Chapter 129
"Your name is...Lord El Melloi, is it not?"
Illya greeted them with an innocent smile, but her voice was calm and neutral, a far cry from what one would expect when looking at her childish body and immature face.
"Yes, but with the second. As in Lord El Melloi II."
"Ah, I see."
Putting her hands behind her back, she leaned past El Melloi to look at the other two magi behind him, a boy carrying a slightly older woman on his shoulder, the woman haggard and drawn as she relied heavily on the boy to remain standing. She blinked once at seeing the black fingers on her hands, an unnatural charred texture with cracks that exposed the flesh under the skin.
"And them?"
Her eyes turned back to El Melloi, the red circles fastening on his own, a shade of muted gray that was almost indistinguishable from the black iris.
"Those two are my st-, my allies."
He gestured toward Flat first.
"The boy is Flat Escardos, and the woman is Ayaka Sayjou."
So it was these two he had brought along.
Illya had received intel on the other Masters courtesy of Einzberns information network, though it was far from complete, considering how little the Einzberns socialized with other magi, almost complete hermits unless other magi came to their doorsteps to bargain for materials and techniques. However, ever since the Magus Killer, Kiritsugu Emiya, had almost succeeded for them before the betrayal at the end, they decided to reference his methods and adopted some of them, though technology remained absolutely off-table for them.
Their newly cultivated information network had little in the way of established relationships and contacts, instead relying on freshly made homunculi agents and homunculi spying devices that perfectly mimicked mundane creatures, to eavesdrop in the Clock Tower, Barthomeloi family estates, Animusphere manor and other places and people deemed worth paying attention to.
Of course, not all of the deployments were successful, with an average rate of 12.6% survival, with only 3.2% of these providing information that proved to be useful. That is to say, about a page's worth of information was gained. Despite that, they were still able to extrapolate and deduce based on the information they had to discover the identities of the Clock Tower's representatives, as well as the individual entries of Araya Souren, and the scheme to take Araya's position in the war by the Archibald's family head, and the Clock Tower's under the table agreement with them.
With that, she was able to recognize the two behind the Lord from the time when she had been presented with the dossiers containing the potential candidates Lord El Melloi II would bring along with him for the Holy Grail War. At first, she hadn't really wanted to read them, but Berserker had subtly nudged into reading it by reading the files herself one by one, until Illya followed her example and started reading as well. It definitely wasn't because Illya had been bribed with dad pics Berserker had found lying around (supplied by the maids).
Her eyes scanned over the two, noting their condition, then she spoke to El Melloi.
"Is your team involved with Avenger and the disturbances in the leylines?"
Depending on his answer, she would kill them on the spot, or cooperate with them. Judging by how Flat seemed to have his hand full with Ayaka, with the woman in no condition to be fighting, she'd likely only have to deal with El-Melloi in a fight. And if there were two things that were well-known in the Clock Tower about him, it was that he was a 'Killer of Magecraft', deconstructing to such a degree that it stripped the spell to it's very basics, thoroughly comprehending it and reducing the Mystery surrounding it. The other was that he was simply bad at magecraft. It wasn't that he didn't have the knowledge, he simply didn't have the talent. His circuits, when compared to his former mentor Kayneth El Melloi, was like the difference between a cup of water and a lake.
Illya could easily skewer him before he could raise a bounded field to protect himself, she could already picture the large blade bursting through his chest, painting his clothes in even more red as he fell to the ground in shock, eyes wide and mouth gaping.
While she could be cute sometimes, she was also the daughter of Kiritsugu Emiya, and had inherited some things from him.
"No, we're here to investigate the Holy Grail as participants with our own Servant to simplify things. Our former base was also attacked by Avenger earlier."
El Melloi, despite being mediocre at magecraft, could still sense the imminent danger to himself and the two people behind him if he answered incorrectly, and so he did his best to appear truthful, though inside some part of him was screaming and yelling at why the world just had to throw a magi in their path of escape just as they were about to leave the manor behind, and another part of him fretted at what he was going to do if Illya attacked them. He resisted the urge to reach for his cigars, the pack of amenities resting in his breast pocket beneath the red coat.
Illya paused for a moment, her round, clear eyes framed with white eyelashes taking in his expression, posture and gestures.
Closing her eyes, she nodded.
"Alright, let's go. I'll follow you to a safer place, then let's talk about how we'll cooperate in this messed up war."
Ruler and Avenger appearing in this war basically spelled doom for the outcome, and with so many problems showing up, it was likely that she needed to cooperate with others, despite her fighting strength being sufficient. After all, she needed to investigate the Grail herself, but with so many unknown factors, it was better to have someone watching her back, rather than going in alone.
Although it was possible that El Melloi was lying, despite his entire body seemingly indicating his honesty, she could always take him out later if she found out he and his team were part of the problem.
For El Melloi, he internally sighed in relief, unexpectedly having another ally delivered in front of him to add to his cooperation with the Tohsaka's . He was glad, but now wasn't the time to celebrate though.
"Let's get going then."
Moving over to Flat, he helped her lift up Ayaka as they each propped her under either sides with her arms looped around their necks, Illya only watching them all the while. They placed her in one of the ATV four wheelers, strapping her to Flat, then El Melloi took the other one.
"Need a ride?"
Illya hesitated as she stared at the vehicle, before nodding, since she knew there was no way she could catch up with them unless she expended a ridiculous amount of energy.
In the middle of walking to the ATV, she stumbled, her vision darkening for a moment as she felt the strength leave her body. El Melloi reached out and barely caught her before she fell into the sewers, catching her shoulder as she leaned dangerously to the left.
"Miss Einzbern! Are you alright?"
It was only a moment, and Illya quickly regained her usual strength.
"It's nothing. Let's go."
She hopped behind El-Melloi, glancing upwards at where Berserker was fighting, before turning back towards the front as they sped through the underground tunnels, heading to the backups they had set up in case the main base, the manor, was rendered unusable.