These words, like a cold sentence, completely drew the line between her and Saber.
One was still struggling painfully in the gap between ideals and reality, while the other had already embraced despair, seeking 'truth' in another sense within the darkness.
Listening to Jeanne's confession, the smile on Kanjuro's face grew deeper. He was satisfied with Jeanne's 'awakening' and even more so enjoyed the increasingly intense wavering and pain in Saber's eyes after hearing these words.
"Did you hear that, Saber?" Kanjuro whispered in her ear, like a demon's final proclamation. "This is reality. Now, obediently accept your fate~."
Saber (Artoria) lowered her head in silence. Kanjuro's words were like the sharpest awls, piercing through the heart beneath her resolute exterior. Her gaze involuntarily drifted toward Fuyuki City at the foot of the mountain—there, Conqueror King Iskandar drove his gordius wheel, a Noble Phantasm that once symbolized conquest and glory, now acting as the most efficient tool of slaughter. The illusions of the Army of the King might have dissipated, but the thunderous chariot itself, along with the Sword of Cypriotes that Iskandar swung crazily, was still raising a storm of blood and gore in the streets.
The faint sounds of explosions, the roar of collapsing buildings, and the atmosphere of despair and blood that could be imagined even from a distance made Saber feel a suffocating pain. She seemed to see the civilians turning to ash under the lightning and being crushed under the iron hooves.
"Look! This is the 'king of conquerors' you once acknowledged!" Kanjuro threw his head back and let out a wild, hearty laugh. The laughter echoed on the bloody mountain peak, filled with irony and pleasure. "For a ridiculous promise of survival, he can unhesitatingly swing his slaughtering blade at defenseless civilians! This is the true face of his hegemony! Hahahaha!"
The laughter stopped abruptly, and Kanjuro suddenly lowered his head, his sharp gaze dissecting Saber's soul like a scalpel:
"Then, I ask you, Artoria Pendragon! When you were young and fought across the land to unify Britain, did your sword, did your horse's hooves, truly never touch the blood of the innocent?! Do you dare say that for your 'great cause', there was never a moment where civilians were caught in the crossfire?!"
Saber's body trembled violently, as if struck by an invisible spear. The memory of fighting for an ideal yet inevitably causing sacrifices in the process was a hidden pain deep in her heart that she was unwilling to touch.
"That... that was for my people! So that the citizens of Britain could welcome peace and unity!" She raised her head and retorted stubbornly, but her voice carried a trace of imperceptible trembling. "Necessary sacrifices... are for the greater good!"
"Necessary sacrifices? The greater good?" Kanjuro sneered as he repeated her words, his tone full of pity. "Yes, you truly are great, truly noble. But did the people of Britain ultimately acknowledge you? Did the subjects you protected ultimately give you understanding and support, or betrayal and resistance?"
He didn't need Saber to answer, continuing to crush her convictions with his words:
"In their eyes, you, Iskandar, and 'monsters' like us are essentially no different! All are high and mighty 'kings' who view all living beings as pawns and costs! It's just that you... insist on draping yourself in the hypocritical cloak of a 'Perfect King'!"
Kanjuro's finger once again pointed to the hellish scene below the mountain, his voice becoming cold and cruel:
"And do you know? Artoria, you just did the most wrong and foolish thing!"
Saber's brow furrowed tightly, her emerald eyes filled with confusion and resistance.
"To deal with that Sea Monster, to protect those who 'might' be affected, you did not hesitate to use polluted power, exhausting all your strength and even accelerating your own fall!" Kanjuro's voice sounded like the final judgment. "Now, look down the mountain! Those civilians being slaughtered and wailing need protection! And you, the one hailed as the king of knights, what can you do now?!"
He pressed closer, almost face-to-face with Saber, his words striking at her heart one by one:
"You are powerless! You can't even stand up! What exactly did your so-called 'protection' protect?! You exhausted your power to eliminate one monster, only to let another even crazier monster slaughter the city! Your 'good deed' indirectly led to the deaths of more innocent people! Is this the result brought about by the 'justice' you insist on?!"
