Chapter 76: Twelve Slays with One Blade
He was going to save Illya.
If he knew nothing, Emiya Shirou could have said those words smoothly. But knowing what Illya had actually endured through his past-life memories, Shirou found himself unable to say a word.
What has happened, has happened. No matter what Shirou says, it cannot be changed. Trying to change reality with a few mere sentences is the stuff of fairy tales. At the very least, until he can actually achieve that change, Shirou will not utter such irresponsible words.
However, while Shirou cannot undo the past, there is one thing he can undoubtedly do for Illya—and for Emiya Kiritsugu, who wanted to do it but lacked the power:
March upon the Einzbern family for Illya's sake!
Why shouldn't the Einzbern family, the architects of this tragedy, become the object of hatred?
It was they who rejected Emiya Kiritsugu—the "failure" and "traitor"—preventing him from re-entering the Einzbern Castle in Germany and meeting Illya. It was they who cheated in the Third Holy Grail War by summoning the Avenger, causing the Holy Grail to be corrupted into a Black Grail. This led Kiritsugu, who should have secured victory in the Fourth War, to see the truth of what resided within the Grail.
Knowing the disaster that thing would bring upon humanity if it descended, he chose to abandon the final victory and ordered Saber to unleash the full power of her Holy Sword to destroy the Grail.
Simply put, the Einzbern family played a most ignoble role in this drama.
Why shouldn't Illya voice her rage toward such a family? Why shouldn't she be allowed to be a little more selfish?!
CLANG! CLANG!
The [Pseudo-Anubis] in Shirou's hand once again parried Berserker's axe-sword. "It's because you're still not strong enough, Berserker!
Because Berserker isn't strong enough, Illya doesn't dare follow her inner whims; she doesn't dare try to reject the orders the Einzberns gave her!
Because she's afraid to resist, the only 'rebellion' Illya can manage is within the limits allowed by the Einzberns—rebellion that doesn't count as resistance at all, and only ends up hurting herself!"
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
Blade and sword collided. The infinite evolution of [Pseudo-Anubis], combined with Shirou's ability to constantly project and reproduce, brought about a new round of evolution for the Stand blade.
Once again, it ignored the accumulated resistances of [God Hand].
Or rather, while Berserker could use the power of [God Hand] to stack resistance against [Pseudo-Anubis] until he could ignore its damage, [Pseudo-Anubis] could also use the forced evolution of Projection Magecraft to stack its parameters until it broke through the defenses of [God Hand] once more!
Furthermore, since [God Hand] only stacks defensive resistance and does not change Berserker's combat patterns, the blade—which had already recorded Berserker's movements and even his Mind's Eye (Fake) intuition—was unstoppable.
Emiya Shirou, wielding [Pseudo-Anubis], killed Berserker again with even more ease than the first time!
"That's the third time," Shirou said.
Then the fourth. Just like at the start, he detonated the evolved [Pseudo-Anubis], using the massive energy from the Broken Fantasm to kill Berserker. Meanwhile, a newly projected [Pseudo-Anubis] completed its evolution in Shirou's hand yet again.
"What's wrong, 'Strongest Servant'? Is the power of the legendary Great Hero of Greek mythology so insignificant? Furthermore..."
"ROOOAAAR—!!" Berserker let out another roar of unwilling rage.
But before Berserker could act, [Pseudo-Anubis] had already pierced through his body. And it wasn't just one blade. Eight copies of [Pseudo-Anubis] appeared simultaneously, skewering Berserker's limbs and the pivot points of his physical strength.
The moment Berserker resurrected, he was pinned back to the ground by Emiya Shirou.
This was Projection Magecraft. Emiya Shirou never said he could only project one [Pseudo-Anubis] at a time.
"My [Anubis] has already memorized that move of yours, Berserker. And once a move has been memorized, it will never work again—including your resurrection..."
At this, Shirou turned to Illya. "Illya, you should know what I'm about to say, right?"
Eight slays with one blade.
Regardless of whether Berserker had consumed lives from [God Hand] previously, or whether those lives had been replenished, he only has eleven resurrections. With Shirou having already killed Berserker four times, Berserker only had eight lives left.
If one uses an attack that exceeds the limit of Berserker's remaining lives in a single burst—before the resurrection mechanism completes and before the resistance to the previous attack stacks—one can kill him entirely.
In the original story, this was something Shirou's projected [Caliburn] achieved alongside Saber. But that feat was never the exclusive patent of the Noble Phantasm [Caliburn]. In fact, Tohsaka Rin could have done the same if she had enough jewels. It was simply a matter of the Tohsaka family finances...
Just as in the original story, Illya had mocked Rin—who had almost made Berserker disappear but lacked the gems to finish the job—she now looked at the number of [Pseudo-Anubis] blades impaling Berserker. Illya realized that Shirou had not only seen through the mechanics of [God Hand] but also knew exactly what he intended to do.
"...!?"
"Do you see? Although Berserker just died once, he still has five lives left... Hehe, what a pity, Rin. If you had five times the jewels just now, Berserker would have disappeared."
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