We hastily prepared to move by gathering our equipment. While everyone was getting ready, I healed the maid Sella. After preparations were complete, when we went to the living room, Sakura was asking Rider to come along.
"Sakura, if I leave in this situation, there will be no one to protect you."
"Rider, please. Protect my senior."
"But... sigh... I have no choice, understood."
Rider, knowing what Shirou meant to Sakura, couldn't refuse.
"Thank you, Rider."
Through Sakura's persuasion, Rider decided to come with us. I handed Shirou the twin swords I had made beforehand from Chitauri metal obtained from the MCU. Shirou hadn't even seen the swords Kanshou and Bakuya that he would use in the original, so it couldn't be helped.
"What's this?"
"Weapons. You don't even have a decent sword to use now."
"Oh~ Thank you. But is it okay to keep receiving things like this?"
"If you think so, make something delicious for me later."
"Got it. After this is over, I'll show off my skills."
Guided by Sella, who had regained energy from my healing, we quickly moved to Einzbern Castle. The Einzbern Castle seemed to have the fight already over, with destruction here and there, but no signs of life were felt.
"Seems we're late?"
"That... Young lady~~!!!"
Sella urgently entered the castle looking for the young lady, and we followed. As soon as we entered the castle, what we saw was the corpse of the maid Leysritt, stabbed all over by something, and behind her, Illya dead with her heart pulled out.
"Young lady!!!"
Sella shed tears, quickly picked up Illya, and wept. I first went to Sella and said.
"First, let's see if we can save her."
"Sob sob sob... What do you mean? The young lady is already..."
Sella seemed out of her mind with Illya's death, so I spoke firmly.
"Show me Illya. Hurry!"
When I urged loudly, Sella finally showed the corpse of Illya she was holding. It seemed less than an hour since she died, so like with Sakura, I quickly revived her with [Resurrection] and urgently treated her with [Sacred Highest Heal] and [No-action Transformation]. Since there was no heart, quite a bit of mana was used.
"Cough!"
"Young lady!! How can this be..."
Illya vomited blood and began to regain color. Of course, the heart was now a normal heart, not the lesser grail, but it seemed there would be no major issues in function. However, Illya would likely have difficulty using magic in the future. The lesser grail was gone, and I had almost analyzed and erased the magic crests that put strain on her body.
"Whew~ It's done."
I went to Leysritt's corpse and tried to revive her similarly, but it seemed too late for Leysritt. [Resurrection] didn't work, so it seemed over an hour had passed since her death. I had no choice but to only analyze the magic crests.
"This maid is already too late... The soul has left the body. I can't revive her like this."
"That... Leysritt... Anyway, thank you for saving the young lady."
Sella expressed gratitude and was taking care of Illya. However, Rin Tohsaka came to me and asked about reviving Illya.
"Cassian, how is it possible to resurrect a dead person?"
"Where I came from, too many people died, so resurrection magic was developed. It's only possible if the soul is still in the body. If the soul has left the body after some time since death, it's impossible. Also, those who die of old age after living a full life can't be revived. It's a resurrection magic with many restrictions."
"Then, did you do that with Sakura too?"
"Yes."
At this rate, I might only level up the [Swindler] ability. Anyway, after that conversation, she didn't ask further. We couldn't leave Leysritt's body as is, so we tried to bury it beside the castle and make a grave, but Sella stopped us.
"There's no need for that. We homunculi are stored in the castle basement when deactivated."
"Why do that?"
To Shirou's question, Rin answered.
"If it's a homunculus, it's understandable. Each homunculus contains a great deal of the family's knowledge, so that's probably why."
"You know well. That's correct."
Shirou, hearing that, asked in surprise.
"Huh? She wasn't human?"
"Yes. An artificially created life form."
"I, I see..."
Shirou, having experienced so many things, just accepted it.
We waited in the castle for a while. We needed Illya to regain consciousness and get information to decide the future direction.
"She has awakened."
Sella informed us that Illya had woken up. We immediately entered Illya's bedroom and heard her story.
"I don't know why I'm still alive, but I'll tell you. Based on what I heard during the fight, they seem to be after the Greater Grail. So, they probably needed my heart, which is the lesser grail."
The lesser grail was the key to opening the Greater Grail.
"Information about Kotomine's Servant?"
"It was a blond man with an arrogant way of speaking. During the fight, he summoned and shot various weapons from the air. Those weapons weren't just ordinary; each one was like a powerful Noble Phantasm."
