Medusa knew Rowan wanted to end this quickly. Seeing Cu Chulainn and Heracles locked in a stalemate, she decisively used her Mystic Eyes.
Mystic Eyes of Petrification.
In an instant, Heracles's lower body was petrified.
Among the many Mystic Eyes in the Nasuverse, Medusa's Mystic Eyes of Petrification were extremely high-grade. Though they could not compare to the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, they were absolutely not inferior to most other Mystic Eyes.
Anyone she looked at would be unconditionally petrified if their Magic Resistance was below C-rank.
Those with B-rank had to pass a resistance check to determine whether they would be petrified.
Although she could not petrify someone with A-rank Magic Resistance, her gaze would still place a heavy pressure on them, lowering all of their parameters by one rank.
And Heracles, as the great hero, truly possessed A-rank Magic Resistance.
By all logic, he should not have been petrified.
But Medusa had eaten the Snake-Snake Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Medusa. Not only that, she had awakened it the instant she ate it, which raised the power of her Mystic Eyes by several levels.
So even Heracles, whose Magic Resistance had reached A-rank, was petrified.
Only his lower body, yes—but that was already enough for Medea and Serie to act.
When Illya saw Heracles suddenly petrified, she didn't panic too much. In her eyes, Heracles had twelve lives.
Even if the enemy's petrification took one life, he would still have eleven left. There was no need to panic.
She was even imagining how interesting it would be when the enemy killed Heracles without hesitation, only to see him suddenly revive.
But in the next second, her expression froze in confusion.
Because the enemy did not kill Heracles.
Medea and Serie threw all the prepared spells onto Heracles at once.
Mental cooling, thought reinforcement, calming spells—
One support spell after another was cast directly onto Heracles's mind. His berserk brain gradually cooled down, and reason began returning to his body.
Then, the previously wildly violent Heracles stopped attacking.
A calm, gentle aura began to radiate from him.
"Ber… serker?"
Illya looked at her Servant in shock. She had never seen this side of Heracles before.
"Illya?"
After regaining his reason, Heracles smiled at his Master.
"Calm down. These people are not our enemies."
He understood very clearly that if these people were enemies, they would have had no need to help him regain his sanity.
A berserk Heracles was already powerful, but a calm Heracles was ten times more troublesome than his berserk self.
These people had no reason to increase the difficulty of the Holy Grail War for themselves.
At the same time, Medusa released the petrification, proving Heracles's guess.
The tense atmosphere gradually eased.
Although Illya was unhappy, she still had her maids, Sella and Leysritt, prepare black tea.
Everyone sat around a large table.
"State your purpose," Illya snorted lightly, looking at Rowan.
This man was clearly the leader of the group.
Rowan said, "We came to invite Heracles to join us. As for you, you're just one of the bargaining conditions."
"What did you say?"
Illya puffed up her cheeks and glared at Rowan, feeling that she had been looked down on. This guy was seriously rude.
Heracles calmed the irritated Illya and asked, "What exactly are you trying to say?"
"To put it simply, I am Rowan, a person from another world."
Rowan spent some time explaining his origins and goals to Heracles.
Illya shouted from the side that it was impossible. Another world or whatever—she didn't believe a word of it.
Something even more ridiculous than the Second Magic? How could such a thing happen?
Then Rowan took them all on a trip to the One Piece world.
Slapping people in the face with facts was one of Rowan's favorite things to do.
When they returned, Illya looked dazed.
Another world.
They had really gone to another world.
If this news spread, the entire magecraft world would boil over.
Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.
"You now know our goal. What do you think? Will you join us, Heracles? You wouldn't want Illya to die young, would you?"
Heracles frowned and asked, "What does that mean?"
"It's simple."
Rowan pointed at Illya.
"This little girl is not only an Einzbern homunculus, but also an artificial Lesser Grail. She doesn't have long to live."
"But if you're willing to join us, we can help Illya change bodies and let her live healthily to a ripe old age."
Heracles's heart jolted, and he turned to look at Illya.
Illya turned her head away, not daring to face him.
She knew the condition of her own body.
Heracles then looked at the two maids beside her, Sella and Leysritt.
Sella said, "Illya… is in danger."
Leysritt bowed deeply to Heracles.
