Chapter Five : The True Visage(part-1)
Shirou was sure they wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for Avalon.
Well, he might have survived due to his sheer durability due to God hand however Illya even with her sturdy homunculus physique wouldn't have survived the train wreck.
When they dug themselves out of wreckage they were presented with a sight they didn't expect.
Several of the train's carriages have fallen to the sideways. Completely wrecked. There weren't any carriages other than the main engine that was left unscathed.
It would be considered one of the most horrible derailment in history.
A lot of passengers died and many more were injured. Some had injuries so horrible that they wouldn't be able to walk for the rest of their life. Some would be permanently crippled.
Mothers crying for their children and children crying for their parents. Some from pain and injury.
Fathers watched hopelessly as their children and spouse bled to death.
It was hell.
Just like the fourth Holy Grail war.
Shirou who always aspired to be a hero couldn't tolerate this pain anymore. Ignoring Illya's cry he ran toward the carriages. Hoping to rescue a few if he could.
To hell with secrecy about magecraft. He will burn that bridge when it comes to it.
However before he could take ten steps to the nearest carriage a heavy object crashed in front of him with the impact of a meteorite. Earth, stone, grass and roots flew into the air from heavy impact.
Shirou was nearly knocked away on his legs.
If it wasn't for Shiro's beast like instinct he would have been hit as well.
No, Shirou was sure the heavy object has been hurled at his direction intentionally. It was only due to his instinct that he dodged the collision.
When the dust and debris settled Shirou could vaguely make out the shape of the object.
It was a hammer.
No, not a hammer.
It was a mallet to be precise.
An iron mallet with bulbous head.
Instinctively Shirou tried to record it in his reality marble even though it wasn't a sword.
To his surprise he failed.
Not only the thing was a divine construct, it was something far more. A concept given form. A cluster of information that has a physical form.
It was like a organ that is separated from the wielder's body yet connected somehow.
Which doesn't make sense at all.
Something that didn't possess sentience but was programmed to be unreproducible and unable to wielded by anyone else other than the owner.
However Shirou could harvest some information. He now knew what it is and what caused the derailment.
It was something every Japanese child and adult knew about.
Uchide no kozuchi.
The wishing mallet.
"I have found you at last, Ogre"
A figure literally dropped from the sky.
The figure had a young face of a teenager. Hair tied in a top-knot. A face that could be called gorgeously handsome. Fair complexion and high cheekbones. Lithe figure.
Cocky smirk that suited better on the face of a Chinese young master.
He was wearing a samurai armor beneath a warrior's gi and hakama. On his side was a sword.
No not a sword.
It was an overgrown needle. It did have a pointy end but no sharp edge. The slit at the opposite end for inserting thread was also evident.
However Shirou could trace it. It wasn't a divine construct or anything. It was just a construct made out of mana. It was just an overgrown needle.
It also gave away his identity.
"Issun-boshi"
"Indeed, It is I lord Issun-boshi himself. Engrave my name in your heart ogre as you go to the land of Yomi"
Shirou wasn't sure what this guy was trying to do. Was this guy nuts or something. Provoking him in the middle of a train wreck as people were observing. Isn't he concerned about the revelation of magecraft.
Well he might not be the best person who should be talking about the revealtion of magecraft of all things. But still, provoking him in the middle of a train wreck.
Wait! Train wreck-
"Are you the one who caused the rain wreck?"
The hero simply gazed at the carriages and simply smirked, "What of it?"
"Don't play coy with me!", Shirou roared
"Answer me, did you or did you not cause the train wreck?" Shirou snarled.
"What if I did?" the cocky smile never left the hero's face. He pretty much confirmed it.
"You would deliberately cause such tragedy and suffering to the innocent civilians!"
"Irrelevant" the hero dismissed Shirou.
"They were a necessary sacrifice. A mere footnote in my grand saga. Once I'm done vanquishing the ogres they can thank me and listen to my glorious tale from the land of Yomi. Besides they played their part in luring you out, didn't they?"