"Ngh... Aaaaah!!" Saber let out a low growl of pain. Kanjuro's words were like the most vicious curse, accurately hitting her deepest fears and self-doubt. Her long-held persistence seemed so pale and weak in the face of bloody reality and sophistry! The black mist of the pseudo-avalon seemed to be nourished by her intense emotional fluctuations and surged instantly! Her brilliant golden hair turned silver-white at a speed visible to the naked eye, and her emerald eyes were rapidly stained with blood, turning a solid crimson! The Dark Armor around her body emitted an ominous hum, and the aura of corruption became richer than ever before!
"Kanjuro!!! Please, stop this!!" Irisviel could no longer bear it. She couldn't break free from Kanjuro's embrace, so she could only raise her tear-stained face and shout with all her might, "Saber... she has been trying so hard! She wants to help everyone more than anyone else! She just... her power is just limited! You can't deny everything about her like this!!"
Upon hearing this, Kanjuro's violent aura suddenly retracted. He looked down at Irisviel, who was arguing for her Servant in his arms. The crazed and ironic expression on his face vanished instantly, replaced by a... nearly eerie tenderness.
He gently stroked Irisviel's hair, his tone incredibly soft:
"Fine."
This simple word left everyone stunned.
"Since you've said so..." Kanjuro released his hold on Saber and Irisviel, even taking a step back and making a "be my guest" gesture. "Then, I will let you go today."
"What?!"
Saber and Irisviel froze completely in place, almost suspecting they had misheard. Even Jeanne, who had been watching coldly, frowned slightly, a flicker of confusion passing through her ice-blue eyes. To go through all that trouble to drive them into a corner and completely break Saber's psychological defenses, only to... easily let go at the last moment? This was completely inconsistent with Kanjuro's usual way of doing things!
Kanjuro did not explain. He simply raised his head and looked at the moon in the night sky, which was slightly stained red by blood and smoke, a look of nearly lonely and world-weary desolation on his face.
"People always think they have obsessions and fantasies about beautiful ideals..." His voice was very light, as if talking to himself, yet it clearly reached everyone's ears. "Little do they know that the cruelty of this world itself is far more terrifying than any demon."
His gaze fell back onto the bewildered and wary Saber and Irisviel, carrying a prophetic certainty:
"Even if I let you go now, even without me, Kanjuro... Artoria, Irisviel, do you think you can get the ending you want? No, the gears of fate have already turned. What awaits you is destined to be even more cruel devastation and betrayal. Everything you cherish will ultimately... be shattered to pieces."
After saying these chilling words, he stopped looking at them, as if he had lost all interest. He turned around lazily and casually waved to Jeanne, his tone returning to its usual lethargy:
"The show's over, it's boring. Let's go, Jeanne."
Dark magical energy gathered beneath his feet, forming a teleportation array.
Just like that, under the disbelieving gazes of Saber and Irisviel and the silent following of Jeanne, his figure gradually faded and finally vanished completely from the spot. His "prophecy" and the ongoing slaughter at the foot of the mountain echoed for a long time in the bloody air of the peak.
Saber knelt on the ground, her blood-red eyes looking at the place where Kanjuro had disappeared, then toward the purgatory-like Fuyuki City below. She bit her lip tightly as black energy swirled around her.
Irisviel supported her, her face filled with the bewilderment of having survived and an even deeper sense of unease.
Kanjuro's "mercy" was even more terrifying than his cruelty. The seeds of doubt and despair he had sown were already deeply rooted.
Kanjuro and Jeanne's figures vanished completely as if swallowed by the night, leaving only that suffocating prophecy circling the mountaintop. The black aura surging from Saber seemed to calm slightly with Kanjuro's departure, but the bone-deep erosion and the depletion of her power made it difficult for her to even remain standing. Irisviel suppressed her own fear and grief, supporting most of Saber's weight with her slender shoulders. The two stumbled, making their way with difficulty toward the silver-white sports car parked at the edge of the battlefield, covered in dust and rubble.
Carefully placing Saber in the passenger seat, Irisviel quickly got into the driver's seat and started the engine. The sports car roared like a wounded beast, carrying them away from the mountaintop of Ryudoji Temple, which had borne too much pain and despair.
However, escaping the battlefield did not mean escaping the cruelty of reality.
