FATE: Target of Grand Master

Private Homura Gakuen

"Fujimura-sensei is fine, but he is still unconscious due to the effects of the church's spell."

Upon hearing Rin's words, Emiya Shirou nodded slightly.

Rin Tohsaka walked to Shirou Emiya's side and comforted him, "I'm sorry about what happened to Saber."

Shirou gave a bitter smile.

"As a Servant, I was mentally prepared to be separated from Saber, but I didn't expect it to happen so suddenly."

"So, you're just going to give up on yourself like this? You should just abandon your cheap ideal of becoming a 'partner of justice' as soon as possible." Red A deactivated his spirit form and stood aside, mocking him.

"Archer!"

Rin Tohsaka clearly felt that Archer had gone too far.

"Hmph. Don't forget, while you're giving up on yourself here, the enemy is still amassing strength."

After saying that, Archer vanished into spirit form, giving Rin Tohsaka no chance to lecture him.

"Sorry, Shirou, that's just Archer's temper. I'll talk to him properly later."

"No, Tohsaka, he's right. I shouldn't give up on myself like this."

Shirou tried to stand up, supporting himself on his knees, but stumbled and fell to the ground.

Rin quickly helped Shirou up and looked up to see Sakura looking in their direction from not far away.

"Sakura, help Shirou back to his room to rest. Remember, make sure he gets a good rest."

"Okay... okay, sister."

Sakura was taken aback, then helped Shirou to rest.

"Alright, next, we need to go find Xia Yan."

Rin recalled the scene of Cú Chulainn carrying Fujimura Taiga and Emiya Shirou alone, with Xia Yan following behind. Anyone with eyes could see that the three other than Cú Chulainn were not in good condition.

Not to mention Fujimura Taiga, Emiya Shirou was quite depressed, and Xia Yan had a worried look on his face.

Even Xia Yan, who came from a parallel world, is so anxious, which means that the development of events has even exceeded his expectations, and he must be consulted to come up with a solution.

Walking through the school's corridor, Rin saw Xia Yan pacing back and forth on the playground on the first floor.

"These magical beasts and that giant snake made of hair all point to her, but is it really possible for such an extraordinary Servant to be summoned? But I really can't think of any other possibility besides her. No, no, this isn't about whether it's possible or not, but about how to defeat her if the assumption is true."

"Ahhhhhh! Damn it! Gilgamesh, the one most likely to defeat her, is completely out of control here! The second and third hopefuls are also out of control—one is already sacrificed and might even become the enemy. Calling this trial hellish is too lenient! BB! You come out here! I need to have a serious talk with you!"

Rin Tohsaka walked over to Cú Chulainn, who was standing quietly to the side watching his Master mutter to himself, and asked, "Has he been talking so loudly the whole time?"

Cú Chulainn scratched his head and said, "Yeah, we've been spouting riddles like a riddle-maker all this time."

Lin sighed and walked over to Xia Yan's side.

"Xia Yan, according to your plan, the Caster team should be back from the city soon. Archer and I are next, but I have a few questions for you before we leave."

Xia Yan stopped pacing back and forth and nodded.

"Go ahead and ask."

Why are you so anxious? Have you come to some conclusion?

As expected of Rin, she's incredibly perceptive.

"Rin, do you believe in God?"

"Huh? How did we suddenly get onto the topic of religion?"

Xia Yan scratched his head and said, "Or to put it another way. If we were facing an enemy with divine power, do you think we would have a chance of winning?"

"An enemy with divine power. There's probably no way to defeat them."

Rin Tohsaka shrugged.

"Wait a minute, you're not kidding, are you?"

Seeing Xia Yan's expression that said, "Are you kidding me?", Rin Tohsaka also grabbed her hair.

"Seriously, you've infected me. Hurry up and tell me what you've thought of, and we'll figure out a solution together."

Xia Yan sorted out his thoughts.

If my guess is correct, Rider has been transformed into Matou Ryouken's Servant, and forcibly transformed into another form of hers: Gorgon.

Moreover, it is the Gorgon who possesses the Tiamat privilege ability in the Seventh Singularity, Monster Absolute Front: Babylonia. Only in this way can we explain why so many god-like monsters have appeared.

In a regular Holy Grail War, only Matou Ryouken, who is the Lesser Grail, can summon such a god-level Servant. But upon closer inspection, there seem to be many illogical aspects to this.

According to the information sent back by Medea, the monsters withdrew from Fuyuki City in a very orderly manner before nightfall, heading towards Ryudouji Temple.

It seems these magical beasts are taking the collected magic back to someone.

Combined with Matou Ryouken's act of luring Saber, Xia Yan came to a guess: Gorgon may not have been fully summoned, or the summoned Gorgon may have had some defects, which is why the monsters had to collect magic power. At the same time, because it did not meet Matou Ryouken's expectations, other Servants were needed to supplement the fighting force.

After telling Rin her guess, Rin stroked her chin and remained silent for a long while.

"Assuming Xia Yan's assumption is true, then in order to defeat the opponent, we must unite all the Servants currently in the world."

Xia Yan immediately understood what Lin meant.

"You mean you want to go and negotiate with Ilya again?"

"That's right. When you went to communicate earlier, Ilya was still confident that she could win the Holy Grail War with Berserker alone, but the situation is very different now. If the worst-case scenario you guessed happens, and Saber is also controlled, then she is not an opponent that any single Servant can defeat."

Indeed, this is a very persuasive statement.

"Okay, let's set off now."

Xia Yan wanted to say that, but considering that everyone had been fighting fiercely for a day and was exhausted, especially Shirou Emiya, whose body was greatly depleted, he would not be able to fight without a good night's rest.

"Then we'll set off tomorrow morning."

After discussing the next strategy with Rin, Xia Yan wanted to pace around and think for a while, but suddenly felt dizzy and his body tilted to one side. If Rin hadn't been quick to react, Xia Yan would have fallen headfirst onto the playground.

Xia Yan then realized that even he himself was already at his limit.

"Lancer, come help me out. Xia Yan needs to get some rest too."

"Leave it to me."

Cú Chulainn hurriedly stepped forward and hoisted his Master onto his back.

Just as Xia Yan was being carried by Cú Chulainn to the faculty dormitory to rest, Xia Yan felt as if a system information box had appeared in front of him.

However, the information box seemed to be infected with a virus; the borders were distorted, and the text in the middle was pixelated and completely illegible.

What's going on?

With no energy left to think, Xia Yan lost consciousness while pondering this question.