Shirou gritted his teeth. The hubris of heroes, kings and tyrants. He was familiar with it.
He had seen it repeatedly during the fifth Holy Grail war.
With Gilgamesh
And with Medea.
People who deluded themselves into believing they are heroes. Who thought the general mass were entitled to revere them.
They thought the masses lived for their sake and are entitled to cater to their whims.
To them only their desire mattered. Happily sacrificing soldiers for the sake of victory or for large rituals in the case of magi.
Even now he could remember Tohsaka's horror struck face taking an ashen color as she discovered the children at the basement of Kirei's church.
And even though it pained her against his will she ended their misery much to his opposition.
At this moment Shirou only felt rage at looking at the face of the being in front of him. That cocky smirk, Gilgamesh had a similar one as well.
At that moment he vowed he would wipe it away from that bastard's face regardless of whatever it took him.
"Illya, I leave things here to you?"
Before running towards the nearby Binghen forest, ignoring Illya's protests.
"Ho, running away coward?" The hero followed after him.
'No, not running away. I am luring you to your doom.' With so many people around he didn't want to escalate the tragedy any more.
After ten minutes of running he finally came to a clearing. Perfect spot.
"Finally tired of running away, Ogre. For a devil that triumphed over my kins you have cowardy in spades."
"Who said I was running away. I simply wanted to bring you to a less populated area."
"It doesn't matter what you plan. Ogres are meant to be defeated by heroes. It's natural that I will be victorious, Humph. Although if you cough up the treasures I might consider giving you a less painful death." The bastard said with a cocky smile.
"You are not a hero. You are a delusional fool. Allow me to carefully break that delusion of yours." Shirou readied his trance, tracing Kanshou and Byakuya. All the while wondering if the god was aware of his noble phantasms.
"It seems the foolishness associated with your kind is present within you. Alas! The wise words of this young lord fell to deaf years. Regardless I will collect them from your corpse"
That was the queue.
Shirou sprung to action like jumping from a springboard. The false hero took his stance as well. With his needle sword in one hand and uchide no kozuchi in other.
The shockwave produced from their clash uprooted several trees in the clearing.
A side slash by Kanshou, proceeded by a reverse grip slash by Byakuya.
The delusional hero simply clashed against the white sword with his needle sword and deflected the black sword with his mallet.
A single slash against his torso, only to be deflected by his armor. That armor seems rather sturdy.
A diagonal slash followed by a piercing stab, the self-proclaimed hero evaded it by jumping backwards.
A kick towards his sheen was returned with a strike by the tortoise patterned sword.
Shirou willingly provided openings in his guard and invited the deranged hero to attack, and when he did attack, he was both defending and striking back.
A brute strike by the mallet against his chest was defended by crossing the swords against his chest and using them as a shield.
Shirou decided to be the first one to deploy techniques.
Spirit and technique, flawless and firm
Shirou threw both his sword after jumping over and gaining a bit of a distance.
Seeing him weaponless the god grinned and proceeded like an arrow that has been let loose from a bow.
Our strength rips the mountains
Our swords split the waters
Then he instantly traced another pair and proceeded to threw them against him.
Our names reach the imperial villa
The third pair was reinforced to their absolute and turned into broken phantasm.
They now looked like feather quills
Our names reach the imperial villa
Then he jumped at the hero's direction and slashed.
The two of us can't hold the heavens together.
The distance has crossed, the hero was trapped between the intersections of swords.
An omnidirectional attack.
Crane Wing Three Realm
The moment before they clashed against the delusional idiot's torso…
He vanished.
What the heck!
Teleportation or intangibility.
Which one is it?
Without the so-called hero existing in the intersection between the technique. The noble phantasms detonated against each other. The shockwave and heat produced would be enough to vaporize even steel.
"It seems you do have some tricks up at your sleeve. For a cowardly ogre to actually have some skills…. Seems like this treasure hunt wouldn't be as boring as I thought I would be"
Shirou barely had any moment to dodge before he took a nasty right hook from the heretic god.
