Chapter 352: So Weird… Let Me Take Another Look
In literature, there's a narrative technique called "hearing the voice before seeing the person."
Gilgamesh's debut in Fate/Kaleid Liner Magical Illya is exactly that.
Even though the two sides have already exchanged blows, Gilgamesh has never once appeared clearly on screen.
What the audience sees is nothing more than a mass of magical black mist—and a blurry silhouette lurking at its center.
To put it extremely, even when that shield appeared, there was still no way to confirm the identity of the enemy. The only thing that could be said for sure was that this Servant was far stronger than the other card-class spirits.
But once Bazett got skewered like a kebab, the mystery vanished completely.
The eighth card was undoubtedly Gilgamesh.
After all, that attack was just too distinctive. Across the entire Fate series, only two people can pull off something like that: Archer and Gilgamesh.
And since Archer's card is inside Chloe, that leaves only one candidate.
Truly worthy of celebration— Yeah, right!
The audience may have figured it out, but Illya and the others had no clue!
At the moment, they were frozen solid, completely shocked that the mighty Bazett had been taken out in an instant. Their minds went blank—classic case of "thought process: shut down."
Even when Bazett's body finally hit the ground, Illya's brain barely managed a reboot, and she began looping the Three Big Questions of Life:
"What are all these swords?"
"Where did all these swords come from?"
"How did those swords even pierce Bazett?!"
Honestly, the scene was too overwhelming for their common sense to process.
Bazett's gloves are covered in runes for reinforcement. They look soft, but ordinary weapons can't even scratch them.
Yet now, those magically strengthened gloves had been pierced like tofu by a single blade.
And swords of that level were embedded all over Bazett's body!
What kind of monster could summon that many high-grade weapons all at once?!
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!"
Apparently displeased with Bazett looking down on it, the black Servant let out an enraged roar.
The black mist around it oozed down to the ground, clinging like living shadows.
Illya and the others completely ignored the creepy scene. Their eyes were glued to the countless weapons materializing from the mist, encircling the Servant like a torrential downpour.
The sight was so overwhelming that all Illya could do in her frightened stupor was whisper:
"What's going on…? What just happened…?"
Oddly enough, the one who reacted first was Bazett herself. A warrior like her doesn't die that easily. She forced herself upright.
"There are several sword wounds… The worst are the two in my abdomen…"
And then Bazett realized those abdominal wounds didn't matter anymore—
Because the black shadow struck her straight in the chest.
"Her heart… got pierced?!"
Rin gasped and covered her mouth.
A wound like that should mean certain death for anyone.
But Rin underestimated Bazett, a woman willing to use any method necessary for victory. She had prepared for a brutal fight long before this.
"Condition… met."
Runes suddenly flared across Bazett's body, a surge of magic sweeping through her.
Moments later, fully restored, she charged at the black Servant once more!
"Even watching it again, I still don't get how Bazett pulled that off. Can runes really do something like that?"
Aoko stared at her screen, baffled.
"According to the official materials released afterward… apparently it's Bazett's resurrection magecraft."
Alice flipped through her notes and gave the explanation.
"According to the official material, a rune triggered at the instant the heart stops—one that restores Bazett's heavily wounded body, even with her heart pierced, back to peak condition. It's a magecraft on the level of a Noble Phantasm."
"Runes can do that?! Isn't that practically magic already?"
Aoko's eyes flew wide open. In her view, calling it "resurrection" felt inaccurate—time reversal would be a far better description.
And the Aozaki family she belonged to… their magecraft was literally tied to manipulating time.
So seeing runes achieve something similar—something supposedly only their magic could reach—how could she not be shocked?
But Alice disagreed.
"According to tradition, runes are a universal language capable of expressing all phenomena in the world. If that's true, then reviving someone in an extreme situation isn't impossible."
"No… I think Shinji Matou and my sister did it on purpose."
Aoko suddenly let out a cold, knowing laugh.
What were runes? Touko's specialty.
And what was resurrection magecraft at its core?
Time reversal—the Aozaki family's magic itself.
Shinji's script was practically sending a message to the rest of the Clock Tower:
"The Aozaki magic isn't that special. Runes can do the same thing."
And on top of that, the Aozaki family currently had no true Magician—so they couldn't even pull this off themselves.
Yet Aozaki Touko, the one cast out from the family, could reproduce the effect through runes.
