How come the Ace of Cups isn't considered the Holy Grail?

If she had that kind of free time, she would rather haggle with the clerk selling gems than listen to Shinji Matou.

However, to cover Yutari's as he climbs onto the rooftop, we need to draw Shinji Matou's attention...

"Let's save our sleep-talking for when we're asleep! Collaborating with an amateur like you? I might as well just find a pig to collaborate with; the results are about the same, and the pig might even be more useful than you!"

Faced with Rin Tohsaka's mockery, Shinji Matou on the rooftop gritted his teeth, feeling the veins on his forehead bulging. Scenes of her rejecting him in the past flashed before his eyes one after another, making his feigned composure distort with anger.

He glanced at Medusa, who hadn't broken the seal on the Petrifying Eyes under his orders and was now using her agility to 'maneuver' against the attacks of the New Universe Warriors. He felt it was necessary to teach Rin Tohsaka, this ungrateful woman, a lesson.

He had already let her off the hook, but instead of being grateful, she dared to take advantage of his tolerance and continue to push her luck.

Hmph! It seems necessary to use my strength to make her face reality!

"Rider, stop playing around! I'll allow you to unleash your Mystic Eyes! Turn that oblivious, filthy woman into a stone statue!"

When Yuwa arrived at the rooftop, he saw Shinji Matou opening the Book of False Servants in his hand, his face contorted with rage as he gave orders to Medusa, illuminated by the glowing pale purple magic.

Without the slightest hesitation, Yuto decisively inserted a card into the Duel Disk.

"I think you're the one who can't see the reality! Activate the spell card! [Lightning Strike]!"

The unfamiliar voice that suddenly rang out from behind startled Shinji Matou. However, before he could turn around, a thick bolt of lightning cleaved through the thick darkness of the night in an instant, striking Shinji Matou, who was holding the Book of the False Minister, like divine punishment.

Boom——!

A deafening clap of thunder followed, echoing throughout the heavens and earth. In an instant, the lightning bolt attracted the attention of almost everyone in Fuyuki City.

In the storeroom of the Emiya residence, Shirou Emiya, who thought it would rain that night after hearing thunder, returned to his room after completing his daily training in enhanced magic.

Inside the Einzbern Castle on the outskirts of Fuyuki City, Ilya stood beside Berserker, who was looking in the direction of the lightning strike, wondering if he had sensed anything from it.

Holy Church.

Cú Chulainn, a Lancer, was dispatched by Kirei Kotomine to investigate the unusual lightning strike. Also interested in the person who summoned the lightning, Cú Chulainn, carrying a scarlet magic spear, quickly headed towards the direction of the lightning strike.

Above, out of sight of Cú Chulainn.

Gilgamesh, with his blond hair, stood on the roof of the Holy Church, holding a glass of red wine. His scarlet eyes looked across the many buildings of the new capital at the bolt of lightning that struck Homurahara Academy, a playful smile in them.

The lightning strike reminded him of a guy who had boasted that he would steal his treasure vault.

"Thunder, huh? It seems this Holy Grail War has produced a slightly interesting fellow... Well, before I get bored with this world, you can all try to please me!"

"Hahahaha—"

Chapter Eight: The Holy Church: Natural Gas Pipeline Explosions, all of them natural gas pipeline explosions.

On the rooftop of Homurahara Academy, Yuuto stood before Shinji Matou, who had been reduced to a charred corpse.

Although he had killed someone, he felt nothing.

I don't know if this is a consequence of being inhuman, or because Shinji Matou now looks more like a charred corpse than a corpse...

His magic power was suddenly drained after he activated [Lightning Strike], and now he is only a tiny bit left, slowly recovering with the magic power coming from Rin Tohsaka. He feels a little empty.

"Alright, I think this card's cost might be much higher than I expected, and of course, its power is also greater than I anticipated..."

However, he chose to use lightning to ensure a fatal blow and avoid any accidents, so the current situation is not too bad.

"It's a pity that Sister R probably ran away..."

You Du said with some regret.

He knew his own situation best. After using [Lightning Strike], the little magic power he had left was not enough to keep Neoska alive. Without the threat of Neoska, the cards he left for Rin Tohsaka would hardly be enough to keep Rider from running away.

I guess it won't be as easy as it is today when we fight R-chan again, right?

This time, it was because Shinji Matou had a good hand but didn't know how to play it. Medusa, who uses chains and short swords as weapons, is not good at fighting in open outdoor places. Moreover, in the first sneak attack on Rin Tohsaka, she was disarmed by Yuuto, who was prepared in advance.

Without a weapon, and with the Master having absolutely no magical aptitude, almost all of their advantageous attributes have dropped by one level. In this situation, using a Noble Phantasm might offer a chance to turn things around.