What the….How did he?
Before Shirou could respond the god disappeared and simply appeared at his back, before driving his mallet against his torso.
If it wasn't for God Hand he would be meat paste.
How is he doing this again?
He was sure that it wasn't raw speed. Shirou had beast like instincts that saved his life numerous times during the Holy Grail war.
Whatever happened to him, it further enhanced his instincts. He would be able to keep up with his instincts if it was only raw speed.
Considering there was slight delay between the attacks he could tell it wasn't raw speed. That left only teleportation.
Considering this world was still in the age of gods, spatial manipulation shouldn't be that much of a surprise. During age of gods such magecraft that borderline true magic was daily phenomenon.
Shirou decided to simply end it with a overpowered noble phantasm.
The spear of the hound of ulster simply came to him on demand.
Red aura begin to emit from the spear as potent bloodlust simply flooded the clearing. The very mana in the environment froze.
Shirou took a crouching stance after running forward fifty feet.
"Gae-Bolg"
The moment he brought out the spear, the hero in font of him froze before taking a step, he has perceived the spear as a threat.
The moment shirou uttered the first name of the spear something odd happened, for a brief moment Shirou felt as if the spear has been seized by something invisible.
Before he could utter the second portion of its name-the spear simply disappeared.
Disintegration or spatial transference?
Shirou briefly focused at his spear. The innate connection to his traced weapons with his reality marble was still present. His spear is still there he could still invoke the name.
However….
Its size is less than a bacteria….
What the…
Could it be….
"Mass alteration" Shirou said.
"Took you for a while to figure out ogre" the bastard still had that cocky smirk.
The volume of an object is equally proportional to its mass, change its mass and its size and volume will shift as well.
So that's how he protected himself, whenever Shirou is close to striking him. He simply changes his own mass and hence his size/volume to evade the strike.
But shifting volume and mass willingly?
That's just plain true magic.
It broke the mass-energy conservation law.
No not true magic...authorities.
The powers of gods.
He understood now.
But Issun-Boshi is not a god.
This is probably the anecdote of Issun-boshi changing his size to gain the bride and become his lord's son-in-law.
Before Shirou could ponder any further the heretic god simply threw his mallet at him before he could react.
Before his own eyes. The hammer neared him less than a second and around 0.01 second It shifted to gigantic mountain sized proportion.
The clearing has been thoroughly demolished.
Shirou had less than 0.01 second to deploy Lord Camelot.
The walls surrounding Camelot that once protected Arturia came to protect Shirou. The wall deploying further defense not only because Shirou's heart and dedication were in right place but also because the adoration Shirou possesed for Saber and Saber for Shirou.
The mallet returned to it's original size and returned to it's owner.
Shirou couldn't use his noble phantasms in this situation. With them becoming smaller than bacteria what was he supposed to do with them. He needed something else.
Instantly the suns in his reality marble came to his sight.
Mystic eyes it is.
Shirou's amber eyes turned flaxen colored and his pupils turned rectangular.
Instantly the flesh of Issun-boshi's arms begin to harden and started turning into stone so did some part of his visible neck and hair.
The heretic god became alarmed for a second before he flared his prana. Although it didn't stop the petrification altogether there was part of his hands entire left hand, part neck and hair that have turned into stone.
The hero snarled, "Demon, how dare you try to desecrate my divine flesh!"
"Desecrate you?" Shirou simply muttered out loud. "I intend to do far worse than desecrating you. You killed innocent civilians and threatened to kill nearly killed my sister. I will do far worse than desecrating you. I will kill you."
"It's the ogre's job to die by hero's blade so that the hero can be glorified you fool. Just drop dead already so that I can close the curtain to this drama" said the delusional being.
"And I keep telling you, you are not a hero. You are just some delusional sod. Your hubris would be your undoing. Before this battle ends I will prove that to you."
"How dare you! I am a hero"
"You are merely an overgrown child deluding himself by repeatedly saying he is a hero. Never in a million years would I admit you to be a hero."
