Human Instrumentality Begins

Pfft!

Golden energy pierced through his eye socket. The pitch-black giant stood still, seemingly frozen—but the next instant, as the boulder above came crashing down—

An incomparably savage roar erupted.

ROAR!

BOOM!

The axe-sword swept sideways, and the hundreds-meter-wide boulder along with the sand and rubble piled around it were instantly blasted clear as if they had exploded.

Nothing stood between Bai Cangshu and Berserker any longer.

This pitch-black giant possessed an unimaginable sensitivity toward enemies. Not only had he noticed that Bai Cangshu had not suffered a fatal wound, but his revival speed was also somewhat beyond Bai Cangshu’s expectations.

Buzz!

Golden energy gathered again and shot out with a bang. Yet, as expected, it had no effect when it struck Heracles, directly bouncing away.

So this is the Twelve Labors…

Countless streams of information converged in Bai Cangshu’s eyes. The transparent Vortex of the Heart seemed about to envelop Berserker as the pitch-black giant abruptly accelerated in midair and descended.

His axe-sword danced wildly before slashing down with tremendous force.

Bai Cangshu stepped lightly on empty air, and the next instant, he shot upward in a zigzag.

Sky Dancing Technique!

Bai Cangshu displayed his ability to fly. Though it would increase his energy consumption, he crossed paths with Heracles in an instant.

BOOM!

That slash struck the leyline below. Terrifying tremors began violently shaking the surroundings, as though an earthquake had begun.

To keep the leyline storing magical energy from being damaged by their battle, Bai Cangshu deliberately began flying upward. Heracles pursued from behind like a rampaging destroyer.

Bai Cangshu burst through the earth and reached the surface of Ryūdō Temple, now reduced to ruins. Everyone else had already vanished.

Bang!

The pitch-black giant reached the surface as well.

Bai Cangshu knew he might have missed a rather high-grade Hidden Mission or hidden storyline. Why had the Black Mud-corrupted Berserker been hiding down there with Kiritsugu Emiya?

Who exactly was the blonde woman he had seen appear in Kiritsugu Emiya’s mind? Was she that Crimson Moon?

With the cave gone, these matters would most likely be difficult to uncover for the time being.

But he no longer cared much.

A more tangible power had appeared before him.

Creak, creak…

Bai Cangshu’s body gradually began to expand. Using Life Return, he consciously altered his physical form.

Not to increase his combat strength, but to… better experience Heracles’s condition.

To experience the sensation of having his reason consumed by madness, Bai Cangshu even took off the Satsui Seal: Forbidden from his earlobe.

Whoosh!

Crimson Satsui no Hado flared behind Bai Cangshu like a mountain wildfire. Within his fluorescent white eyes, the Satsui no Hado was like a wavering red point of light.

"Ha~"

"You’ve always yearned for an opponent like me too, haven’t you, Berserker…"

"No, Heracles!"

The pitch-black giant lowered his body slightly. The next moment, a terrifying roar echoed through the mountains, answered by horrifying, manic laughter.

"Those two…"

Rin Tohsaka still felt lingering fear. Even after leaving that area, she could still hear the violent force shaking the leylines.

She did not need to lower her head to listen to the ground; she could feel the tremors continuing beneath her feet.

They were two monsters that had completely transcended the realm of humanity.

Heroic Spirit Emiya frowned as well. He had sustained quite a few injuries. This Berserker possessed combat ability that inspired fear.

It was not merely his destructive power, strength, or defense. Even in close combat techniques, he was no match for him.

Yes. A Berserker who should have lost his sanity to madness and been unable to use most of his techniques had suppressed Archer—Heroic Spirit Emiya, wielding twin blades—with that overly huge, cumbersome axe-sword.

"That man is rather abnormal…"

Heroic Spirit Emiya wanted to say something, but did not know how to describe it.

Yet he had indeed felt an enormous strangeness and discomfort from Mercenary Tao.

