the streets of Fuyuki City, facing this city that seemed both familiar and unfamiliar, the young swordsman couldn't help but have mixed feelings, completely unaware of the confusion in the Master's heart this time.

Just like that, after wandering aimlessly on the street for a while, Emiya Shirou finally made a decision.

The main reason was that he suddenly remembered what happened in the morning, about the barrier that plundered the vitality of the teachers and students in the school. He didn't know whether it had been properly resolved...

Originally, he planned to go to the school in the evening. He had actually already gone out, but his luck was really bad. Just as he walked out of the house, he heard a clear and innocent laugh. When he turned around, he saw Illya who came to his door.

Then, here’s what happened not long ago.

——Saber was locked in a stalemate with the violent and huge warrior giant, with danger lurking on every side...

——The mysterious servant Assassin, whose origins are unknown, suddenly appears, takes action in time, successfully repels the giant, and leads them to evacuate the battlefield...

——Then, the other side made an invitation to them, claiming that Tōsaka had also joined the Holy Grail War, and cordially invited them to visit Ryudo Temple to discuss the alliance...

However, under Saber's intervention, Emiya Shirou also felt that this was more or less like a modern version of the Hongmen Banquet, so although he was somewhat tempted at first, he decisively rejected the other party's invitation in the end...

After this series of events, Shirou Emiya almost forgot his original plan for tonight. It was not until he wandered around the streets of Fuyuki City for several circles at night that he suddenly remembered the mission he was supposed to carry out tonight.

Maybe other servants intervened?
But if it is not resolved, wouldn’t it still be very dangerous?

Thinking he was still worried, Shirou Emiya decided to head towards the school. He had nowhere else to go anyway.

Saber had no objection. After all, the Holy Grail War was all about continuous fighting. Compared to the Ryuudou Temple, which was obviously a trap, the enemies in the school might be easier to defeat at the moment. She believed that the tall Heroic Spirit in the daytime could never be her opponent.

only……

What she didn't know was that she probably wouldn't encounter the enemies she encountered during the day.

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Fuyuki City.

In the residential area of Miyama-cho, the Matou family's mansion is located.

Under the cover of night, the house is also dark and deep, like some kind of bottomless pit that can swallow up the light. Who knows how many dark secrets are hidden there.

"Sakura! What are you doing! What are you doing!?"

“Stop! How dare you disobey…Ahhhhhhh, stop…”

She screamed in terror and confusion, but was completely unable to stop what was happening. The girl named Sakura smiled as if nothing had happened.

Even though the strong pressure caused blood to rush up like a fountain, splashing onto the several-meter-high ceiling and the surrounding walls, dyeing them a shocking crimson, she still calmly and resolutely inserted her fingers into her heart little by little, deeply penetrating into her nerves...

Pull out a worm.

No matter how hard we fought, no matter how hard we screamed, no matter how we intimidated and threatened, everything was like a stone falling into the sea, and there was no response at all.

As if the conversation had lost its meaning, the purple-haired girl indifferently crushed the ant-like life. After crushing the insect to death, she couldn't help but reveal a smile from the heart on her fair face. That smile of purity and joy was incomparably real.

So simple, so simple...

Why can't they all just die?

Rider will be happy for himself, and she will definitely be happy for herself...

The next moment, the girl began to laugh, first gently, then uncontrollably, and finally she laughed so hard that it seemed like her stomach hurt, as if she was extremely happy and joyful.

Even though the more I laughed, the more I broke down, I couldn't stop the tears, as if I couldn't make them all out.

Until a roar broke out outside the door, filled with anger and rage, accompanied by the sound of approaching footsteps, breaking the silence of the room.

“Hey! Sakura, how dare you! Didn’t we agree that I am now Rider’s Master—”

With a bang, the door was suddenly pushed open.

"You still dare to laugh so happily, do you think I dare not--"

Before he finished speaking, what he saw before him suddenly froze all of Matou Shinji's roars and habitual insults between his lips and teeth, like a noisy drake whose throat was suddenly clamped tightly. He widened his eyes. There was no Rider in the room. The figure of the tall heroic spirit had disappeared, as if he had completely evaporated and had never appeared.

There was only a tragic bloody color on the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling...

as well as--

On the purple-haired girl who was laughing till tears came out...

“You, you…don’t, don’t do this…”

In an instant, an intense chill surged up from the soles of his feet, running along his spine directly to the top of his head, as if an ancient early warning mechanism hidden deep in human genes had been activated. At this moment, Shinji Matou sensed some indescribable terrifying threat like a prey.

My knees bent weakly...

Thoughts vanished in an instant like an avalanche...

The neurons under the cerebral cortex have no other function except to instinctively breed emotions called fear and regret...