Saber, who was listening, asked in surprise.
"By any chance, did he have red eyes?"
"Yes, he had red eyes."
"Oh no... Gilgamesh. An opponent I never wanted to meet again..."
Shirou asked Saber.
"Saber, do you know that Servant?"
"I do. He is a very arrogant but capable and powerful Servant. In the previous Holy Grail War, he proposed to me, but I refused immediately."
"Huh? A proposal?"
"His rude attitude and arrogant personality didn't match with me."
Saber really didn't like Gilgamesh. No wonder, as Gilgamesh mocked Saber as a king of a ruined country dreaming futile dreams, and beyond getting angry, she found it absurd that he told her to give up on the Holy Grail and the salvation of the Kingdom of Britain and become his bride.
"Heh~ So Saber doesn't like guys like Cassian?"
At Rin's words, Saber's face turned red and she panicked.
"N, no. Cassian is a bit arrogant but not rude."
"Uh... You don't mean..."
"No, I don't!!"
Saber quickly turned around and hid her flushed face. At that moment, Illya looked at us with a pitiful expression.
"Hey, isn't it the time to be filming a morning drama?"
"Tha... that's right."
Illya told us the location of the Greater Grail. We immediately moved to the mountain where the Greater Grail was. On the way, Rin kept poking my side and nagging me.
Poke poke!
"Hey~ Must be nice to be popular?"
"Huh? Tha, that's right, haha..."
"With someone you're about to date right in front of you, is that what you should say?"
"No, that's..."
Tohsaka Rin, who was sulking, wasn't easily appeased. Looking back, Saber was silent with a red face. Soon, we arrived at the mountain where the Greater Grail was sleeping.
"Here it is."
Shirou looked up the mountain and asked.
"Do we have to go up the mountain?"
At those words, Rin, perhaps still sulking because of me, said nothing and pushed Shirou towards the wall beside the mountain path.
"Whoa!"
The wall didn't collide but passed through, leading to a cave connected inside the mountain.
"We have to go down, not up."
We entered the cave and kept going down. Then, a large cavern appeared where Gilgamesh, Kirei Kotomine, and Berserker were. Kirei seemed to have become Berserker's master with Gilgamesh's help.
Gilgamesh looked at Saber and said.
"I've been waiting, Saber. It's not too late even now; come to me. I'll let you use the Holy Grail."
"I don't need that anymore."
"Oh ho~ Is that so? What wind has blown?"
Saber glanced at me slightly. Seeing that, Gilgamesh was enraged.
"So it was you!!"
At that moment, Rin Tohsaka stepped forward and asked Kirei Kotomine.
"Kotomine, why did you break the rules?"
"You there, woman! Shut up!"
Gilgamesh, displeased with Rin interfering, created a golden gate in the air and a sword flew towards Rin.
Thump!
I immediately caught the flying sword. Seeing that, Gilgamesh was surprised.
"Oh ho! You seem qualified to covet my woman. Good!"
"After being rejected by Saber, calling her your woman is ridiculous. You stalker."
"You bastard!"
At that, Kirei laughed and said.
"For fun, I'll tell you. I just want to witness the birth."
"What birth are you talking about?"
"If you defeat me, you'll automatically know."
"How did you become Berserker's master?"
"I killed the original master and contracted again. It was troublesome, so I used two command spells, but it doesn't matter now."
With those words, we naturally split up to fight. I faced Gilgamesh, and Kirei and Berserker were handled by Shirou, Rin, Saber, and Rider.
"I'll kill you miserably in front of Saber to prove how futile her reliance was."
Gilgamesh opened many golden gates and shot numerous weapons at me.
"Oh~ Lucky~~!!!"
Whoosh whoosh whoosh~
Thump thump thump!
I repeatedly caught the flying weapons and put them in my inventory. Seeing that, Gilgamesh was dumbfounded.
"Do you also have 'Gate of Babylon'?"
"Something similar, but mine is better."
[Infinite Inventory] is literally infinite, so it can even hold planets, so of course. Gate of Babylon is just for connecting a warehouse and gate to shoot out, so it's a bit different, but in terms of utility, it can't surpass the inventory.
"Is that the end?"
"Damn bastard!!! Let's see how long you can last!"
The ease disappeared from Gilgamesh's face, and he summoned several times more gates than initially and started shooting weapons.
"Oh~ Thank you~~!!!"
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh~
Thump thump thump thump thump thump!!
