Emiya Shirou doesn't want to work overtime

"Black Assassin?"

Emiya Shirou seemed to remember something, but also seemed to remember nothing at all. He felt that he had seen the Black Faction Assassin before, but he had no information about the Black Faction Assassin in his mind.

"Yes, when I met him and my Master, the Black Assassin appeared on the street with a bag in his hand and killed her before I could even react, and ripped out her heart. In order not to leave the scene so easily, I chose to make a contract with him."

Chapter 172 Doing Our Best to Rescue

"What was Assassin holding in his hand back then?"

Astolfo stretched out his right hand, touched his head, and frowned, as if he was thinking carefully about something, but he didn't seem to have come up with any answers.

"It seems that my memories of fighting in that small town have become blurry."

Astolfo spoke incoherently, as if some kind of fog was obscuring his ability to delve deeper into his memories.

It made him unable to recall any details about Black Assassin.

Meanwhile, Emiya suddenly knelt on the ground, looking extremely weak.

Jeanne could feel a large amount of magical energy being drawn from Shirou Emiya's body.

Having lost the supply of magic power from the Black Homunculus, Shirou Emiya has been trying his best to conserve his own power to provide magic power for Arthur, but his magic power is simply too scarce.

Even Arthur, who tried every means to conserve magic, found it difficult to maintain high-intensity, high-frequency battles.

In the distance, a red light shot into the sky, turning the entire night sky a vibrant crimson. Its powerful aura once again stirred up a great storm on the battlefield.

The entire battlefield was cleared by Karna and the red side's Assassin's Noble Phantasms. Except for the location of Jeanne d'Arc, almost the entire battlefield was covered by scorching heat.

At this point, no artificial humans, puppets, or dragon tooth soldiers could be seen in the area where the two sides were fighting.

These soldiers could not possibly have survived such an impact; even their remains were obliterated by the horrific explosion. The entire battlefield is now completely exposed.

If Jeanne hadn't intervened, Shirou Emiya would likely have ended up in ashes along with her.

Of course, it wasn't that Joan of Arc was biased; it was just that Shirou Emiya happened to be by her side.

"Is it okay!"

Jeanne d'Arc, who was holding a flag and standing next to Emiya, also half-squatted down and asked about Emiya Shirou's situation.

"Ha ha--"

Emiya Shirou, panting heavily, tried to stand up, suppressing both his mental and physical discomfort.

It's just excessive consumption of magic power. It's not like he hasn't experienced it before; he just hasn't adapted to it so quickly yet.

The hand that had always been pure and clean reached out towards Shirou Emiya, who was struggling to stand up.

"Thanks--"

Emiya Shirou paused for a moment, then gripped it tightly and stood up, his body trembling slightly.

Although he is constantly conveying his goodwill, Shirou Emiya will also choose to accept the goodwill that others extend to him.

"Mr. Emiya!!"

A shout drew everyone's attention.

Astolfo and the others looked in the direction from which the sound came.

A group of people, all with bandages wrapped around their bodies, missing limbs, and looking remarkably similar, walked over with great difficulty.

The homunculus beside Astolfo looked at those severely injured people, who were practically his own brothers and sisters, with an extremely surprised expression on their faces.

"you?"

He went outside, looked at his compatriots with extremely resolute expressions, and asked a question.

Their eyes were extremely lifeless during the day, but now they all seem to have their own will, just like mine.

Moreover, given the injuries they sustained, they should have been resting and recovering; why were they rushing to the battlefield like this?

But soon an android answered his question.

"We heard explosions across the entire battlefield, and we're worried about Mr. Emiya—"

There's no need to say anything more; their mere presence here speaks volumes about their actions.

"What are you doing here? There are still many wounded people waiting for you to take care of them!"

Emiya endured the magic being painstakingly extracted from his body, released Jeanne's hand, and rushed towards the homunculus.

Although it is described as a crowd, there are actually not many artificial humans; at a glance, there are only three.

On such a battlefield, only a handful of people can survive, and among those who do survive, the vast majority suffer extremely severe injuries, practically hanging by a thread.

If Emiya hadn't found a homunculus who had been thrown back by the aftershocks of the Heroic Spirits' battle and hadn't suffered much damage, probably 90% of the homunculi Emiya saved would have died painfully.

Shirou Emiya could only bring them off the battlefield, not heal them. He desperately hoped that he could use healing magic to cure these androids.

Fortunately, he found a fully conscious android; otherwise, it would have been impossible to save the nearly fifteen androids.

In a battlefield involving hundreds of people, Shirou Emiya was able to save only a handful of them, including some severely injured androids on the verge of death, whose survival was uncertain.

Even with healing magic, the survival rate of those critically ill androids was no more than 50%. Many androids had already lost their breath when Emiya took them away from the battlefield.

Emiya once again felt the fleeting nature of life. He suddenly remembered the soldiers he had killed on the icy battlefield, and his fists clenched tightly together.

His desperate search for surviving androids resulted in his weakened state.

