Above the eastern bridge, the dark night was illuminated by intense firelight. The Servants scattered throughout Fuyuki City all turned their gazes towards it and then moved towards that direction. The Holy Grail War officially began on the second day after the last Servant was summoned.
“A Phantasm Break? Not a bad ability.”
The firelight gradually dissipated, and Lu Minghao, with a layer of crimson flames wrapped around his body, expressionlessly looked at the Archer below who was drawing his bow and aiming at him again. This level of attack was nothing to Lu Minghao.
“Next, let's play a little game, hero of justice.”
Tilting his head to dodge the arrow shot by Archer, an interesting idea suddenly appeared in Lu Minghao's mind. Since the other party was a hero of justice from the future, shouldn't he help him do something befitting his identity?
“What do you want to do?”
Below, Archer looked at Lu Minghao's malicious smile, and his heart began to feel uneasy.
In response, Lu Minghao didn't explain anything, just snapped his fingers, and his body began to rise rapidly, completely acting as if he didn't care about his Master's life or death.
“Caster, what are you doing?”
On the Fuyuki Bridge, Rin Tohsaka stared blankly at Lu Minghao's receding figure. The chilly night wind slowly blew past, but when she turned her head and saw Archer, who had appeared beside her at some point, she felt a pang in her nose and a desire to cry.
She had never imagined that she would be abandoned by her Servant during a battle.
“Rin, stand behind me and don't leave!”
Beside her, Archer couldn't care less about what Rin Tohsaka was thinking. He just gave her a word of advice, then raised his head to look at the sky. Violent magical power began to boil, and the longbow in his hand was raised, aiming at the sky.
“What exactly is that?”
At this moment, Rin Tohsaka also noticed the situation in the sky. She saw little sparks of light appearing in the sky, and in just a few seconds, the sparks turned into fireballs, and they were growing rapidly.
“Meteorites?”
A few seconds later, Rin Tohsaka finally saw clearly what those things falling from the sky were. Her face changed drastically, and her eyes were filled with disbelief. If those meteorites were really allowed to fall, the entire Fuyuki City would be completely destroyed.
Countless people would die in this disaster.
What made Rin Tohsaka even more distraught was that at least ten meteorites in the sky were flying towards her.
“Hero of justice, make a choice. Choose to save Rin Tohsaka, or choose to save everyone in Fuyuki City. But I believe you must have already made your choice. After all, compared to just Rin Tohsaka, it's definitely more worthwhile to save more people, isn't it?”
At this time, Lu Minghao's mocking voice came from afar. In the night sky, thousands of meteorites behind Lu Minghao were falling rapidly with terrifying power and speed. On one side was Fuyuki City, and on the other was Rin Tohsaka.
“That bastard!”
At this moment, Archer looked at Lu Minghao in the distance, and the killing intent in his heart had expanded to the extreme. This bastard was completely disregarding ordinary people and using such powerful magic.
“Rin, use a Command Seal to stop this madman!”
The next second, Archer turned his head to look at Rin Tohsaka behind him. At this point, it was no longer possible to rely on himself to stop Lu Minghao. Even if he drew the bow in his hand until it burst into flames, he couldn't stop so many meteorites.
Moreover, even if he shattered all the meteorites, the broken stones would still cause great damage to Fuyuki City.
Now, the only way to stop Lu Minghao was to have Rin Tohsaka use a Command Seal to forcibly order Lu Minghao to cancel the magic.
“I know, I command…”
“Master, are you sure you want to do this?”
Just as Rin Tohsaka raised her hand to use a Command Seal, Lu Minghao's cold eyes looked at her, causing Rin Tohsaka to stop subconsciously and look towards Lu Minghao.
“Master, you should know that if everything goes well next, maybe we can end the Holy Grail War tonight. At that time, with the Holy Grail, which can fulfill all wishes, you can completely revive everyone who died in Fuyuki City.”
“Rounding it off, the entire Fuyuki City will not suffer any losses, and you will also win the Holy Grail War.”
A voice full of temptation, like a demon from hell, rang in Rin Tohsaka's ears, causing Rin Tohsaka's expression to become hesitant. She began to feel that what Lu Minghao said seemed to be right. If the Holy Grail War ended, she could completely revive everyone with the Holy Grail.
In this way, she would no longer have to worry about Shirou Emiya dying in this Holy Grail War, causing Sakura to grieve, and the Tohsaka family's long-cherished wish could also be realized at this time.