However, due to Shinji Matou's poor command, Yuwatari didn't even get to see Medusa's Petrifying Eyes throughout the entire battle, let alone use a Noble Phantasm. It's fair to say that he was hit with the maximum debuff...

He had prepared to use his Noble Phantasm to challenge Medusa, but she so easily defeated Matou Shinji, who was his Master, so smoothly that it even made him feel a little strange.

Hmm... let's be more careful from now on...

Shaking his head, which felt uncomfortable from consuming too much magic power in a short time, Yuuto walked over to Matou Shinji's charred remains, intending to take the Book of False Servants from his hand back to refine it into cards.

This was made using a Command Seal; it might be useful as material to craft some cards.

After all, if Yuuto only uses Rin Tohsaka's gem materials, he's worried that all he'll be able to forge are Gem Knight cards...

However, the moment his hand touched the brown cover of the Book of False Ministers, the entire book was completely engulfed in pale purple flames and burst into flames right in front of him.

Never letting his guard down, Yuwatari tossed the Book of False Ministers aside the moment it burned. He then used the magic power he had obtained from Rin Tohsaka to summon Elemental HERO Sky Knight and used his first effect to destroy the magic on the Book of False Ministers.

This practice would damage the Book of False Ministers' function and potentially lower its quality as an alchemical material, so he initially didn't want to use it. However, it was clear that he preferred a lower quality than the book being burned to ashes.

[Damaged Magic Book: D+]

[A magic book that once possessed certain functions, but due to the violent destruction of the spells set within it, it is now completely damaged and unusable.]

Just as Yuuto put away his book, Rin Tohsaka had already run to the rooftop with the help of body enhancement magic. She breathed a sigh of relief after seeing that Yuuto had no obvious injuries.

"Phew... Archer, are you alright? Did you create that lightning bolt just now? Where's Shinji Matou?"

Yuwatari turned to the side so that she could see Shinji Matou behind her.

Rin Tohsaka: "?"

……

Just as Yuuto had predicted, Medusa did not hesitate to retreat after Matou Shinji's death. To this end, she even took the hit from Shinu Kamen Rider, and while being seriously injured by the attack, she used the force of the blow to fly away into the distance.

Shinyaku wanted to give chase, but he quickly disappeared in front of Rin Tohsaka due to insufficient magic power.

Since Medusa is still alive, the barrier she set up in this academy has not yet been lifted.

So, after destroying all the magic circles set up by Medusa in the academy and confirming with their own eyes that the barrier had been broken, Yuuto and Rin Tohsaka left the academy.

Before leaving the academy, Rin Tohsaka called Kirei Kotomine to inform him of her contract with Archer and to notify the head of the Holy Church to come to Homurahara Academy to clean up the mess from tonight's battle.

Yes, this person in charge is of course Kirei Kotomine.

Given the efficiency of the Holy Church, Yudo should be able to see the news about the natural gas pipeline explosion at Homurahara Academy caused by lightning strike on the morning news by tomorrow morning, right?

Amazed, Yuuto returned to his spirit form and left the rooftop with Rin Tohsaka, leaving behind only the charred remains of Shinji Matou and his shadow, which became even clearer under the moonlight.

After an unknown amount of time, once it was confirmed that Yuuto and the others had indeed left, countless insects flew out from the shadows and combined to form Zouken Matou's body.

"To die so soon... it seems this mission was too heavy for you. It's truly heartbreaking, Shinji..."

Zouken Matou glanced down at his grandson's corpse, his cold eyes devoid of any emotion. He had only come to investigate the Servant who had summoned the lightning strike earlier that day, and to confirm whether Shinji Matou was truly dead.

Unfortunately, Shinji Matou, who took the lightning head-on, had no chance of survival.

"As expected, trash is trash. But so be it. I never had any expectations of you anyway. Being able to probe some of the opponent's weaknesses is somewhat useful... But did that Servant take the Book of False Ministers?"

Although he didn't know what use Yuuto had for the book, Zouken Matou still made a note of it for the time being.

Next, he explored all the places where battles had taken place in the academy, and finally, before the people from the Holy Church arrived, he re-divided into countless insects and left.

After Zouken Matou left, Shinji Matou's shadow twitched, and the Elemental Hero Shadow Mist Lady emerged, wisps of mist emanating from her body.

He is depicted as a frail old man, Shinji Matou's grandfather, and he uses insect magic...

She glanced at the spot where Zouken Matou's insects had left, and after confirming that the characteristics matched those described by Yuwatari, she slipped back into the shadows and fled towards the Tohsaka residence.

……

Inside the basement of the Tohsaka residence.

After acquiring new materials, Yuuto returned to the basement he hadn't seen for half a day and began preparations for the alchemy.

"Hmm... We'll use this [Damaged Magic Book] as the main material. As for the auxiliary materials, besides the few gems we got from Rin, is there anything else we need to add?"

You Du looked at the materials he had selected on the table and fell into deep thought.