Numerous armaments and Noble Phantasms began pouring into the inventory. I wondered if Gilgamesh was a donation angel. Giving away weapons for free like this.
'There's a reward for living well. Golden Santa giving all these gifts. Hahaha'
After a while of continuing like that, Gilgamesh, realizing it wasn't working, summoned Enkidu (the chain weapon) and instantly bound one of my arms with chains.
"Finally caught you! Now it's over..."
Before Gilgamesh could finish his sentence, I immediately put the chain weapon Enkidu into my inventory.
"What were you going to say? Now it's over... what?"
Gilgamesh was momentarily stunned, then frowned and got angry.
"You thief!!! Ea!!!"
Finally, Gilgamesh summoned his trump card, 'Enuma Elish', aka Ea. Ea was in the form of a mast spear, beautifully made with a golden handle and a black shaft with numerous magic crests engraved in red.
But the power of Ea was the problem; as Gilgamesh's trump card, it had tremendous power and could shatter space-time, so since we were fighting inside the cave, if Gilgamesh used Ea, the entire mountain might collapse and bury everyone.
Therefore, I quickly teleported behind Gilgamesh, grabbed Ea, and kicked him away.
Thwack!
"Ugh!"
Crash!
Gilgamesh rolled on the ground from my kick.
"Idiot! Are you trying to die together here?"
"Kuh... Who exactly are you?"
"Me? I'm the end of the world, the opposite of Adam."
I explained roughly, but Gilgamesh thought for a moment and immediately understood. He was indeed smart.
"I see. A hero from the future? That's why no information could be found."
Gilgamesh seemed to have heard about me from Kirei and looked for similar heroes. Indeed, he might be careless but not incompetent.
"Is that all you have to say?"
I put Ea in my inventory and slowly walked towards Gilgamesh. Then, Gilgamesh gritted his teeth and confronted me.
"If you survived to the end, why come here and do this instead of rotting away while masturbating there!!! You cockroach-like bastard!!!"
"Ha! You made a mistake there!"
Gilgamesh, still getting on my nerves even in this situation. I quickly approached Gilgamesh and started beating him up.
Thwack thwack thwack!
"Kyaaak!! Stop!!"
"I hate bugs so much, and you compare me to one, and a cockroach at that!!"
Thwack thwack thwack!
Actually, when in the bunker, suffering from cockroaches wasn't once or twice. Outside was hot with no food, so bugs always came into the cool bunker a little, but cockroaches, despite almost no passages connected to the outside, were always there.
The problem was that if bugs appeared, hygiene issues could arise, so they had to be caught, but cockroaches were incredibly fast and hard to catch. Moreover, in the limited space of the bunker with poor ventilation, using pesticide wasn't an option, so they were really annoying creatures.
"Guhhk!"
Thwack thwack thwack!
I looked down at Gilgamesh, who was beaten to a pulp, and thought it was enough, so I brushed off my hands and stood up.
Tap tap tap!
"Whew~ That feels refreshing."
"Ugh... Just kill me!"
"That's why you should watch your mouth. But since my mood is cleared, I'll kill you quickly."
With those words, I beheaded Gilgamesh.
Clang!
Thud!
Ding~!
You have acquired the abilities [(S)Gate of Babylon], [(SS)Sha Naqba Imuru (Clairvoyance)].
[(S)Gate of Babylon] can be linked with [(SSS)Infinite Inventory]. Will you do it?
"No, I'll do it later."
I planned to move all of Gilgamesh's treasures connected to [Gate of Babylon] to my inventory first. Then, I decided to link it with my inventory.
"First, I'll organize this later..."
I looked towards where Shirou and the others were fighting. But Kirei wasn't visible, and only Berserker was fighting them.
"Wow~ Berserker is amazing. Fighting against Saber and Rider who aren't lacking in mana and still holding out."
The interesting thing was that Shirou was trying to help by swinging his sword, but Rin was just hiding, peeking out only her head and watching. I immediately went to Rin and asked why.
"Rin, what are you doing here?"
"Cassian, is it over? My attacks weren't working at all, so it seemed like a waste of jewels, so I was just hiding here."
Well, Berserker didn't take any attacks below a certain rank, so it was understandable. Plus, Rin Tohsaka valued jewels, so she didn't want to waste them.
"But where did that Kirei guy go?"
"He ran deeper into the cave? I tried to go after him, but Berserker blocked me. Couldn't follow."
'Could it be!?'