"I am a hero." The deity all but roared.
"A hero is selfless. He protects the innocent. He helps others in need. He guides others.
He soothes other's pain. He sings lullaby to his wounded comrades. His heart aches as other's.
He establishes justice. He upholds virtue. He is fair and honest.
He cries when other cries. He cherishes seeing the joy of others.
Tell me, which if this qualities is present in you. If you can point a single one out I will admit that you are a hero?"
Last part of Shirou's passion filled speech came out both as a question and a challenge to the heretic god.
The god simply raged.
"Vanquishing monsters, rescuing the bride and gaining treasures alone is enough to qualify as one. Besides what does a demon like you know about heroism? Humph…."
The deluded hero simply stick out his nose and made such a facial expression that would make anyone looking at him think as if he had been forced to swallow a cockroach.
"You ask what I know about heroism;
Then let me tell you what I know.
I dream to be one,
I adore heroes
For I know the tale of their hardship,
Their failures and success
Their sorrows and joys.
Their hopes and dreams.
And all of them are currently yelling at you,
At your hypocrisy!
Your desecration of the concept of heroism.
And as a aspirant hero of justice-
I can't and will not tolerate it.
This is why I will break you Illusion,
And your delusion"
The god simply snarled like a mad dog.
"Once I am done with you even ashes of you will not be left, you vile ogre"
He simply cut of his petrified left hand and channeled prana at his harm.
The arm was back, fresh as new.
High speed regeneration.
Shirou simply focused on another sun.
Invisible Air.
" Strike air, Hammer of the wind king"
A massive gust of wind blew out of Shirou's outstretched palm.
The god was knocked away by a few feet before he regained his balance.
Shirou simply focused on the wind and mentally willed them to become razor sharp rotating blades.
They clashed against the god like hundred ton iron guillotine.
There wasn't even a scratch on his body.
Shirou instantly figured out what he did.
He simply increased his mass without changing his volume aka size.
Resulting in alteration of his density. At this moment his sheer mass and density allowed him to mimic the durability of his God Hand.
This ability is getting annoying.
The needle at the god's hand disappeared. No it shrank
Shirou instantly dived away.
As a thousand foot tall and equally weighting needle clashed against the place where Shirou previously stood.
The moment Shirou got a break, the god threw his hammer. The hammer simply shrank into the size of a finger nail.
Although Shirou was able to evade it, the hammer gazed his knee.
Instantly his knee broke and blood begin to gush out, Shirou would be one less of a knee if it wasn't for God Hand.
Shirou oddly felt immense respect and adoration for the Greek hero who was the original owner of this power.
That bastard.
He changed the volume of the hammer into a small size than proceeded to increase its mass, increasing its density further.
That finger nail sized hammer probably had a mass of 10 ton.
That's high school physics, how he was doing it was the real mystery.
Avalon came to his help and defend him as the god threw his needle again.
The needle simply phased through him.
While Avalon itself was an immensely useful ability. There was a very defining weakness it now possessed as his power which it originally didn't have while under saber's possession.
While it defended him, it spatially displaced his entire body in the realm of fairies thus it's impossible for him to act or interact with physical world while it was on defense mode. While attacking he could deploy it as an active noble phantasm that granted him near immortality level regeneration however he couldn't use it for defending himself.
In other words for attacking someone Shirou had to forsook his impenetrable defense.
Such a dilemma
Saber didn't have to suffer from this drawback but then again she was its original owner.
The only reason he could even deploy it was because somehow even though some change in its functions, the sheathe now recognized him as a secondary owner.
That and saber's respect for him, which the sheathe appreciated.
"Hmm, is that all you can do. For all that horseshit you spewed about heroism the only thing you can do is hide and cower in front of a true hero."
Shirou didn't fell for the provocation. Gilgamesh's words were far heavier and if that couldn't make a rise out of him than this wouldn't either.
"May be when I make that snow haired fairy mine, you will come out from behind that veil." There was a sadistic smile in the bastard's face.
