I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director
Chapter 391: Suicide-Type Noble Phantasm — La Pucelle
"Amakusa Shirou Tokisada!"
Jeanne, who had been kneeling the entire time, stood up. She shouted toward Amakusa on the steps:
"What you're doing is not saving humanity! You're erasing their possibilities! The world you desire has no future at all!"
"Jeanne, do you still believe in humanity?" Amakusa clenched his fist and shouted back. "Have you forgotten your own doctrine? Humans cannot save themselves!"
Facing his accusation, Jeanne did not retreat in the slightest.
"Yes, but they have the right to choose whether to accept salvation! And besides, you are not God. You have no right to grant salvation!"
Hearing her answer, Amakusa could not help but sigh.
He did not harbor hatred toward Jeanne. Like himself, she was a victim betrayed by the world.
Originally, those abandoned by the world should have walked forward hand in hand. That was why he had once approached Jeanne under the guise of an ordinary man.
He had sincerely hoped that this saint would become his companion.
Yet Jeanne rejected salvation.
Amakusa understood that persuasion was meaningless now. Saint Jeanne would never stand at his side.
His gaze shifted to the remaining two.
"Hey, don't look at me like that, Shirou~"
Astolfo laughed as usual, tension being a word that simply did not exist in his dictionary.
"I'm not very smart, so I go with the majority." Astolfo pointed at Saber's former Master and Jeanne. "Two to one. I'm with them."
"Then what about you, Sisigou?" Amakusa turned to the only living human present.
"You're human as well, one of those I intend to save. You don't want your adopted daughter's tragedy to happen again, do you? You couldn't stop it before. Only I can! Only I can save you!"
Bang!
A bullet was his answer.
"…I see. What a shame."
Amakusa spoke calmly as he extended his arm and activated his spell.
Behind him, the Greater Grail trembled like a living organism.
"Since you've made your choice, you are now my enemies."
All traces of sorrow, pity, and compassion vanished. Amakusa Shirou Tokisada declared to Saint Jeanne:
"Here and now, I will kill you, Saint."
"And here and now," Jeanne replied without hesitation, "I will shatter your dream, Priest!"
However, Shirou merely raised his arm.
"I won't duel you. There's no need."
As if responding to his gesture, the Greater Grail roared. Behind the priest, blue-white light surged forth, like the arms of a giant.
"Jeanne, you intend to defeat me before the Third Magic is fully established, correct? But as you can see, even with just the remaining mana, it's more than enough to crush all of you."
Just like Dark Sakura in the Heaven's Feel route, a priest wielding the overwhelming magical energy of the Grail was already standing in an invincible position.
Even though most of that mana was being used for Amakusa's salvation ritual, what remained was still enough to blow the three standing before him into ashes.
After all, Jeanne, Astolfo, and Sisigou were in terrible shape. To make it this far, they had already played nearly all the cards in their hands.
With only a single card left, how could they possibly compete with a landlord holding a hand full of bombs?
Unfortunately, Amakusa forgot one thing.
Servants cannot be judged by common sense, especially not someone as world-renowned as Jeanne.
The reason the Counter Force summoned Jeanne to stop this Holy Grail War was precisely because she possessed a trump card capable of overturning the entire situation.
Of course, before unleashing her ultimate move, she still needed someone to serve as a meat shield during the preparation.
With her banner shattered and the Baron kicked back to the Throne of Heroes, Jeanne's only options were Sisigou and Astolfo.
To be honest, Shinji knew very well that, from the perspective of character emotions and narrative completeness, Gilles was far more suitable to serve as the shield at this moment than Sisigou or Astolfo.
However, Fate/Apocrypha was a movie without split parts. Too many characters would scatter the audience's focus.
So, in order to streamline the story, Shinji could only have Sisigou and Astolfo take on the role that should have belonged to Gilles.
As for the Baron…
Shinji said that in the official novel released later, that character's scenes would be made up for.
"Splitting it into two versions to squeeze more money out of people, huh?"
