Chapter 123: Self-Exposure of Identity
"Humanity's destruction? ...Shirou, what exactly do you mean by that?"
Rin didn't claim that Shirou was talking nonsense. By now, the idea of Emiya Shirou possessing abilities akin to [Future Sight] or [Clairvoyance: EX] was no longer foreign to her. Even the concept of parallel world observation—an ability touching upon the Second Magic—didn't cause much of a ripple in her heart at this point.
She simply accepted it as a matter of course, thinking, "Oh, so that's how it is," and quickly processed Shirou's "spoiler."
Therefore, she listened intently as Shirou explained why the Holy Grail War had been held so many times without a single success—without a single winner ever reaching the stage of making a wish.
According to him, the reason was the Counter Force's intervention to prevent the ritual's success. Rin, who had learned a bit about the operating logic of the Counter Force through the magecraft books left by Tohsaka Tokiomi, had been wondering what secret the Holy Grail War hid that made the Counter Force target it so aggressively.
She didn't expect Shirou to drop such a bombshell!
—Humanity's destruction? Was that something the Holy Grail War was truly capable of?!
"It is humanity's destruction in the literal sense. In the parallel world of that specific special timeline, one of the Masters summoned the legendary King Solomon as his Servant."
Emiya Shirou, who had already spoiled so much, didn't mind revealing the plot of FGO to them: "He, who possessed [Clairvoyance: EX] and could see both past and future, easily led his Master to victory in the Holy Grail War, much like I am doing now.
Furthermore, because that magus—who could produce King Solomon's catalyst—was himself one of the Twelve Lords of the Clock Tower, he had no interest in reaching the [Root] through the Grail and the Third Magic.
Or rather, his family already possessed a method to reach the [Root] passed down through generations; he only participated in the Holy Grail War to amass the necessary startup funds for that method. Thus, at the end of that war, having successfully made his wish, he gave the remaining magical energy of the Grail to King Solomon so that the King could make a wish of his own..."
"Wait! Wait! Wait!"
Before Shirou could finish, Rin called an emergency halt. "Shirou, you aren't trying to say that it was King Solomon's wish that caused the destruction of humanity, are you?! Even the Holy Grail couldn't possibly grant a wish of that magnitude after already fulfilling a Clock Tower Lord's wish—especially if that wish was related to the [Root]!"
Rin had already learned from Saber that myths and historical records often differ wildly from reality. If Shirou hadn't spoiled it and Saber hadn't revealed her Noble Phantasm, who would have guessed that the famous King Arthur of British legend was actually a young girl (whose body was eternally fixed at age fifteen)?
But what Shirou was saying was just too exaggerated. The image of King Solomon in the Bible had nothing to do with a villain wanting to destroy mankind.
Of course, she couldn't rule out the possibility that King Solomon was like Gilgamesh—someone whose mind was stuck in feudal slavery. But Rin remembered in Shirou's spoiler that the King's Master was the one who wished first. Solomon only used the leftover energy.
If the Grail's power were truly that immense—able to support a wish to reach the [Root] while simultaneously fulfilling a wish to destroy humanity (tasks of roughly equal difficulty)—their Three Founding Families wouldn't have failed the first war due to fighting over a single wish.
"The destruction of humanity wasn't caused by King Solomon's wish, of course," Shirou shook his head.
"Or rather, it wasn't a direct relationship. King Solomon's seemingly ordinary wish indirectly led to the destruction of humanity, all of human history from that point on, and every trace of human existence."
Well, Shirou's denial didn't make things better; it made them worse. It would have been better if the wish was to destroy humanity. Instead, Shirou's words implied something even more unsettling.
King Solomon had simply made an ordinary wish, and it resulted in the annihilation of human history. Didn't this just prove that the Grail's wish-granting was uncontrollable? No wonder the Counter Force targeted the ritual so fiercely.
Because Tohsaka Tokiomi had died too early, Rin wasn't as obsessed with reaching the [Root] through the Grail as her father had been. Her reason for participating was somewhat similar to Bazett's: to complete a mission.
Bazett's mission was for the Clock Tower. Rin's was to fulfill the task left by her father and the legacy of the Tohsaka family to win the war. So, while she could accept the consequences Shirou described—and even felt a responsibility as the manager of Fuyuki's land to handle them—Saber, who had been silent until now, could not!
"Shirou, that was just a single case! And I am not King Solomon!"
Saber, having finally seen a glimmer of hope, spoke with a voice bordering on a breakdown, trying her best to argue: "Could King Solomon's wish possibly have been to go back to the past to save his country!?"
"No, that wasn't it," Shirou answered.
"Then—"
Saber wanted to say more, but Shirou spoke first.
"However, just as the first four wars failed for various reasons, in this Holy Grail War, the Counter Force has also dispatched its Guardian to participate as a Servant."
At this point, Shirou turned his gaze toward Archer.
"I'm not wrong, am I, Archer... or should I call you Heroic Spirit EMIYA?"
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