Shirou's blood instantly ran cold. Then it begin to boil. There was lava beneath his skin now.
Even dragon had its reverse Scale.
Shirou's was Illya.
He wasn't as possessive of her as other would think.
However the very thought of anyone hurting or heaven forbids doing something harmful to her boiled Shirou's blood.
This bastard wouldn't live beyond this day.
Shirou silently swore to his departed father.
Avalon was done healing him.
Time to get back to battle.
He couldn't use his noble phantasms or armaments.
The bastard would just shrink them. He needed something that was intangible and abstract in nature.
"I myself am strength, the unconquerable and the Invincible"
Instantly shirou's body was flooded with prana.
A black aura surrounded his body.
The strength of thousand mighty lions dwelled in his body waiting to be unleashed. At this moment Shirou could rip mountains apart.
Shirou rushed towards the deluded god. Intending to rip him apart with the strength that once dwelled in the body of the Greek god of strength.
A single punch completely disregarded of the mass and density of the god's body and threw him across the forest.
Shirou was soon after him. He simply wouldn't give the bastard the chance to alter his mass.
The moment Shirou caught up to him, the God had already got back at his feet. His armor now broken, clothes ripped and tattered. A thin line of blood was coming out of his torn top knot had come undone.
The god simply glared at him, his eyes bloodshot with rage and said, "So be it, I tried to preserve your corpse so that I could plunder it. But now I don't care about treasure, you will pay with your ashes for this sacrilege"
"Oh mother earth I beseech thee, take my splendor, bear my weight, for a mother's bosom may never be empty."
As soon as the god said the spellwords huge amount of prana was unleashed. The air itself was heavy and suffocating
The god started growing in size.
10 meter
100 meter
1000 meter
10000 meter.
The God was now as larger than the largest football field, almost as tall as a mountain. Shirou was sure mage craft had already become revealed to the world. The survivors could obviously see this gigantic figure's reckless use of power. Let's just go with the flow and worry about it later.
The god had finally stopped growing. His immense mass now granted him titanic strength. Honestly if a minor folk hero contained that much power. What about the gods?
The god now swung his mighty palm around Shirou. Shirou punched back.
Honestly it was comical.
The dwarf hero was now a giant and Shirou could now be considered a gnat that was putting up a futile resistance from a third person point of view.
Their arms clashed against each other producing titanic shock wave. Neither was willing to give up. Neither would back down.
Their punches collided against each other again and again. Neither was much of a martial artist. Shirou's unarmed martial skills can be considered a blessing from Fujimura Taiga and Issun-Boshi on the contrary for a so called popular folk hero now showed martial skills that could be considered plain street brawling, in other words lackluster.
Neither would give up. Only one will emerge alive.
….
Illya was in a dilemma. The storm and shockwaves that was could still be felt from this far pretty much revealed the supernatural world to the public. If earlier demonstration by that being that called himself Issun-boshi didn't reveal it.
What are those fools doing? Don't they care about the secrecy of magecraft and all that is supernatural? They are going at it like adrenaline junkie.
Honestly this time onii-chan is not at fault here.
It was that self-proclaimed hero that destroyed the train.
Honestly without medic and emergency treatment all of this injured people will either die or become crippled….
If she was still the same Illya as she was before she wouldn't have cared, priorising the secrecy of magecraft above anything else. But no, she wasn't the same person before.
Onii-chan had changed her.
She was slowly becoming the caring girl that she used to be.
Like when she used to play with mom and dad in the slow glazed Einzbern castle, collecting walnuts.
Onii-chan was such a person.
He himself was like a living philosopher's stone.
One that changed people into gold simply by being around them.
He was a saint who encouraged others to become like him simply by being around them.
Those who yearned for change
Those who yearned to turn back a new leaf….
Will always find an ally in him.
Normally she would focus on erasing the memories to control the crowd at such situations as dictated by magus rule…
However this people who would die without treatment, whom she had the capacity to treat…..