As the car drove along the mountain road toward the city, the tragic state of Fuyuki City presented itself before their eyes in an even clearer and more horrifying way through the car window. In the distance, the Conqueror King Iskandar's gordius wheel, flashing with thunder like the chariot of the Grim Reaper, drew trails of destruction across the city's map. Fires from explosions rose one after another, the sounds of buildings collapsing, and faint cries and screams intertwined into a symphony of despair. The once-bustling districts were now turning into ruins and purgatory at a speed visible to the naked eye.
--- Please give flowers --- Saber's hand tightly gripped the door handle, her knuckles turning white from the exertion. Her eyes, which had just lost some of their blood-red tint, stared fixedly at the hellish scene outside the window, her pupils trembling violently with pain and anger. She could clearly "sense" the extinction of every life force, each one feeling like a needle pricking her heart. She was the king of knights; protecting and saving were instincts carved into her saint graph, but at this moment, she could only watch like a powerless bystander, witnessing the tragedy unfold and feeling that heart-eating, impotent rage.
"Kiritsugu..." Saber's voice was raspy and weak. Through the contract's link, she sent a plea and a call to her master, "The king of conquerors... he is slaughtering civilians... he must be stopped..."
After a brief silence, Emiya Kiritsugu's voice came from the other end of the communication, cold to the point of cruelty, without a hint of emotion, as if stating a fact that had nothing to do with him:
"Saber, calm down. Look at your current state: your saint graph is unstable, your magical energy is nearly depleted, and you've been severely eroded by Black Magic. And you, Iri, cannot provide any effective support either."
His tone carried a detached, calm analysis, even... implying a subtle, imperceptible shift of blame:
..."We have no ability to change the current situation. Acting rashly would only lead to a pointless death. The most important thing right now is to preserve ourselves and wait for an opportunity."
He paused, his words like a cold dagger, accurately stabbing into Saber's most self-reproachful wound:
"Furthermore, if we trace it back to the source, aren't you and Irisviel the root of this disaster? If you hadn't used that contaminated avalon scabbard, causing your power to spiral out of control and be eroded, it wouldn't have been impossible for you, in your prime and after eliminating Caster, to stop an irrational Iskandar."
"The fundamental error lies in your choice to borrow the power of darkness, thereby inviting deeper darkness and leading to your current... helplessness."
These words were like the final straw that broke the camel's back.
Saber abruptly lowered her head, her silver-white hair falling to hide her expression. But Irisviel could clearly feel the sudden stiffening and intensified trembling of the Servant beside her.
"Yes... Kiritsugu is right..." Saber's voice was low and broken, filled with endless pain and self-negation. "It's all my fault... If I hadn't been affected by Black Magic, if my power hadn't gone out of control... if I had been clearer-headed then, and had more strength to spare..."
She remembered Kanjuro's soul-crushing words—"What exactly did you protect?"
At this moment, watching the rampaging king of conquerors outside the window and feeling her own powerlessness, Emiya Kiritsugu's accusations and Kanjuro's mockery seemed to overlap, shattering the beliefs she held onto.
"It's all my incompetence... that caused these people... to suffer this..." The venom of self-reproach spread wildly in her heart, creating a tragic resonance with the remnants of Black Magic in her body. The black aura that had just calmed down slightly seemed to show signs of stirring again.
"No! Saber!" Irisviel hurriedly reached out and tightly grasped Saber's cold hand, which was partially covered in dark armor. Her voice was tearful yet incredibly firm. "It's not your fault! You did your best! You even risked sacrificing yourself to protect everyone! It's because Kanjuro was too cunning, a trick of fate! Please don't take all the responsibility upon yourself!"
Seeing Saber overwhelmed by pain and self-reproach, her heart felt like it was being twisted by a knife.
"What we need now is rest and recovery, Saber. Only by surviving can we prevent more tragedies in the future and protect those you want to protect! I beg of you, don't negate yourself like this..."
The sports car threaded through streets filled with the scent of gunpowder and despair. Outside the window was the burning city and the rampaging king; inside the cabin were the knight on the brink of collapse and the homunculus trying her best to comfort her.
Hope seemed to dissipate along with the receding wheels, leaving only a heavy sense of powerlessness and deep confusion about the future looming over their hearts. Meanwhile, the thunder representing destruction from the king of conquerors continued to flash heartlessly in the night sky of Fuyuki City.
Meanwhile, Kanjuro was standing at a high vantage point, admiring this wonderful killing game. "What is the next plan?" Jeanne asked.
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