Didn't that imply Touko had already surpassed the household that disowned her?
Wasn't this basically saying the Aozaki family had no eye for talent?
Wasn't this just proving their current head, Aozaki Tohko, had gone senile and should retire from the Mage's Association?
"As expected of Shinji Matou, he insults people without using a single curse word."
Aoko shook her head slowly, clapping twice in admiration.
"How brilliant."
Hearing her mutter something like that, Alice wiped the cold sweat forming at her temple.
"Aoko… do you have persecution mania or something? I doubt Sir Matou would go that far."
It wasn't that Alice thought Shinji incapable of stirring trouble. He had publicly mocked the old geezers of the Clock Tower more than once—he was practically the mudslide of modern magecraft.
So it wasn't that he couldn't insult the old men—Alice simply doubted he'd bother insulting them in such a convoluted, roundabout way.
It was too nested, too indirect, too complicated.
Those half-senile, one-foot-in-the-coffin elders wouldn't understand the subtleties at all.
Smuggling hidden messages was fun, sure—but if the audience didn't get the joke, what was the point?
It'd be like winking at a blind man.
"No, no, no."
Aoko insisted stubbornly.
"This is Shinji Matou we're talking about. He's capable of anything. You can't let your guard down."
Alice snorted and rolled her eyes.
"I think you've just listened to too many of Fujita's conspiracy lectures and gone off the deep end."
"Anyway, are you going to tell your grandfather about this?"
"No way. He'll beat me." Aoko refused instantly.
"…"
Alice once again felt her understanding of the Aozaki family's interpersonal relationships expanding in all the wrong ways.
"You people have the weirdest family dynamics…" she sighed.
She was about to offer Aoko some sympathy—when she froze.
Because her best friend was… smiling.
A serene, almost blissful smile.
Just moments ago she had been grumbling about Shinji's scheming and complaining about the strict, old-fashioned family patriarch…
And now she was happy?
What a bizarre woman.
…Don't tell me she's actually—
"Aoko… you're actually enjoying this, aren't you?"
"Huh?"
"—Nothing."
Alice quickly lifted her gaze toward the TV, though the corner of her eye still kept sneaking glances at Aoko.
Her behavior was practically screaming:
"That was weird… lemme look again."
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
On the TV screen, Bazett charged straight up to the Servant and slammed her fist into him, sending his body crashing into the wall.
And that was only the beginning.
The moment she staggered him, Bazett unleashed a cascade of punches—heavy blows raining down like a torrential storm.
If someone added an "Ora ora ora ora!" sound effect right now, the scene would fit right into JoJo—minus the art style.
Chloe had once described Bazett as a "full-blown female Berserker," and honestly, it couldn't be more accurate.
But only Bazett herself knew the truth:
For all her ferocity, it wasn't working.
Her fists burst straight through the black body in front of her—only for the hole to close the instant she pulled her hand back.
It felt like punching a smoke.
No matter how hard she hit, it left no lasting injury.
And the enemy wasn't exactly passive either. After a single round of her barrage, Bazett was forced to retreat.
If she didn't, those swords shooting out from the black mud would skewer her again.
And since she already knew even her reinforced gloves couldn't withstand them, she sure as hell wasn't going to tank them with her body.
The resurrection rune could only activate once.
She wasn't getting a second chance.
"It's still impossible for her to win," Chloe concluded. "Even if Bazett's physically stronger than some Servants, she definitely can't beat him."
"Why?"
Miyu found Chloe's confidence strange.
Sure, Bazett was losing right now—but she still had Fragarach left. With a good counterattack, it wasn't impossible to turn things around.
Chloe seemed to read Miyu's thoughts. She pointed toward the sky full of weapons.
"Do you even know what those are?"
Every Servant had a few Noble Phantasms that represented their legend. Even if a heroic spirit possessed several, a standard Holy Grail summon rarely manifested more than three.
Sure, Archer could seemingly pull out an infinite arsenal, but that was due to his Projection Magecraft, not because he actually owned that many real Noble Phantasms.
And because Chloe specialized in projections herself, she understood one crucial thing better than anyone—
Every single weapon floating there was the real thing.
Bazett, keeping her distance, narrowed her eyes and looked up at the hovering storm of black blades.
"So these are all… Noble Phantasms…"
She didn't even have time to finish her thought.
The black king raised his hand—
And the rain began to fall.
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