Would she be able to look at onii-chan's eye without feeling guilty over the fact she let these people die when she had the capacity to save them….
To tell the truth onii-chan who is busy battling the deluded hero, would probably never hold it against her. He probably wouldn't reprimand her either….
All this people could be considered a casualty of battle and their death would probably covered up by local Mage Association's equivalent…
However the very possibility of him someday coming to know that their death could have been prevented through her skill, yet she didn't do anything….
The very possibility of him looking at her with disappointment in his eyes….
It horrified her.
It scared her.
Damn it its all onii-chan's fault for changing her so much.
He rubbed off her too much.
And it's been only a short while they have known each other…
Illya sighed.
To hell with secrecy of mage craft. Mage craft has been already revealed. Let the local Mage Association's deal with the outcome later. By the time they will be long gone.
Honestly what she was about to do would earn her a lecture from old man Acht.
And a sigh of disapproval from papa.
And a sealing designation from association.
Mama would approve though.
However they are not here.
Only Shirou was here and he was the only one that mattered.
She reached towards the closest patient that was about to die. A woman no older than her early thirties. A mother of two.
She had a collapsed lung from blunt force and a huge gash near her stomach.
Slowly she opened her magic circuits and sent prana through the flesh. Instantly the concept of regeneration, recovery and healing was boosted, bleeding stopped with pale silver glow. Wounds begin to knit itself by connecting the damaged tissue and cells. A minor from of alchemical alteration that dealt with flesh manipulation.
The woman's eldest daughter of thirteen who was crying nearby at first wanted to reprimand her and call out to her about worsening the wound.
However her eyes soon widened at seeing the miracle. Slowly the people around her begin to collect their wounded and carry the most wounded without compromising their wound, towards her.
"An Angel""
"No, a Saint"
"I think she is a prophet"
What next?
She is the next coming of Jesus Christ!
Honestly, you folk wouldn't say the same things to me if you saw me setting berserker against my adversaries during fifth Holy Grail war.
If there was any being that could be considered saint in this rotten world that would be my brother.
The very same person who is fighting a mythical hero for your sake.
And It's for his sake I am doing this.
Let them shower her with praises as soon as Shirou finishes his battle she will erase their memories. Besides a little praise wouldn't hurt.
"Danke Dir" (Thank you)
Said a middle aged man, husband to the woman she healed.
The woman merely smiled, relatively well now that her wounds have healed.
"It's good to know that His Majesty keeps such good companies"
"Entschuldige Mich"(Pardon me) Illya blurted.
"Don't be so shocked, It became evident when the heretic god challenged his Majesty, The eighth god slaying king"
The woman took a deep breath, using luggages to lay back against.
"Although neither my husband nor my eldest daughter had much talent in magic I was told I could have been a powerful witch. However I found much solace in family. Although my younger daughter shared my gifts. Although that potential pales compared to you"
Illya's eye became cold and calculating. Weighting the pros and cons of whether he should terminate the threat by nipping it in the bud.
Of all the people she could have healed it had to be magus.
Was onii-chan's E-rank luck now rubbing off to her as well?
After weighting the pros and cons she decided to spare her. Not because she felt pity or something because she desperately needed information and she would rather have it from someone who she had under debt. By no means does she trust this woman.
However on the context of her being a well-wisher, she will give her the benefit of doubt.
"Don't be so tensed. I mean no harm"
Good cause if you meant any, neither you nor your family would live to see the next light of the day.
"Ms.-"
"Ingrid, Ingrid Lehman"
"Ms. Ingrid, sorry to say but Me and lord Shirou has been out of human civilization for a while, can you please inform us about current context about the supernatural world, we had a very sheltered upbringing"
It might be tactless to interrogate an injured women who has just been treated but desperate situation calls for desperate mean.
The situation is certainly desperate enough.
Illya carefully manipulated the words that wouldn't let off her last name or Shirou's.
The only reason she used Shirou's real name was because it would have been nearly impossible to keep Shirou's status as the magician of the third.
His identity would have been revealed sooner or later anyway.
