After bidding farewell to Bennett, Xuanhao returned to the heights of Snowfield City again.
He stood in mid-air and looked down at the entire city, then closed his eyes and felt the calls from different places in time and space.
What gave him a headache was that there were so many summoning messages from different time and space that he couldn't tell the specific time.
He can only make intuitive inferences based on the distance of time and try to go to a closer time and space.
At a certain moment, he seemed to have caught something, and then his figure disappeared into this space.
············
——Eight years ago——
Tell me a story about a man.
The story of a man who is more idealistic than anyone else, and therefore more desperate than anyone else.
That man's dream was naive.
I hope that everyone in this world can be happy, I have always prayed for this in my heart.
All teenagers have once embraced such ideals, but after realizing the cruelty of life, they became disappointed and abandoned their childish ideals.
No matter what kind of happiness comes at the cost of a certain sacrifice, every child will gradually understand this common sense as they grow up.
But that man was different.
Maybe it's because he is stupider than anyone else. Maybe there is something wrong with him. Or maybe he is the kind of person who can be called a saint, who is burdened with a destiny that ordinary people cannot understand. He understands everything in this world.
Life will be weighed on the two scales of sacrifice and redemption...
Understand that you must never leave any side of the tray empty...
From that day on, he determined his ambition to be a weigher.
If you want to reduce the lamentations in this world more and more surely, there is no other way to choose.
In order to save the pallet on the side with even one more person, you must overturn the pallet on the other side with even one less person.
This is an act in which the minority must be killed in order to allow the majority to survive.
Therefore, the more he worked to save people, the better he became at killing people.
The man's hands were covered with layers of blood, but he never backed away.
Regardless of whether the means are correct or not, regardless of whether the purpose is correct or not, just to make the balance more fair and unbiased, this is the only task imposed on myself.
Life does not distinguish between high or low, old or young, it is just a quantitative unit.
This man saves people without distinction, and kills without distinction at the same time.
But by the time he woke up, it was too late.
If you treat all people fairly and respect their lives, it is the same as not loving anyone.
If this iron rule could be remembered earlier, maybe he could still be saved.
If he freezes his young heart, makes it necrotic, and turns himself completely into a ruthless measuring machine, he might live a life of just choosing the living and the dead indifferently. In that case, he should have no worries.
However, he is not such a person.
The joyful smiles of others will fill his chest, and the sounds of others crying will hit his heart.
He will feel angry when he sees others' grievances being unable to be appealed. When he sees someone crying lonely tears, he can't help but reach out to wipe them away.
While pursuing an ideal that transcends this world - however, he is also a person who is too humane.
This contradiction brought countless punishments to that man.
There is also friendship and love.
Even if one life that is so loved and loved is placed on the balance at the same time as countless other lives that are unknown to each other——
He will never give up his principles.
It is precisely because we love this person that we should treat her as the same as other lives, respect her equally, and give up equally.
He always meets important people and then loses them in the blink of an eye.
Now this man is suffering the greatest punishment.
The window is filled with snow blown by the cold wind. It is a freezing night in the frozen forest.
In an ancient castle built on frozen soil, a small room was surrounded by the heat of a slowly burning furnace.
In that warm room, the man held a new little life in his arms.
The body that is full of weight makes people feel a little illusory, and it does not even have the expected weight.
It's like the first snow you hold in your hands, it will break into pieces if you shake it lightly. This delicate touch is so delicate that it even makes people feel a little dangerous.
Even though it was very weak, she still tried her best to keep breathing while sleeping. With her slow breathing, her little mouth was vibrating gently. Her little chest was also beating weakly. For her, that was already her best effort.
"I seem to be sleeping peacefully."
The mother leaned on the bed and kept watching the way he held the baby with a smile.
It seemed that she had not yet recovered from the haggardness after giving birth. Her face was not very good and she had lost some blood, but her noble appearance like gems was not damaged at all.
Because her face was filled with a happy look, which completely covered up the haggard look caused by fatigue, her gentle eyes and smile shone brightly.
"Even if you are familiar with the wet nurse, this child will cry non-stop. This is the first time to be held so obediently. - She must know. She knows that you are a very gentle person, so she feels at ease.
"
"..."
The man had nothing to say, he just stared blankly back and forth at the baby in his hands and the mother on the bed.
I have never seen Irisviel smile so beautifully.
She was originally a woman who had nothing to do with happiness. No one had ever thought of giving her the emotion of happiness. She was not a creation of God, but an artificial creature created by human hands... As a homunculus
Born a woman, this is a natural treatment.
Irisviel had never expected it. She was created as a doll and raised as a doll. Perhaps she could not even understand the meaning of the word happiness before.
But now - she is smiling brightly.
"It's great to have this baby."
Irisviel.\nVon.\nEinzbern said quietly and lovingly while looking at the sleeping baby.
"From now on, this child will live as an imitation of a human being. It may be painful, and it may resent the mother who gave birth to him, who is not a real human being. Even so, I am still very happy. I feel that this child is particularly cute and I feel very proud.
."
Although there is nothing special about the appearance, just like an ordinary cute little baby, but——
The body that had been subjected to several magic spells when it was still in her mother's body has been replaced by tissue that is even more inhuman than her mother's. The body that has been used for a limited purpose since birth can be said to be the crystallized body of magic. That is Ellie.
The true identity of Sphire's beloved daughter.
Despite such a cruel birth, Irisviel still said "It's good to be born", affirming herself for giving birth to children, affirming her newborn daughter, cherishing life, and smiling and being proud of it.