Jeanne looked at Shinji, her disdain practically spilling out of her eyes.
"Then why did Gilles get cut so much? But the British girl's plot has to be added no matter how tight the movie runtime is?"
What Jeanne was referring to, of course, was Arturia's storyline.
To be fair, Shinji really did show plenty of favoritism toward his franchise's No.1 most popular heroine.
Even though Arturia never officially appeared in Fate/Apocrypha, her presence was anything but small.
Mordred's memories, the resemblance between Mordred and Jeanne's faces, and multiple mentions in dialogue—Arturia's shadow was everywhere.
To use a slightly inappropriate analogy, Arturia's role in Fate/Apocrypha was a bit like Iron Man in Spider-Man: Far From Home—someone everyone kept visiting the grave of throughout the entire movie.
What made it even more subtle was the fact that Arturia really was dead in Fate/Apocrypha.
So Shinji's excuse of "cutting Gilles' scenes because of runtime" sounded completely unconvincing to Jeanne.
What, there's time to pay respects to Britain's King of Knights, but no time to show the French Baron's shining moments?
Stared at so intensely that his scalp tingled, Shinji gave an awkward laugh.
"Well, uh… Arturia's character image is already fully established for the audience. She doesn't need much development even if she shows up."
Jeanne shot him a contemptuous glance.
Coward.
With no way out, Shinji could only smile helplessly.
"Relax. Gilles will definitely get his time to shine later. I promise—one day, I'll dedicate an entire movie just to telling his story."
Jeanne blinked. She was quite curious about Shinji's so-called "entire movie."
But she also knew this wasn't a topic that could be explained in a few sentences—and she didn't want to miss her own moment of glory on the big screen.
So she casually altered what she was about to say:
"I hope you don't go back on your word~ I'll be watching you."
Inside, Shinji sneered.
He really wasn't lying to this country girl. In FGO's First Singularity, wasn't Gilles practically the male lead?
Whether as the villainous Caster Gilles, or the sword-wielding Gilles (as a living human) who saved the nation, he had more than enough spotlight.
'Still… Jeanne's sacrifice scene overlaps a bit too much with Fate/Apocrypha, doesn't it? Should I tweak the script a little…?'
Watching Jeanne on the screen preparing to draw her sword, Shinji fell into serious thought.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
On the screen, Jeanne transferred all of her remaining Command Spells—every last one of them—onto Sisigou.
"Sisigou, I entrust all my remaining Command Spells to you."
"Saint…?"
Staring at the dense markings now covering his arm, Sisigou looked at Jeanne in shock.
"Please buy me time," Jeanne said calmly. "Offer prayers to the Lord on my behalf."
As she spoke, Jeanne reached for her waist, where a knight's sword wrapped in chains hung quietly.
The Sword of Saint Catherine.
A sword Jeanne had never once used in life, and a perfect embodiment of her entire existence—devotion.
"Saint…"
Sisigou didn't know what this sword truly represented. But from the resolve in Jeanne's eyes, he understood his role.
"I got it. Rider and I will hold him back with our lives!"
"Insolent fools! Greater Grail synchronization—begin!"
Amakusa's arms began to move. He did not advance even a single step, instead smashing his enemies with raw masses of magical energy. It was the simplest—and most effective—method of attack.
"Hammer of Heaven—fall!"
At Amakusa's roar, the giant's arms moved.
To annihilate the final three standing before it, the attack was unleashed.
Like a meteor plummeting from the sky, a pure-white hammer, nearly on par with a Noble Phantasm of a Heroic Spirit.
Facing it head-on, Sisigou raised the arm covered in Command Spells and shouted:
"By my Command Spell, I order you! Rider—block this attack!"
"OOOOHHH!! LET'S GOOOOOOOO——!!"
Facing such a ferocious blow, Astolfo charged forward and used his own body as a shield.
In an instant, all sound in the world vanished.
