"What a pain… seriously, what a pain…"
Hidden in the grass, Ritsuka absentmindedly watched the battle unfolding outside.
From her perspective, it was nothing more than a children's game.
"As I thought… fights at this level just can't excite me anymore…" she sighed.
Ever since saving humanity, Ritsuka's sense of thrill had been steadily fading.
Back in those Singularity Points, the nerve-wracking, heart-pounding tension had been something no ordinary person could endure. But once that excitement was gone… she found nothing could make her feel that same fear again.
(Try surviving a Beast-class crisis in a Singularity and then tell me you'll get scared of anything else…)
Simply put—there was nothing left that truly frightened her.
"I thought this world might be able to give me some real entertainment…"
Ritsuka tossed a pebble up and down in her hand.
"But in the end… it's just a low-demon world. No matter what happens here, there's no real thrill."
"Well then… let's wrap this up quickly. Da Vinci told me Rayshift has finished recharging."
She caught the pebble one last time—then suddenly hurled it toward the battlefield.
"Ow!"
A girl in a black sailor uniform yelped as the back of her head was smacked by the pebble.
"Who's throwing things?! Ever heard of common decency?!" she yelled angrily, turning around.
"Ohoho, hearing you talk about common decency is… honestly terrifying,"
Ritsuka stepped out from the bushes slowly.
"Common decency? Do you even have such a thing?"
Selesia and Meteora looked startled.
"Miss Fujimaru! Don't just walk out into the open! You'll get hurt!"
"Relax, relax," Ritsuka waved a hand dismissively. "I've got protection. I've got nothing to be afraid of."
Selesia looked touched. "If you trust us that much, then we'll protect you with our lives!"
(Girl… I wasn't talking about you two…)
"Hey! Don't ignore me!"
The black-sailor-uniform girl still looked furious.
"What's the big idea, suddenly throwing a rock at a poor, innocent girl like me?!"
Ritsuka glanced at her, muttering under her breath:
"Chikujōin Magane, from the legendary light novel and anime Yasōkiroku. Ability: Infinite Deception of Words—any lie she speaks that's contradicted becomes reality. Personality: ruthless, sees killing as fun, no regard for human life. I'm right, aren't I, Miss Villainess?"
"If a lie she speaks becomes true when denied…?" Alicetaria exclaimed.
"No wonder she didn't even try to dodge my spear just now."
It sent a shiver down her spine—if her strike hadn't been interrupted earlier, she might have been the one skewered.
"My, my… I really have no privacy in this world, do I?"
Magane narrowed her eyes, her voice growing strange.
"So, who are you, young lady? You know my name, but I don't know yours—very rude, don't you think?"
"Me?" Ritsuka yawned. "Fujimaru Ritsuka. Just a Creator."
(And, for the record, the Master who saved the world.)
"Fujimaru Ritsuka? Isn't that—"
Alicetaria cut herself off, suddenly shouting,
"Oh, so just an ordinary human daring to provoke us Creations?!"
Before Ritsuka could respond, a voice from above interrupted.
Everyone looked up to see the Military Uniform Princess descending from the sky, 48 military knives spinning in orbit around her.
Landing gracefully, she spoke with mockery:
"Even if you are a lofty Creator, you're still just a human. And you dare provoke us Creations—the ones you made just to amuse yourselves? Do you really think those two can protect you?"
"Maybe it's not just the two of them," Ritsuka replied casually.
From the distance, a man's voice called out:
"Hey—you're the one who summoned me to this interesting world, aren't you?"
A purple-haired man with a wooden tachi, and a blue-haired boy, walked toward them.
Mirokuji Yūya and Kanoya Rui had entered the fray.
"Kanoya?! And Mirokuji Yūya from before?!" Selesia stared. "Why are you two here together?"
Kanoya scratched his head. "Miss Kikuchihara spotted your location, saw you were in a standoff, and sent me to help. On the way, I ran into this guy. He's a Creation too, so I told him the situation. He thought it sounded fun and decided to tag along."
"That's about right," Yūya said gruffly, glaring at the Military Uniform Princess.