Magic books, gems imbued with magic power... it seems highly likely that the cards created from these materials will be related to the mage race.

Therefore, the remaining materials should also be related to the mage race...

As for the magician race... he remembered that in the Type-Moon world, magicians' blood and hair seemed to contain magic power.

You Du's eyes lit up, and he quickly got up and left the basement.

Master! Quickly, let some blood flow out for me!

Chapter Nine: The Hair of the Five Elementalists and the Magic Spellbook

magic.

This is a necessary element for activating magic in the Type-Moon world, known as primordial life force, or even life itself.

In the Type-Moon universe, magic is divided into the Great Source Magic, which is as abundant in the world and nature as the 'breath of a planet,' and the Small Source Magic, also known as life force, possessed by magicians.

Of course, although that's how it's classified, there's actually no fundamental difference between the two; it's just that the magical power in nature is much greater than the magical power within a magician's body.

Since using the Great Source of Magic requires absorbing magic power, which is very disadvantageous for magicians in battle, magicians consciously absorb and store the Great Source of Magic power in normal times, leaving only a small amount of magic power in their bodies so that they can quickly use magic in special situations.

In addition, since hair is also part of a magician's body, magicians with long hair can store more magic power, which is a common technique used by female magicians.

For example, in The Witcher 6, Aozaki Touko used her long hair to make a contract with the golden wolf Rug.

This is why Yuuto believed that Rin Tohsaka's blood and hair could be used as supplementary materials.

After all, Rin Tohsaka's magic not only possesses all five elemental attributes, but also carries the magical property of 'transformation' passed down through generations of the Tohsaka family. The combination of the two can serve as a versatile alchemical ingredient.

"Unfortunately, she refused to let me take any blood, and only agreed to give me a few strands of hair..."

[Hair of the Five Elementalists: C]

[Rin Tohsaka's hair, one of the five elementalists, not only possesses magical power of the five attributes—fire, earth, water, wind, and space—but also has a 'transformation' property. If there were enough of it, it might become excellent material.]

"Well, it's not a major ingredient after all, three should be enough..."

Holding three strands of black hair he had just plucked from Rin Tohsaka's head, Yuuto regretted not being able to get any blood from her, and pushed open the basement door.

The container he used was naturally the same pot he had taken from the kitchen yesterday. He skillfully threw the activated [Fusion] card into the pot and placed the ingredients he had prepared into the vortex in order.

"A tattered grimoire, two magical emeralds, and three strands of hair from the five elementalists..."

As each ingredient was added to the pot and transformed into liquid under the effect of the [Fusion] spell card, the vortex gradually turned brown and green.

Just as You Du was about to find a place to sit down and wait for the refining process to end, a dark shadow that slipped in from outside the door immediately made him abandon the idea.

After a while.

After listening to the report from the Shadow Mist Lady, Yuuto put the card back into his storage and stared at the two-colored vortex in the pot, somewhat lost in thought.

The old bug actually went to Shinji Matou's corpse...

But...why?

Yuwatari, who had originally left the Shadow Mist Lady behind to gather intelligence just in case, was now somewhat confused.

He didn't believe the old bug had gone there specifically to mourn his deceased grandson's body...

How could an old insect be so anthropomorphic?

Moreover, according to what the Shadow Mist Lady said, that old worm seems to be consciously gathering information about him.

What is he trying to do? Does he want to join the Holy Grail War midway through?

"Logically speaking, whether in the Fate route or the UBW route, this old guy should just hide behind the scenes and do nothing. I originally thought this world consisted of these two routes, but judging from the old bug's reaction..."

"I feel a strange sensation. Could I be in the Heaven's Feel world line?"

Just thinking about the black mud in the Heaven's Feel route that corrupts any Servant who touches it, and the Black Saber with infinite magical power after turning evil, who starts with a beam attack as soon as she meets someone, makes Yuu Watari feel a headache coming on.

When faced with an opponent who uses light cannons like normal attacks, even if he uses all the attack and declaration slots he has, it won't be enough!

Besides, it's not certain that he'll run out of cards first; Rin Tohsaka might be drained of her mana before he does...

"It seems I need to find a way to monitor Ryudouji Temple for a while. If that old silver coin really does use Sasaki Kojiro to summon the Cursed Arm Hassan, I'll strike first!"

"Oh, and we can't forget about his original body that's inside Matou Sakura's heart. We need to kill him completely in one go to avoid any accidents that might leave the insects alive. To do that..."

While pondering, You Du had already decided on his next plan, and at the same time, the new card was also completed.

He snapped out of his daze and retrieved the card from the vortex.

[Magic Spellbook]

[Equipment Magic]

[This card can only be equipped to "Dark Magician" or "Dark Magician Girl". The equipped monster gains 700 ATK. When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, you gain 1000 Life Points.]