The next moment, Matou Shinji experienced a visual shock that was like the reversal of heaven and earth. His sight rose sharply, but his perspective fell at an alarming speed. His cheek slammed into the pool of blood on the floor, causing circles of scarlet ripples, and bounced several times like a hit ball.

In this subversive change of perspective, he saw a headless body fall straight down, blood gushing out like a flood...

"I'm so happy." The girl whispered and slowly stood up in the room.

Actually, I can't feel anything...

I just thought it would be better if we could start earlier.

She slowly walked to the dressing mirror, looked at herself covered in blood, and laughed again.

And in the mirror, behind the purple-haired girl, stood a figure that shouldn't exist. She had a face that was too beautiful and neat to look like a doll, ruby-red pupils, and long silver hair that shone like snow.

The figure in the black dress was quietly watching all this happening.

Of course, all of this is the result of "it".

In this Holy Grail War, there are two humanoid terminals that can serve as the "Holy Grail". One of them is naturally Illya, a humanoid designed from birth to be a container for the Holy Grail.

The second is the purple-haired girl, Sakura Matou.

In a sense, she is more qualified than Illya—

The malice within the Holy Grail could have been used to remotely influence and corrupt part of Illya's mind through records, but it had no way of affecting Matou Sakura from a distance.

However, once this malice is no longer passive, but gains a certain degree of subjective initiative and is able to take the initiative to directly contact, influence, and impact the minds of the two candidates, then the situation will be completely different.

Matou Sakura is obviously more compatible with "all the evil in this world"...

After keenly grasping this potential advantage, the malice inside the Holy Grail cleverly guided Illya to Mount Enzo, and then tried its best to gather some of the scattered malice and filtered impurities, and thus barely shaped an entity that carried the projection of personality.

Despite this, the entity that is formed does not actually do anything, and its existence is undetectable to anyone except those who are directly connected to the Holy Grail.

However, this just became the ideal tool to lure Matou Sakura into the abyss...

The plan went very smoothly because the girl was already broken and only needed one more push and her spirit would burst like a dam, and all the darkness that had accumulated until now would burst out.

She then uses the servants she summoned to absorb them directly without them being on guard. After truly recovering the souls of the Servant, her function as a Holy Grail increases rapidly.

It was a completely overwhelming force that had unleashed the shackles. Caught completely off guard, even the immortal Matou Zouken had no chance of resisting. Most importantly, his life-saving trump card was delivered directly into the opponent's hands in this situation.

As a price, human functions and rationality are also stripped away very quickly.

Next, we just need to head directly to Mt. Yuanzang and sweep away everything to end this boring Holy Grail War.

No matter how weird or special that Heroic Spirit is, it is meaningless, because anything that obtains a form under the Holy Grail's system will inevitably be unable to resist Sakura, who is the Holy Grail itself.

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the other side.

A premeditated ambush at Hogunhara Academy has basically come to an end.

The angry swordsman girl's face turned pale, and she chased after him fiercely with an invisible sword in her hand, but she could not catch up with the young man in front of her no matter what.

The opponent clamped Emiya Shirou with one hand and retreated at an extremely fast speed. The state of excessive exposure of magic power appeared again... In order to retreat, the opponent directly used a high-level skill similar to "Magic Release".

"Damn it! Assassin, how dare you…"

The swordsman girl was shaking with anger, she didn't expect that the other party had just left not long ago and came back to the school to set an ambush right after.

The level of the aura blocking was too high. If it weren't for her amazing intuition and good luck, she would not have been able to react the moment the Master was captured... In fact, it was too late to react now.

Although Shirou Emiya instinctively wanted to struggle and resist, he was just an ordinary human being and had no way to fight back. Xia Zhi dragged him away like a chicken.

"Sorry, I was just following orders..."

Xia Zhi turned around and looked at the blonde girl who was in some sense particularly familiar to him. His acting skills came into play decisively, and he shook his head with a wry smile.

"If you want to save your master, come to Ryudo Temple."

That helpless look and sighing bitter smile vividly expressed the central idea that he was helpless, making Saber want to grit her teeth while unconsciously shifting the target of her hatred.

It's all Assassin's Master's fault for resorting to such a despicable scheme!
Once again!

Also in this city, she was once again kidnapped by someone, the Master she was supposed to protect!

…………

…………

Fuyuki City is such a small place that any noise from the Holy Grail War that is a little loud cannot be hidden from other contestants.

Soon, the news of what happened at Hogunhara Academy spread to the Cathedral Church.

“You kidnapped Saber’s Master and forced Saber to go to Ryudo Temple…”

When the blond young man heard this information, an unhappy sneer appeared on his face, and a dangerous light flashed in his scarlet eyes.

"They even dared to get their hands on something that this king has set his eyes on... I originally wanted to let these bastards jump around for a few more days and perform that hilarious drama to please this king, but now it seems that these bastards should die to atone for their sins!"

(End of this chapter)