"Hey, bring out that white-haired brat from last time—I'm not done with her. No way am I letting her get away with humiliating me."
The Princess smiled silently and clapped her hands.
A bestial roar rumbled from behind her, the ground trembling as something huge approached.
---
A massive black giant appeared, and on its shoulder stood a white-haired little girl with blood-red eyes. She stared directly at Yūya.
"Big brother… were you looking for me?"
"…Huh?" Yūya frowned. "No, you're not the one from before. You look similar, but you're definitely not her."
"Actually," the Princess explained, "the one you fought before wasn't on our side. This Illyasviel only appeared in this world recently. The one from before was someone else who merely looked like her."
"Don't joke with me! What are the chances someone else would look and be named the exact same?!" Yūya snapped.
"It's possible," Meteora interjected calmly.
"If one is the original and the other is a derivative work, it explains why two nearly identical people have such different abilities. This Illyasviel is the original, correct?"
"That's right, big sister," Illya said with a sweet smile.
"I'm the real Illyasviel von Einzbern—not some fake. Right, Creator?"
Her crimson eyes locked on Ritsuka.
(No. You're the fake here.) Ritsuka spat mentally, shaking her head.
Before Yūya could retort, he suddenly leapt aside.
A second later, an arrow slammed into where he'd been standing, exploding into a crater.
"Heh. Dodged, did you?"
From the nearby bridge came a voice—then three figures leapt down into the Military Uniform Princess's ranks:
A white-haired young man in fitted clothes.
A female knight in silver-and-blue armor.
A burly, bearded man in a brown greatcoat.
"Servant Emiya. King Arthur—Saber. And bounty hunter Blitz Talker?" Meteora called out, recognizing them all.
"Great… just what we needed—more troublesome opponents."
Ritsuka stared at Emiya in disbelief.
"Hey, Edmond—didn't you say his spiritual core was damaged? How did he recover so fast?"
The Count of Monte Cristo gave Emiya a cold look.
"That's your design flaw. Since he came from a manga, you gave him a system that could accelerate spiritual core recovery if he had enough mana. He just used a massive supply to heal quickly. Damn it… we genuine Heroic Spirits never get treatment like that."
(So this is my fault?) Ritsuka's face darkened as she looked back to the battlefield.
"Hello, Creator," Illya greeted her with a cheerful smile.
"You gave me such a tragic ending—how cruel."
"Sorry, Creator," Emiya said, aiming his bow at her.
"But we just want you to change our fates. For you, that should be easy, right?"
Even Saber raised her holy sword in support.
"You look calm, but seeing characters you killed off come for revenge… you must be trembling inside, right?" Illya's smile widened as Heracles roared behind her.
"So? Change your script a little, will you? It's nothing for you, right?"
Ritsuka's expression stayed icy.
"Nice speech. I refuse."
"…What?"
They clearly hadn't expected her to reject them so flatly.
"I said, I refuse," she repeated.
"I can't change your fates. Unless their fates change, yours never will. Your ending is tied to theirs. I have no right to alter their conclusion—so give up on the idea."
"You—You… you bastard!" Illya's sweet mask cracked, fury blazing on her face.
"Kill her! Berserker!"
"ROOOOAR!"
The massive black Berserker charged at Ritsuka.
"Miss Fujimaru, watch out!" Selesia sprinted toward her, trying to intercept Heracles.
"Selesia! That's Heracles—one of the greatest heroes of mythology! You can't beat him!" Meteora shouted from behind.
Just as Selesia reached Ritsuka, Saber's invisible sword swung at her, forcing her to stop and block.
Meteora tried to assist, but a barrage of exploding arrows forced her to keep her magic shield up just to hold her ground.
Kanoya's giant mecha was still en route.
Yūya was locked in combat with Blitz Talker.
From the look of it, Ritsuka's death seemed inevitable.
But even as Heracles thundered toward her, Ritsuka kept that same cold expression—tinged with a trace of mockery.
Sensing something was wrong, Illya ordered Heracles to move faster, to finish it quickly.
The giant closed the distance, raising his massive stone axe.
"RITSUKA!!!"
BOOM—