“Rin! Don't listen to him!”
Suddenly, Archer's voice rang in Rin Tohsaka's ears, instantly making her eyes, which had begun to waver under Lu Minghao's temptation, firm.
“Tch, if my main body were here, it wouldn't be so troublesome.”
In the distance, looking at the awakened Rin Tohsaka, Lu Minghao clicked his tongue in displeasure. Then, he didn't bother to pay attention to them anymore and turned his head to look behind him. He saw that Artoria, who had just been fighting Berserker, had appeared on top of a building at some point.
Spots of golden light were constantly gathering towards the Lake Sword in her hand. The light of hope and dreams was gathering on her body. At this moment, many Servants in Fuyuki City who had been preparing to take action all looked over there.
“Excalibur!”
The next second, a golden stream of light soared into the sky, and all the meteorites were evaporated wherever it passed. Under Shirou Emiya's huge magical power supply, Artoria, who had completely released her Noble Phantasm at this time, fully demonstrated her powerful strength.
“What a nice view.”
In the sky, Lu Minghao did not stop Artoria's actions at all, allowing her to destroy all the meteorites he had summoned. After all, his purpose in doing so was to expose all the Servants hiding in the dark and disgust Archer.
Of course, if he could really destroy Fuyuki City in one fell swoop, or even kill a few Servants or Masters along the way, Lu Minghao wouldn't mind at all. Anyway, his deal with Gaia's consciousness was just to take away the evil gathered by all mankind.
As for whether doing so would make Lu Minghao the enemy of everyone, Lu Minghao didn't care at all. Anyway, this kind of thing wasn't happening for the first or second time, and he was used to it.
“Caster, you… you… you baka! Do you know that you almost destroyed the entire Fuyuki City just now?”
After the meteorite crisis was resolved, Lu Minghao yawned and flew back to Rin Tohsaka's side, completely ignoring Archer, who was looking at him warily. He looked at Rin Tohsaka in front of him, who grabbed him tightly, clearly angry but not knowing how to scold him, and could only say "baka" in the end.
“Alright, alright, wasn't it not destroyed?”
Lu Minghao pointed indifferently at Fuyuki City behind him, which was fine. Wasn't that thing still there?
“But…”
“Master, do you think I'm being too much? But the people who participated in the Holy Grail War last time did much worse than I'm doing now, including your father and Shirou Emiya's foster father.”
Just as Rin Tohsaka was about to say something, Lu Minghao suddenly interrupted her. The things that Rin Tohsaka and her father's generation did were much more outrageous than what he was doing now, especially the malice gathered by all mankind. If the Holy Grail hadn't been destroyed in the end…
At this moment, the world had already turned into a lifeless place within the so-called righteous heroes' wish for world peace.
"Caster, what exactly are you talking about?"
Looking at Lu Minghao's calm gaze, Rin Tohsaka suddenly remembered the inexplicable fire in Fuyuki City ten years ago, and vaguely felt that it was what Lu Minghao had just said.
"It seems this Archer knows something."
At this moment, Lu Minghao looked at Archer, who had fallen into silence. As the future Shirou Emiya, he naturally knew what had happened back then, and also knew that the man who saved him and gave him the ideal of a righteous hero was actually the cause of the disaster ten years ago.
It was because of him that tens of thousands of people died, including all of his family members.
"........"
Faced with Lu Minghao's question, Archer fell into silence, and then, under Rin Tohsaka's puzzled gaze, he jumped off the Fuyuki Bridge and chose to leave.
"Caster, let's go back."
Watching Archer leave, Rin Tohsaka was silent for a few seconds before saying to Lu Minghao. After what happened tonight, it was impossible to continue fighting, after all, Lu Minghao had caused such a big commotion before.
However, fortunately, they had roughly determined the location of the other Servants and Masters.
"Caster, you are forbidden from using similar magic tomorrow!"
Just as Lu Minghao was about to follow, Rin Tohsaka suddenly turned her head and looked at Lu Minghao with a serious expression. Although she really wanted to win the Holy Grail War, she would never use the kind of method Lu Minghao had used before.
Even if she won, she would fight the other Masters fairly, instead of planning to flip the table at the slightest disagreement like Lu Minghao.
"I know."
