"...I accept this proposal."
Kiritsugu lowered the gun in his hands.
Francesca blew a kiss toward him. "I knew it. Materialistic allies of justice are the most reasonable."
She skipped to the edge of the rooftop, letting the evening breeze mess up her purple hair. In that moment, she truly looked like an elf lost in the human world.
If one ignored the rotting stench emanating from her body, that is.
"As a reward for your cooperation, I'll give you a promise." The young girl turned her head, her expression suddenly becoming somewhat serious. "If I'm the one who obtains the Greater Grail in the end, I will definitely prioritize granting your wish."
"What?"
"Exactly what you think it means." Francesca's expression carried an inexplicable solemnity. "Whether it's world peace or the salvation of humanity, I will help you realize those grand, nauseating ideals."
Kiritsugu's heart violently contracted.
Even Irisviel only knew that he wanted to use the Holy Grail to save the world, but she didn't know exactly how he planned to do it.
To achieve this goal, he would not hesitate to pay any price, nor would he shy away from executing the most extreme methods.
Trading the smallest sacrifice for the greatest justice—even if that sacrifice was himself, he would calmly accept death.
This was his, Kiritsugu Emiya's, wish.
How did this bizarre entity before him see right through him?
"Why do you think I would need your help to grant my wish?"
Kiritsugu's voice carried a trace of vigilance. At a time like this, the other party's methods were no longer important; the purpose behind saying such things was what truly aroused suspicion. "What about yourself? Participating in this war, do you not have a wish you want granted?"
"A wish?"
Francesca bent over in laughter as if she had heard the greatest joke in the world. From the zipper on her abdomen, countless overlapping wails of agony seemed to faintly echo.
"This war has no meaning to me. I just want to watch everyone dance in despair in this boring world."
She playfully stuck her tongue out at Kiritsugu and blinked mysteriously. "As for how I know your wish... that's a secret."
"Anyway, look forward to that day, Mr. Assassin."
As her words fell, the young girl's body dissipated into the air in an instant, like smoke scattered by the wind.
It was as if she had never appeared there at all.
Kiritsugu stood on the empty rooftop, looking at the sniper rifle in his hands, his eyes shifting unpredictably.
This girl who had suddenly appeared... made him feel an unprecedented unease.
However, Kiritsugu Emiya did not know that after he left, Francesca's will had not completely withdrawn.
She had unleashed her power as a master of illusions, currently watching Kiritsugu's back in a bizarre, near-spiritual form.
"Oh my, I'm really looking forward to it."
In the gaps of the world, she let out a sickly whisper.
Of course she didn't need a wish.
She had long since used certain taboo methods to peer into the true nature of that wish-granting machine.
What Greater Grail, what Third Magic.
What filled it was not some miracle at all, but the accumulated malice of humanity spanning thousands of years!
It was the mud that had been thoroughly corrupted by the existence known as Angra Mainyu.
Grant a wish?
Yes, it would indeed grant a wish.
But the way it granted wishes was by manifesting them in the most twisted, despair-inducing manner based on the wisher's cognition.
...
This Magus Killer wanted world peace?
Then the Holy Grail would slaughter every human being except him, because only among the dead would there be no war.
Francesca could already imagine the expression on that man's face—the man who styled himself as an ally of justice and would sacrifice everything for his ideals—when he stood before the altar of the Holy Grail and saw the ideal he had pursued his entire life realized in such an absurd, twisted, and ironic way...
That would be the most delicious joy in this world.
"Now, run, Kiritsugu Emiya! Slaughter, Kayneth! Struggle, you Avenger named Asuka!"
"In this corrupted festival, sprint to your heart's content toward that abyss of destruction! Hahahahaha!"
Meanwhile, above the ruins of the Hyatt Hotel, Kayneth had already picked up the urgently treated Sola-Ui.
His eyes widened in a furious glare as he looked viciously at Diarmuid. "Go find that Avenger for me! I want to make him pay!"
Diarmuid naturally sensed that something was wrong and wanted to advise against it.
But seeing Kayneth's furious gaze, he also knew that saying anything now would be futile, so he could only reply with a muffled voice, "...Understood! My Lord!"
On the other side of the city, at the Kamado residence.
"Breaking news! Breaking news! A collapse occurred at the Hyatt Hotel tonight! Preliminary assessments suggest a gas leak caused by aging underground pipes led to a chain explosion. The exact cause is still under investigation..."
"The fire department is doing everything possible to control the blaze. Citizens nearby are requested to stay away and cooperate with the police evacuation..."
"It is reported that the personnel inside the hotel had largely been evacuated when the explosion occurred. The number of casualties is being further verified..."
The local television station's late-night news broadcasted the brief update on a loop, the shaky camera footage focused on the luxurious building that was once one of Fuyuki's landmarks.
"Oh my god! That hotel! I used to deliver seafood there!" Haruri Kamado exclaimed in surprise while watching the TV, simultaneously practicing her Mystic Eyes.
Asuka didn't care where another building had collapsed; his attention was entirely focused on Sumire Kamado.
"Breathe... don't lose the rhythm! Maintain that frequency!"
One of his hands was pressed firmly against the center of Sumire's back, feeling the flow of magical energy within the young girl's body.
According to the common sense of this world, the Magic Circuits within a magus's body were innate, their number predetermined at the moment of birth.
An ordinary person completely devoid of Magic Circuits could never spontaneously generate new ones, no matter how much they trained later in life.
This was determined by bloodline and genetics.
But the current situation was something no magus would ever believe...
"It's so hot... Mr. Asuka... it feels like there's a fire burning inside my body..."
Sumire Kamado squeezed her eyes shut, her entire face flushed red.
Sweat had long since soaked through her thin pajamas, dripping from the tips of her hair onto the floor.
Pain—a pain that felt as if her entire body was going to split apart.
"When your great-grandfather faced Demons, even with his flesh torn open, he would never admit defeat as long as he still had a breath left in him. As his descendant, there is no reason you cannot endure this little bit of pain."
Buzz!!
Asuka's voice was as cold and hard as iron.
He was doing something extremely reckless.
Asuka guided the magical energy—Reishi—in the atmosphere, violently injecting it into the young girl's body through his palm.
"If you don't want to die powerlessly the next time you encounter that kind of enemy, if you want to protect your mother, then endure it!"
"Imagine your lungs are a bellows, and pump all the magical energy you breathe in straight into your blood!"
Buzz—!!
Sumire Kamado's body trembled violently.
In that instant, she felt some ancient shackle within her body snap with a crack.
The pitifully few Magic Circuits inside her, which had been like dried-up streams, actually began an inconceivable multiplication under the coercion of this massive external force.