That kind of strength, that kind of noble soul, there is no doubt that this is a quality that only belongs to "mother".
A girl who was originally just a doll, became a woman who gained love, and then became a mother, gaining unshakable power. That is "happiness" that cannot be violated by anything.
The mother and son in the bedroom, protected by the warmth of the stove, now seem to be isolated from any despair and misfortune.
But - the man understands that the world he despises is more similar to the snowstorm outside the window.
"Alice, I-"
As soon as he said this, the man suddenly felt as if his heart had been stabbed by a knife. The knife was the child's peaceful sleeping face and the mother's bright and dazzling smile.
"I will drag you to death one day."
In response to this forced declaration, Irisviel nodded with her usual calm expression.
"I know. Of course. That's Einzbern's long-cherished wish. That's what I was born for."
That is the future that has been determined.
Six years later, a man will take his wife to death. As the only necessity to save the world, Irisviel will become a sacrifice to his ideals.
That was a self-evident fact that the two of them had discussed countless times.
The man shed tears and cursed himself countless times, but every time Irisviel always forgave him and encouraged him.
"It is precisely because I know your ideals and have the same prayer in my heart that I am what I am now. It is you who have guided me. It is you who have taught me to no longer live like a doll."
Born for the same ideal, and also buried in the ideal. In this way, you can become the other half of this man. This is the way of love of this woman, Irisviel. It is precisely because of a woman like her that men can feel each other's love.
tolerant.
"You don't need to mourn me. Because I have become a part of you. So, you just have to endure the pain of losing a part of your body."
"…Then, what to do with that child?"
The baby, which should have been as light as a feather, felt such an unbearable weight in his hands that the man's feet were shaking.
This child does not yet have any understanding or comprehension of the ideals he holds.
She can neither judge her father's way of life nor forgive him. She does not yet have that power.
But even with such a pure and flawless life, his ideals remained unmoved.
There is no humble distinction between any life, no distinction between old and young, it is just a quantitative unit——
"I...I am not qualified to hold this child."
The almost crazy love for the child almost overwhelmed him, and the man tried his best to squeeze out these words.
A teardrop fell on the bulging pink face of the baby in her arms.
The man was sobbing silently and finally knelt down.
In order to cover up the ruthlessness of this world, we have to be even more ruthless... Even so, God still inflicts the greatest punishment on this man who has the one he loves.
I love you more than anyone else in this world.
Even if it means destroying the entire world, I still want to protect it.
However, the man understands that if the justice he firmly believes in requires the sacrifice of this pure life - what decision will he, Emiya Kiritsugu, this man make.
Afraid that that day would come sooner or later, afraid of the one in ten thousand possibility, Kiritsugu cried.
The warmth in his wrist made him feel stuffy inside.
Irisviel stood up from the bed and gently put her hand on the shoulder of her crying husband.
"Don't forget, a world where no one has to cry is the ideal you have always dreamed of, right? In eight years... your battle will be over. You and I will realize our ideal. The Holy Grail will definitely save us.
your."
His wife knew all his troubles and completely endured Kiritsugu's tears.
"After that day, please hug our child again - Illyasviel. Stand up and act like an ordinary father."
--three years ago--
According to occult science, there is a "force" at the apex of dimensionalism outside this world.
As the origin coordinate of everything that happens, it is the long-cherished wish of all magicians, the "whirlpool of origin"... the seat of God that records everything in this world from the beginning to the end, and creates this world.
The attempt to reach that "root" started two hundred years ago, and some people actually put it into practice.
Einzbern, Matō, and Tohsaka. These three families were the first to start. They tried to find the "Holy Grail" that appeared in many legends. In the hope that they could summon the Holy Grail that could grant any wish, the magicians from the three families provided each other with
The secret spell finally allowed the Holy Grail, known as the "Cauldron of Omnipotence", to reappear.
...But once it became clear that the Holy Grail could only fulfill one person's wish, the cooperative relationship began to turn into a bloody struggle.
This is the beginning of the "Holy Grail War".
From then on, in a cycle of sixty years, the Holy Grail will reappear in the far east place "Fuyuki" where it was once summoned. Then the Holy Grail will select seven magicians with the authority to control the Holy Grail, and use a part of the huge magic power to
Let these seven magicians have the ability to summon heroic spirits called "Servants". Let these seven people compete in a desperate duel to determine who is more qualified to possess the Holy Grail.
——This is what Kotomine Kirei received in brief.
"The pattern that appears on your right hand is called the 'Command Spell'. As proof of being selected by the Holy Grail, it is the stigmata given to you for being able to command Servants."
The person who kept explaining in a smooth and clear voice was named Tokiomi Tosaka.
This is a beautiful villa built on a beautiful hill in Minami Itori. Three men are sitting in the social talk room. Kirei and Tokiomi, and the other one who introduced the two to meet and hosted the meeting.
As a friend of his father who is nearly eighty years old, this strange Japanese named Tohsaka is too young. He is about the same age as Kirei, but he has a particularly stable temperament and a dignified appearance, which makes him look very majestic.
After asking, I found out that he was also a famous man in Japan, and it was said that this villa was his villa. But the most surprising thing was that as soon as they met, he announced that he was a "magician".
There is nothing special about the word magician. Kirei and his father both belong to the priesthood, but their duties as father and son are fundamentally different from those of ordinary "priests".
The "Temple Church" to which Kirei and the others belong is responsible for labeling miracles and mysteries outside of doctrine as heretics and banishing them and burying them in darkness. In other words, it stands to outlaw blasphemies such as magic.