He had never heard of an Assassin-class Servant being able to confront Berserker head-on, much less seemingly suppress everyone else on the field.

Moreover, Mercenary Tao’s earlier actions had been extremely strange.

Looking at it now, rather than that mysterious Master arranging Mercenary Tao’s actions, it seemed more like this Heroic Spirit had been taking the initiative in everything.

Whether it was gathering them together and saying they would jointly fight some powerful White Face, he had never once seen White Face appear.

He had only heard Saber and the others say that Gilgamesh had indeed appeared.

According to their current intelligence, Gilgamesh was not a Heroic Spirit summoned in this Holy Grail War. Instead, he was a Servant who had survived until the end of the previous Holy Grail War.

"There’s something wrong with this Holy Grail War…"

Rin Tohsaka had naturally noticed it too. So far, it seemed that not a single Servant had died.

Under Mercenary Tao’s arrangements, they had not slaughtered one another. They had all been gathered together, as though… waiting for something.

Rin Tohsaka and Heroic Spirit Emiya hurried down the mountain. Before long, at its foot, they saw Shirou Emiya and Saber waiting there.

And that… Kiritsugu Emiya.

At that moment, the vacant-eyed man stood amid the misty rain, not particularly close to the others.

Suddenly, Kiritsugu Emiya seemed to sense something. The others turned at the same time to look toward the city.

A massive explosion suddenly erupted there.

An enormous mushroom cloud burst from the center like an apocalyptic scene, sweeping outward in all directions.

Even from dozens of kilometers away, they could feel the heat.

"Was that… a nuclear explosion?!"

Rin Tohsaka had no idea how to react, her voice trembling.

Shirou Emiya instinctively looked toward his adoptive father.

Kiritsugu Emiya watched the sky. The next instant, a gigantic magic circle appeared, and the explosion slowly contracted inward. Even the shockwave that had surged out wrinkled and drew back.

Some extremely advanced magecraft was being cast…

"Perhaps it isn’t magecraft…"

Kiritsugu Emiya clutched his chest, inexplicably feeling that someone—or something—special existed there.

"Shirou, stay here with Saber for a while. I’ll go take a look first—"

"I’m coming too!"

Before Kiritsugu Emiya could finish, Shirou Emiya firmly interrupted his adoptive father. He did not want to lose him again. He did not want to be unable to find him again.

Besides… at this very moment, he was not powerless.

Having said that, he looked toward the blonde Heroic Spirit. He trusted Saber with all his heart. He had accepted his own weakness, yet he would still carry out his justice in his own way.

He absolutely would not accept waiting here while others went to face danger.

The Red-Hair youth raised his hand. The crimson Command Spell on the back of it was dazzlingly conspicuous. Smiling, he said to his adoptive father,

"I’m Saber’s Master now!"

"The Master of the finest Servant!"

Saber looked at the youth, so completely different from Kiritsugu Emiya, and her gaze softened somewhat.

Clang.

She thrust her sword into the ground and stood before Shirou Emiya.

Heroic Spirit Emiya watched the youth’s actions, his eyelids lowering. Perhaps that was precisely why he had wanted to… kill himself…

The group returned to the city, moving against the massive crowds fleeing for their lives. They arrived at the site of the explosion, where intense magical energy still scattered through the air.

The wreckage of a massive golden-red suit of armor lay in a shopping district, its chest punched through by a huge hole, with nothing but bloodstains inside.

Ahead, outside the enormous barrier, a short-haired woman merely swung her blade once, and the barrier covering several city blocks shattered with a crack.

Within it stood the King of Heroes, covered in Black Mud and continuously twisting.

Above them, rings of translucent force fields, shaped like perfectly regular hexagons, completely isolated a white-robed girl in midair.

She was covered in blood, her neck already sliced open, yet she was still smiling.

At the King of Heroes’s feet, countless ripple-like things began spreading outward. Some kind of writing flowed within those ripples.