Save the World

You completed the Purge Mission.

Scarlet light mingled with golden radiance as a special Scarlet Drop Card exclusive to the Scavenger condensed before the pure-white Bai Cangshu.

Bai Cangshu did not rush to pick it up. Instead, he kept his eyes closed, feeling the various surging, roiling emotions within the boundless Consciousness Sea.

Humans were creatures eternally alone, separated from one another by shells that could never be erased.

Yet at this moment, the Walls of Heart had dissolved. Millions of humans had merged into one, with no distinction remaining between them.

Memories, emotions, and thoughts were all laid bare, and everyone faced one another in their truest forms.

Bai Cangshu saw married couples confronting each other in fury, accusing one another of hiding too much in their hearts and of having been insincere all along.

He also saw childhood sweethearts, a boy and a girl blushing as they beheld each other’s innocent, straightforward affection.

Bai Cangshu looked down upon all living beings from on high like a god, watching people rejoice and watching them rage.

After every human had revealed their complete, true selves, this race still showed itself to be wildly uneven.

The noble seemed like saints descended to earth, while the vile seemed like Satan incarnate.

"Humans really are interesting…"

Bai Cangshu’s enormous head looked down upon the world below. At last, in a snow-covered forest, he saw the silver-haired girl hugging her knees.

Illya sat at the edge of the forest, gazing from afar at the castle where her family resided. Yet she had not chosen to return, because there were no true relatives there.

And in this forest, the giant who had always protected her in the past did not appear either.

Like a Heartless Puppet, Illya sat amid the wind and snow.

She had always been isolated from the world. As the daughter of Irisviel, the previous generation’s homunculus of the Einzbern Family, and Kiritsugu Emiya, she had never been treated as a human being.

Pat~tap.

A light landing sounded. Illya raised her head and saw a white giant descend before her. His originally black long hair had turned fluorescent white.

Unlike her silver-white hair, that fluorescent white seemed to glow.

"Assassin…"

Illya merely parted her lips, and the sound came out, but she did not accept this new Servant, Assassin Mercenary Tao, as quickly as she had in the real world.

Only then did Bai Cangshu realize that this girl, who appeared innocent, simple, and like a Heartless Puppet, possessed equally complicated thoughts.

Bai Cangshu narrowed his eyes slightly. For the first time, he examined the heart of a weak young girl so carefully.

As the daughter of the homunculus Irisviel, she had been regarded by the family entirely as a tool for completing the Holy Grail War. Through extensive modifications during her embryonic stage, she had been granted an abnormal number of magic circuits, as well as Command Spells spread across her entire body.

Likewise, this doomed Illya to be a tool that could not survive for long. Her fate was to die in the Fifth Holy Grail War.

The girl lacked normal ethics. Risking her life to save others and calmly ordering Berserker to kill tens of thousands were both perfectly normal to her.

Because in her short life, which had been almost entirely devoid of brightness, good and evil held no meaning at all.

On one hand, she longed to kill her biological father, Kiritsugu Emiya, who had betrayed the family and her mother. On the other, she was curious about the "younger brother," Shirou Emiya, who had been raised by her biological father.

Within her delicate, fragile heart, perhaps only the pitch-black giant, Heracles, whose every extraction of magical energy hurt her so badly she wished she were dead, was the sole being who regarded her as a human rather than a tool.

Likewise, this girl had become the only anchor that allowed Heracles to retain an abnormal degree of sanity after enduring the madness enhancement of the Berserker class.

Bai Cangshu crouched down. Even so, he was still much taller than the girl.

All manner of information flowed through his eyes.

"So that’s how it is. Is this how a heart comes into being? Interesting…"

Bai Cangshu extended his hand and held it before Illya.

"My Master, thank you for supplying me with magical energy. Servant Mercenary Tao shall claim victory in the Fifth Holy Grail War for you…"

It sounded like a declaration of victory, yet also like some special oath.

Within this space, Illya felt that she could perceive the emotions and thoughts of this strange Assassin as well.

He was someone as hard and cold as an iceberg. No—or rather, he was an inhuman construct harder and more ruthless than cold steel.

Before this, she could scarcely sense any emotional fluctuations from him.

Even when there were some, they were false emotions, like the smiles she wore to deal with other people. Or perhaps they were smiles belonging only to predators completely unlike humans.

He had suddenly appeared and voluntarily placed himself under her command. Illya did not feel much about it; with her magical energy, she could support even more Servants.

But nearly no different from Berserker, every time Assassin drew magical energy from her, she felt immense pain.

At this moment, that pain and confusion began to fade away.

Only in this world, where nothing could be hidden, could she see Mercenary Tao’s true self.

There was… nothing there.

Illya slowly rose to her feet and approached Mercenary Tao of her own accord. In her eyes, she seemed to have found a "kindred spirit" she had never met before. Before joy could even emerge, it had already turned into pity.

Yes, after seeing Mercenary Tao’s true self, the emotion Illya felt was pity.

Bai Cangshu clearly sensed it. Illya raised her cold hand, seemingly wanting to touch Bai Cangshu’s forehead, but the difference in their sizes made it impossible. In the end, she merely gently patted Bai Cangshu’s arm.

"Assassin…"

"I am Illyasviel von Einzbern. Please claim victory in the Holy Grail War for me~"

Her eyes shone with a clarity that seemed to see through life and death.

Or rather, her understanding of life and death was also abnormal. She did not understand the fear of death.

She had not yet experienced much pain from parting.

Bai Cangshu shook his head and reached out to seize the girl.

"Sorry, Master. I may have to take away the only meaning your short life has ever had…"

Boom!

The next moment, because Illya had refused Instrumentality and Bai Cangshu was the ritual’s leader, having replicated the nature of the white giant—

Unlike a hesitant boy like Shinji Ikari, he gave humanity hardly any right to choose at all. He directly reversed the power of the heart once more.

Almost instantly, the fusion and mutual understanding that had so painstakingly emerged among the human consciousnesses vanished in an instant.

Barriers appeared one after another, and then consciousnesses were flung away from this place one after another.

The Walls of Heart collided with one another, and humanity could no longer merge within the LCL Fluid.

During the ejection, constrained by the Walls of Heart, human bodies took shape once more.

Human beings appeared one after another out of thin air in the places where they had vanished.

The ocean of orange juice began disappearing across vast stretches.

All that remained were panicked humans standing upon the devastated earth. Some frantically searched for clothes to cover their bodies, while others still could not believe what had happened and kept checking their own bodies.

More people, because their consciousnesses had previously merged, looked at the familiar people beside them with complicated expressions.

The white color on Bai Cangshu’s body gradually faded, and his size slowly returned to normal.

Before him, the naked girl gradually took shape. After thinking for a moment, he took clothes from the real world out of his inventory and tossed them onto her.

Despair Savior Mode has been deactivated.

Despair Salvation bonus effects have disappeared.

You triggered the special milestone: True Savior (World's Rare Treasure). Current progress: 1/3