Looking at Rin Tohsaka's serious face, Lu Minghao casually nodded to show that he knew. Anyway, in a few days, he would change Masters. Whatever Rin Tohsaka wanted to do now, she could do. It was none of his business.
Anyway, Lu Minghao's purpose in coming to this world was only for Angra Mainyu. Participating in the Holy Grail War was just a necessary condition to contact and absorb Angra Mainyu. As for how many people died in the process, and who the Master was, he didn't care at all.
To put it simply, Lu Minghao now was a complete thrill-seeker, doing whatever made him happy, because no matter how he played, it wouldn't affect his main body.
..........
On the other side, on the top of a building in Fuyuki City, Artoria pantingly lowered the Sword in the Stone in her hand. The massive consumption of magical power made it almost impossible for her to stand, but Artoria had no regrets about this.
If she were given the choice again, she would still do it, after all, as the King of Knights, she could not ignore the impending disaster and choose to stand by and watch without saving others.
"Saber, are you alright!"
Beside her, Shirou Emiya, who had returned to his original appearance, hurriedly stepped forward to support Artoria's body, while vigilantly looking at Illya and Berserker not far away. When they had just discovered countless meteorites falling from the sky.
The two sides who were in the midst of a great battle chose to stop fighting and prepared to shatter the meteorites to save Fuyuki City.
And now, Artoria's magical power had been completely exhausted due to the excessive use of her Noble Phantasm, and Shirou Emiya was unable to provide her with magical power at this moment. It could be said that the two of them had entered the weakest moment in history.
As long as Illya was willing, she could easily make them withdraw from this Holy Grail War without much effort.
"Berserker is leaving. Big brother, we won't let you off so easily next time."
Beside her, Illya looked at Shirou Emiya with a wary expression, a cute smile appearing on her lovely little face. After waving goodbye to the two, she directly took Berserker away from here under Shirou Emiya's surprised gaze.
"Shirou, let's go back too. We should avoid fighting as much as possible before we recover."
After Illya and the others had completely left, Artoria, who had barely regained her ability to move, looked at Shirou Emiya and said. Although she didn't know why Illya didn't take the opportunity to defeat them, they should still go back first at this time.
Otherwise, if they encountered other Masters and Servants, then they would have to formally withdraw from this Holy Grail War.
"Yeah."
Shirou Emiya nodded and began to return, but before leaving, he inadvertently turned his head and looked in the direction of the Fuyuki Bridge. Before, he vaguely felt that something was attracting him there, that feeling was as if it was another himself.
At the same time, Archer, who had left before, came to an old courtyard full of history.
"Waste! Didn't I tell you to bring Rin Tohsaka back? How dare you disobey my orders?"
Inside the dark courtyard, a man wearing a high school uniform was staring at Archer with a twisted expression. His angry appearance, yet unable to do anything to Archer, was as ridiculous as a clown.
"......."
Faced with his Master's scolding, Archer just looked at him with a cold expression, completely ignoring his meaning.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Just a mere Archer, are you looking down on me, the heir of the Matou family, a family of magicians with a long history?"
Looking at Archer who completely ignored him, Shinji Matou, known as the Second Master, couldn't bear it any longer and walked directly to Archer, his face filled with madness and twistedly questioning him, spitting everywhere.
"Huh? I'm asking you, are you looking down on me, the great Shinji Matou?"
"......"
"Not talking? Then it seems I need to give you a little lesson."
Saying that, Shinji Matou turned his head towards the house with a perverted and twisted smile. There was his nominal sister, Sakura Matou's room. He wanted to play with that damn doll in front of this Archer who dared to look down on him.
Swish!
However, just as Shinji Matou was about to act, Archer suddenly stood in front of him, staring at him with a cold expression on his bronze-colored handsome face.
"Oh? It seems you care about that doll very much? Then do you know that she has been wantonly played with by bugs, that kind of despair, abandonment, and doll-like appearance is simply too great!"
Looking at Archer's increasingly ugly face in front of him, Shinji Matou's smile became more and more unrestrained, and he even began to describe in detail what had happened to Sakura Matou, including what he had done to Sakura Matou.
"Scum!"
In the next second, Archer, who couldn't bear it any longer, directly raised his fist and slammed it **** Shinji Matou's face, directly sending him flying. After being summoned by Sakura Matou, under Shinji Matou's coercion.
And with Archer's tacit consent, thinking that Sakura Matou would be in danger, Archer's Master changed from Sakura Matou to Shinji Matou.