Sisigou reflexively covered his ears. The collision between a Heaven Hammer on the level of an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm and a knight's body triggered continuous, deafening explosions.
"Damn it… cough, cough…"
Astolfo dropped to one knee and spat out a mouthful of blood.
Even with Command Spells reinforcing him, trying to tank that attack with his physique was far too much.
"As expected… I'm really more suited to being cute…"
Unfortunately, the Amakusa standing opposite him was neither an idol fan nor someone swayed by looks. Seeing the injured Astolfo, he launched a second attack without the slightest hesitation.
"Hey, at least let a guy catch his breath!"
Despite complaining, Astolfo still rushed forward once more.
Jeanne saw everything, but she made no reaction. Instead, she tightened her grip on the silver sword's hilt, slowly closed her eyes, and began chanting a prayer.
"The heavens declare the victory of God; The skies proclaim the work of His hands.."
"Day after day they pour forth speech; Night after night they reveal knowledge."
BOOM—!!
Another thunderous roar, followed by silence.
Astolfo had already abandoned his sense of pain. Even the impact that shattered every bone in his body barely registered.
He left everything to the Command Spells. As long as they existed, even injuries like this could be forcibly repaired.
Sisigou thought the same way. This was the final battle anyway, if he had this many Command Spells, he might as well burn through them all.
Just like Kotomine Kirei in another parallel world, Sisigou was now treating Command Spells as nothing more than consumables.
"They do not speak, nor use words; no sound is heard from them…"
"Their light spreads warmth across the land, reaching to the very ends of the world…"
The saint's prayers continued behind him. Sisigou knew he could not take even a single step back.
If one Command Spell wasn't enough, then two would have to do.
"By my Command Spell, I order you! Rider—block it! By another Command Spell, I order you! Rider—hold him back!"
"OHHHHHH—!!"
A red glow flared once more around Astolfo's body.
"Don't get in my way—!"
Amakusa's assault continued relentlessly, without hesitation or pause. It was violence exercised in its purest, one-sided form.
BOOM!
The deafening impact echoed once again throughout the skyborne city.
And Astolfo endured it.
"From the ends of the heavens I climb, circling back to the ends of the heavens."
"My destiny now runs it course. My life's dream has reached its conclusion."
Astolfo was never a Servant who relied on physical strength. His fighting style revolved around the sheer variety of his Noble Phantasms.
Unfortunately, he had already exhausted every single one of them.
All that remained was to face the Greater Grail's fists with the weakest weapon he had—his body.
To be honest, Astolfo's physical abilities were only slightly better than those of purely caster-type or assassin-type Servants.
Jeanne, who could see through every Servant's true name and abilities, naturally knew this as well.
And yet, she still entrusted everything to this ever-optimistic knight.
The reason was simple.
They trusted each other.
Astolfo believed Jeanne would claim victory in the end—and Jeanne had to live up to that belief.
"My life is as nothing, wandering everywhere like a shadow…"
"My bow cannot be relied upon, my sword cannot save me…"
As Amakusa continued his attacks, a growing sense of unease crept into his heart. His right arm—[Right Hand - Evil Eater]—was issuing a warning.
"I might lose? Impossible!!"
Unable to accept the alert from his own arm, Amakusa's face twisted as he let out a hysterical roar.
"Saint! Knight! Mage! All of you—fall before meeeeeee—!!!"
Flames erupted, spreading outward from the saint at the center.
This was not the priest's attack.
It was the saint's prayer being answered.
"With the last and only thing I have left, may I protect the path he walks…"
Within the flames, the chains wrapped around the Sword of Saint Catherine shattered.
The sealed sword was released from its bonds.
Jeanne opened her eyes.
She drew the silver blade—and slashed her own palm.
Amakusa could not comprehend Jeanne's actions. That sword might indeed be powerful, but how could it possibly compare to his control over the entire Holy Grail War system?!
At least, that was what Amakusa himself believed.
"O Lord, I entrust this body unto You—!"
In that instant, everyone present felt a miracle.