"Please, Berserker. Please save Illya."
Seeing this, Heracles understood that Rowan was telling the truth.
Illya really was…
Heracles's heart tightened. In truth, the moment he saw Illya, he had thought of his own daughter. His feelings toward Illya were extremely complicated, and there was no way he could watch her die.
He raised his large hand and gently touched Illya's head.
"I understand. I leave Illya's body to you."
"Don't worry. It won't be a problem."
Rowan said these were minor issues and nothing worth worrying about.
Then he brought everyone to Egghead and found Orochimaru, asking him to prepare a healthy body for Illya as well.
After examining Illya, Orochimaru couldn't help saying, "Her body is very interesting. It's artificial too, isn't it? I can detect many artificial traces."
Rowan nodded. Illya was the daughter of Irisviel, and Irisviel was a homunculus created by the Einzbern family.
So in a sense, Illya could also be considered a homunculus.
Not to mention that Illya's body had later been modified by the Einzberns.
"That's right. Can you do it?"
"Of course."
Orochimaru flicked out his tongue and smiled.
"One month, and I'll have it ready. Also, I'd like to look at this family's homunculus technology. Is that possible?"
Rowan turned to look at Illya.
Illya said with a stiff face, "I don't know it."
Homunculus technology was the core of the Einzbern family. Only one person knew it.
Jubstacheit von Einzbern.
He was the eighth-generation head of the Einzbern family.
But in truth, he was an artificial intelligence created by the Third Magician's disciples to control the castle's central system. His full name was: Golem Jubstacheit.
He was also the father of all Einzbern homunculi.
Acht was merely the eighth-generation humanoid terminal created by Jubstacheit.
His personality no longer existed.
At most, he was "the existence that operated the castle" and "the existence that reproduced the Third Magic." Each generation of humanoid terminal was implanted with the necessary "humanity," allowing them to imitate human speech and behavior.
Precisely because of this, that guy had done many outrageous things.
During the Third Holy Grail War, he summoned Avenger, which caused the Grail to be corrupted.
Before the Fourth War, he formed a marriage alliance with Emiya Kiritsugu and provided the holy relic Avalon, successfully summoning Saber to participate.
Because Kiritsugu destroyed the Holy Grail and caused the plan to fail, Acht cut off his contact with his daughter Illya.
In the Fifth Holy Grail War, after Illya failed as the Grail vessel, he ultimately gave up on the Greater Grail and ceased functioning.
At that point, the Einzbern family was completely severed.
Rowan thought for a moment and said, "When I have time, I'll take you to the Einzbern family."
After that guy stopped operating, Rowan could bring Orochimaru there to search through the Einzbern family's archives. There had to be records related to homunculus technology.
Orochimaru agreed immediately.
Also worth mentioning was that when Orochimaru learned that the man beside Illya was Heracles, his eyes lit up. He immediately called over Vegapunk and Tobirama.
After discussing it with Heracles, the group wanted to draw a vial of blood from him.
Heracles didn't understand and asked, "What do you want my blood for?"
Orochimaru said, "We want to create the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Heracles."
"Huh?"
Heracles looked completely baffled.
So Orochimaru explained Devil Fruits to Heracles.
He stated that they had already cracked the key to creating Zoan Devil Fruits. As long as they had blood, they could create the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Heracles.
Once Heracles understood, he decisively asked Vegapunk to draw several more vials of blood and create a few extra Heracles-model Devil Fruits.
He understood his own strength very well.
Whether it was Twelve Glories or God Hand: Twelve Labors, both were bugs among bugs.
If someone could obtain power similar to his just by eating one fruit, that would be wonderful.
He had to prepare several such fruits.
One for Illya, one for Sella, and one for Leysritt.
Their survival ability would be maxed out.
Rowan's eyes flickered.
If this worked, then if he summoned something like Yama, could he also draw Yama's blood and create a Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Yama?
Hmm…
That didn't seem impossible.
But summoning Yama would not be easy. That was something to plan carefully later.
After leaving Egghead, time passed quickly, and noon arrived.
Rowan had originally planned to take everyone to the Baratie for a big meal.
But Cosette rejected the proposal, saying that as Rowan's personal chef, if she couldn't even handle one lunch, then what kind of chef was she?