The people Emiya mentioned who needed care were naturally the androids who had not yet regained consciousness.

"Mr. Emiya, we would all be heartbroken if anything happened to you!"

The leading android staggered forward, his eyes filled with gratitude, and spoke to Shirou Emiya with great excitement.

"Thanks to your efforts, Mr. Emiya, the situation over there has basically stabilized. Most of them have regained consciousness, and their vital signs have stabilized."

"is it?"

Emiya Shirou seemed even more nervous than they were. When he heard that the homunculus who were on the verge of life and death had calmed down, he let out a long breath, as if it was he himself who had survived, not those homunculus who were unrelated to him.

"This is not my effort. If it weren't for you, I would have been able to watch their lives slip away like this."

Emiya shook his head, denying the homunculi's claim that they had taken credit for themselves. If it weren't for these homunculi who could use healing magic, the number of people who would have survived could probably be counted on one hand.

Emiya also had to face time and time again, lives that should have been able to live were lost before his eyes, like flowers withering away.

Chapter 173 The Battle Is Not Over Yet

At this moment, Astolfo and the androids around him realized just how great a thing Shirou Emiya had been doing on the battlefield.

It's important to understand that even Astolfo only considered the android with its own will to survive to be the real human, and he only chose to save that one person.

They didn't have much emotion towards those artificial humans who were like puppets. Like the other Servants of the Black Faction, they didn't treat them as tools, but they didn't regard them as real people either.

Only Shirou Emiya treated them as human beings, regardless of their expressions or behavior.

I have never looked at those artificial beings with a different perspective.

Salvation, from beginning to end, is a great and sacred thing. Even Joan of Arc herself could not guarantee that she could save those artificial humans in this way on such a mythical battlefield.

Moreover, as soldiers of the Black faction, those androids would be impossible for Joan of Arc to save, even if she wanted to.

As the Ruler of this Holy Grail War, she must do her utmost to maintain fairness in the war.

Unless there are decisive and principled issues, Joan of Arc would choose the fairness of the Holy Grail War over her own judgment.

Those androids held Shirou Emiya in the highest regard.

Emiya not only saved their lives, but also made them realize just how important their own lives were to them.

They are not consumables or substitutes; they are the only ones in this world. If they die, there will be no one to replace them.

“Mr. Emiya, let us lend you a hand.”

The homunculus with one missing leg walked toward Shirou Emiya with great difficulty, and the homunculus next to Astolfo immediately stepped forward to help him.

Emiya, of course, wouldn't just stand there waiting for the homunculus to come to him; he limped toward him as well.

The homunculus gripped Shirou Emiya's hand tightly, and Shirou immediately felt a surge of magical power flow into his body.

The pain of unraveling the mystery vanished instantly, though the physical weakness remained.

However, the lack of magic did not cause Emiya to remain weak; he recovered in no time.

"Thanks--"

Emiya immediately understood what was going on. These androids had once again formed a contract with him, providing him with magic power. However, this time, the magic power provided to Arthur was not directly supplied by the androids.

Instead, Shirou Emiya acts as a middleman to provide Arthur with magic.

The homunculus that provides magical energy to the Black Faction Servants is not the same group of homunculus that participates in the battle. Those homunculus that provide magical energy to the Servants are like the homunculus next to Astolfo.

It resides in a jar filled with nutrient solution, continuously providing magical energy to the Servants underground within the Yggdrasilia clan's territory.

Moreover, the quality and quantity of those androids were extremely large, both in terms of their magic circuits, after all, Danic had made ample preparations for this Holy Grail War.

They are meticulous in providing magical energy to their Servants.

There are hundreds of artificial beings in the entire basement providing magical energy to the Servants. The Servants can practically have unlimited magical energy, so there is no need to worry about the supply of magical energy.

The homunculus in battle uses its own magical power, but it can also provide its magical power to other Masters or Servants.

After all, they have knowledge about providing magic power, and they can easily renew the contract on Emiya that provides magic power.

Because Shirou Emiya does not belong to the Yggdrasilia clan, his contract differs from the contracts of the other Masters of the Black Faction.

It is a broad contract. In short, the contract for the supply of magic power by the Black Cube itself is encrypted, and it is very difficult for magicians who are not of the Yggdrasilia race to form a contract with it, and it is also very difficult to break the contract.

Shirou Emiya's magic supply contract was merely a modified version by Caster. In order to control Shirou Emiya, this contract could be broken at any time by the provider, causing him to lose his magic supply.

Similarly, thanks to Caster's improvements, even if the contract on Shirou Emiya is broken, a one-way contract will still exist. Theoretically, as long as the supplier is at fault, anyone can use magic to connect with this contract on Shirou and supply magic.

In other words, besides the homunculus, other Masters of the Black Faction, or Jeanne d'Arc, can also directly provide magic power to Shirou Emiya.

All they need to do is unilaterally connect to the contract on Shirou Emiya.

However, there was one place on the entire battlefield that was not so quiet.