It was an ultimate thaumaturgy, something virtually indistinguishable from true magic.
"A Reality Marble—? No—wrong! That's a conceptual armament! A special-attack Noble Phantasm that crystallizes one's inner world and launches it as an act of opposition—!!"
From the hilt of the sword Jeanne had drawn, flowers of flame bloomed forth.
These flames were the very fire in which the saint had once offered up her life.
To her executioners, that fire had been punishment for a witch.
To Jeanne herself, it was salvation at the end of all things.
The Sword of Saint Catherine.
For Jeanne, it was both her first sword and her last.
And the Noble Phantasm it embodied was a crystallization of that past scene, a moment so tragic that all who remembered the saint could not help but weep.
Its name was—
La Pucelle (The Crimson Holy Maiden).
Jeanne was not gripping the hilt.
Instead, she grasped the blade itself, taking a formal stance and pointing the hilt straight at Amakusa.
"After despair, hope shall surely come. (L'espoir vient après le désespoir.)"
The radiant, flower-like flames instantly transformed into explosive energy.
BOOM!
Amakusa finally swept Astolfo—his Command Spells fully exhausted—aside, breaking through the defensive line formed by Astolfo and Sisigou.
But it no longer mattered.
Jeanne's Noble Phantasm had already been activated.
Their task was complete.
The Noble Phantasm La Pucelle was one that required the offering of its wielder's life.
By burning away her own existence, it unleashed destructive power sufficient to annihilate the enemy.
No matter what kind of hero stood before it, there was only one fate awaiting them—
Instant obliteration.
For the flames in which the saint had entrusted herself would incinerate all that opposed her—all holiness, all evil, all humanity—reducing everything to ashes.
"As expected… even with the Holy Grail as a superweapon, villains still can't escape the cliché," Shibamatsu sighed.
"Until he dealt with the taunt-type tank, there was no way he'd go after Jeanne while she was still casting."
Astolfo had been blocking Amakusa's attacks at the cost of his life, but did Amakusa really have no way to bypass him and strike Jeanne directly?
In Shibamatsu's opinion, there absolutely was a way.
After all, just minutes ago, Sisigou had Mordred demonstrate how to skip elite mobs and go straight for the boss.
Unfortunately, under the director-applied IQ debuff, Amakusa stubbornly tunnel-visioned Astolfo instead.
"Still… is Astolfo okay?"
Compared to the intelligence-nerfed Amakusa, Li Ri'ang was far more worried about the adorable knight.
Such a pretty boy dying like this would be far too tragic.
"He's fine," Shinji said calmly.
"When he got knocked away, his hand was still moving."
There was no way Shinji would let Astolfo just GG like that.
As a director who had seen countless films, Shinji firmly believed in one golden rule of commercial cinema:
You can kill the protagonist—but the comic relief, the cute mascot character, must live until the end.
Such characters were essentially good-luck charms for a movie.
Think Bumblebee from Transformers, Niffler from Fantastic Beasts, Or Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon.
Killing the mascot risks ruining the film's luck and sending the box office straight into freefall.
You could call it "cuteness invincibility," or say comedy characters are secretly the strongest, but more importantly, these characters are wildly popular.
Audiences hate nothing more than seeing their favorite character die.
Astolfo filled exactly that role in Fate/Apocrypha.
Shinji would sooner have Jeanne self-destruct on the spot than let Astolfo get a Game Over.
…Well.
It seemed he actually did do exactly that.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
On the giant screen, the dazzling flames continued to burn unabated.
Facing the fire that embodied the end of all things, Amakusa sneered.
"What spectacular fireworks. Is this your farewell gift?"
There was no doubt that this was not something one could simply evade.
"So this is the final trial you've set for me, Counter Force?"
The end stood before him, opposing him in an utterly unreasonable way.
Would he break through this despair and seize hope with his own hands, or be reduced to ashes by the end itself?
The priest named Amakusa Shirou Tokisada began his final sprint toward the end of his journey.
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