That and she saw reverence in the woman's voice. She called Shirou "His Majesty" denoting whatever feat Shirou achieved other than third magic conferred upon him royalty. While she might be just fucking with her and saving time to call backup, she saw genuine reverence and courtesy in her tongue.
Then there was this mention of "The Eighth God Slaying King" again.
And the mention of the word "Heretic God"
While Medusa, Angra Mainyu and Heracles could indeed be considered divine spirits and thus "Gods"…
In modern time a renowned folk hero like "Issun-Boshi" would be considered a heroic spirit or an Immortal Hero (Not surprising considering it's still in Age of Gods), apparently the terminology "Heretic God" was used to refer to categorize beings like him.
Apparently the conferring of royalty to Shirou has somehow something to do with the slaying of Gods….
Then she carefully guided words to not raise suspicion about them being outsiders in this world and further conceal the suspicion about them being newcomers in this world's magus society. Lest they be taken advantage of. She intentionally avoided giving her and Shirou's last name to prevent them from being linked to Einzbern and Emiya in case they were existing in this world and still kicking around.
Yet, assuming the act of slaying "Gods" does confer royalty upon the slayer, to show that they are not completely ignorant and have some modicum of knowledge regarding their current situation she decided to misguide her. Just in case she was fucking with her and misguiding her to buy time to call the local mage association to deliver their newest vivisection project and about Shirou now being considered royalty a burst, she presented herself as Shirou's retainer and Shirou being a noble and Lord (which he technically kind of was now), further confounding her by concealing the information about them being siblings.
To tell the truth she wouldn't be surprised if Ms. Ingrid being a spy for mage association and didn't rule out the possibility of her being an Einzbern spy either…..
So misguiding her until she has proper information.
"I'd love to help, but as you can see I'm not in any condition. Although you can ask Ginerva for help. And believe me she'd love to. Ginerva, will you be a dear and give your tomes to this young angel here. Consider them a gift for helping us."
The girl called Ginerva who couldn't be more than eight; the youngest daughter of the witch; gave a toothy grin and started taking out some books from her travelling side bag.
Aren't magecraft books valuable resources of the family? They are just giving them away to me just like that just because I helped them!
The current situation can be concluded as-
1) They are genuinely good people and just showing appreciation.
2) This is one elaborately constructed trap to capture her and Shirou.
3) This "Godslaying King" is probably a really big thing and they are considered so up above the food chain that they are catering towards their whims out of fear. Probably being one conferred upon them certain amount of prestige.
She immediately discarded the first option from her list of conclusion.
Magi don't help people for nothing, even she herself was helping not out of concern but to earn Shirou's affection
Either way she will learn soon anyway.
She turned towards her side and attended to the next patient.
The shockwaves were increasing…
…..
Author's Note:
You thought it was Momotaro, but no it was Issun-Boshi.
Now the question: Is he only Issun-Boshi?
Divine Matryoska will further open in next chapter.
Shirou and Illya still doesn't know that mundane can't perceive heretic gods.
It is this misconception that led to Illya unknowingly reveal the knowledge of magecraft yet praised for it anyway and suffering no repercussions thanks to Shirou.
The passengers probably thought there was a bombing and bombers hiding explosives in the Binghen forest.
Mage Association's will hypnotize them to further cement this belief.
To tell the truth this chapter was to show that Shirou can't always use noble phantasms to magically solve all his conflicts. There will be another arc showing Shirou can't magically authority away all his conflicts either.
Shirou will be forced to learn, adapt and compromise.
He would be powerful but I will be upping the villains as well.
He wouldn't become Deus ex machina over a single month.
While he is powerful he will learn that he isn't omnipotent.
I was listening to FGO: Cosmos in the Losbelt, Vortigern Oberon entry soundtrack while writing this, damn what a soundtrack it was. Personally I think this lostbelt had greatest amount of twist for us, so many twists that made it far special than any other lostbelts. Who would have thought that our friend oberon would be the tyrant from Britain