How come the Ace of Cups isn't considered the Holy Grail?

clang!

The black keys that flew out were all shot down by the light bullets fired by the White Stork Knight. Ilya looked coldly at Kirei Kotomine, who had rushed towards her after issuing the battle signal.

"Is that so? These are your last words? Cheating bastard of the Holy Church? Crush him! Berserker!"

Roar!

The black giant dispelled his spirit form and appeared before Kirei Kotomine, wielding a stone axe and delivering a powerful blow.

"Lancer."

"Okay! I understand, you don't need to rush me!"

With a disgruntled click of his tongue, Cú Chulainn also deactivated his spirit form and used his demonic spear to block Berserker's attack in front of Kirei Kotomine.

This wasn't the first time Cú Chulainn had fought Berserker. Having long been familiar with Berserker's power, he naturally didn't try to take it head-on. Instead, he used the same method he had used when facing Absolute Zero to deflect Berserker's attack.

"Hey, big guy, let me be your opponent!"

"Roar!"

Hercules roared, wanting to ignore Cú Chulainn in front of him and bypass him to continue attacking Kirei Kotomine, but he was blocked by Cú Chulainn time and time again.

"Hey, hey, hey, I already told you your opponent is me now. Although I don't really like him either, don't even think about bypassing me to attack that guy!"

Despite his hands being numb from the powerful attacks, Cú Chulainn managed to entangle Heracles despite being at a disadvantage, thanks to his agile skills.

He did not attempt to unleash his Noble Phantasm to pierce Heracles' heart, because he had already used it twice during their last battle.

The first time she unleashed her Noble Phantasm, it was fine; it pierced the opponent's heart and cost him a life. But the second time she unleashed her Noble Phantasm, it couldn't even pierce the opponent's flesh.

From this, he deduced that the opponent probably possessed some kind of inherent skill or Noble Phantasm that could prevent them from dying twice in the same way.

This is really tricky...

Perhaps he could try using his other Noble Phantasm, the Gáe Bolg, which throws his magic spear and unleashes a barrage of arrows at the enemy.

While this move doesn't possess the conceptual characteristic of piercing the opponent's heart like the Piercing Thorn Spear, its power and effective range are greatly increased, making it an anti-military Noble Phantasm that carpet-bombs the surrounding area, including the opponent.

As for whether it would affect Kirei Kotomine, he didn't care at all, after all, he hadn't forgotten that the other party had interrupted his battle with a Command Spell!

Cú Chulainn's mind raced during the battle, but his physical abilities remained unaffected as he struggled to withstand Berserker's relentless onslaught.

However, since this move requires him to consume all his magical power, it is normally a Noble Phantasm that will determine the outcome of the battle once it is used.

Either the opponent dies from this Noble Phantasm, or the opponent survives the Noble Phantasm and finishes him off after he's lost his magic power.

Therefore, he will not use this move lightly except in situations where it can guarantee victory or similar necessary circumstances.

Just as Cú Chulainn was still debating whether or not to betray Kirei Kotomine, Kirei Kotomine himself had already rushed in front of Illya.

The Black Key is a weapon that looks like a sword with a long blade, but is actually used for throwing. It is a weapon used by the Holy Church to fight against things that the Church defines as 'demons'.

Because its blade is woven with magic, it only has a handle when carried, making it easy to hide many blades on one's person.

In contrast to the black key, Kirei Kotomine's robes are not ordinary garments either. They are made of a composite material fiber and are covered with protective charms specially made by the church's agents, making them armor that can defend against bullets and curses.

Therefore, by using his robes to block some of the light bullets fired by the White Stork Knight, and by continuously throwing out black keys to interfere with and attack Illya during his sprint, Kirei Kotomine finally arrived in front of Illya.

At this moment, the distance between the two had reached a sufficient range. Kirei Kotomine no longer took out the Black Key, but instead clenched his fist and unleashed a human destruction technique he had practiced, which was derived from Bajiquan.

One punch is enough to seriously injure the opponent.

Kirei Kotomine, who had experienced numerous bloody battles during his time as the proxy, was so certain of this.

As for whether Ilya would die under his fist, he didn't care. All he wanted was her heart, which was the Lesser Grail, so he avoided the heart when he punched.

At least at this moment, Kirei Kotomine is most similar to Cú Chulainn.

However, something unexpected happened. Just as his fist was about to strike, the familiar that was supposed to be an autonomous floating turret next to Ilya suddenly shot out its gun barrel as two sword blades that landed in Ilya's hands.

Using the blade of her sword, Illya successfully blocked his fist and was knocked back a distance. Following the example of Kirei Kotomine earlier, she threw the blade of her sword directly.

As she moved, the white stork knights beside her also fired swords made of silver threads, aiming at various vital parts of Kirei Kotomine's body.

Clang!

Kirei Kotomine wasn't so reckless as to block the blades with his fists. He drew six black keys, held them between his fingers, and used them as claws, quickly knocking the four blades away.

Just as he was about to give chase to Ilya, who had retreated to a distance, a magic bullet flying from behind stopped him.

"See, I told you someone would step into the trap for us, right?"

Chapter 42 Cautious by Nature Rin Tohsaka

Ignoring Cú Chulainn and Heracles who were still locked in combat, Kirei Kotomine and Illya, who were facing off, were immediately drawn to the Master and Servant who had intruded into the battlefield.

Yuwatari walked ahead, holding an open magic spellbook, and led Rin Tohsaka, whose face was full of surprise, into their line of sight.

"Kirei, you're also a participant in the Holy Grail War? And you're the supervisor, yet you've joined the Holy Grail War..."

After the initial surprise, Rin Tohsaka's expression turned grim as she remembered Kirei Kotomine's role as the supervisor of the Holy Grail War, and she said harshly.

"And he's Lancer's Master... This is a serious violation! You bastard, there's a limit to breaking the rules!"

"Rin Tohsaka... This is troublesome. I didn't intend for you to know about this so soon..."

Seeing Rin Tohsaka's fixed gaze on him, Kirei Kotomine frowned and spoke in his usual slightly amused voice.

Rin Tohsaka and the Servants she summoned?

He remembered that the job class was...Archer?

Trouble. It seems we revealed ourselves a bit too early. I was originally planning to use Rin Tohsaka as the vessel for the Holy Grail's descent after obtaining the Lesser Grail...

Never mind, let's make sure we get our hands on the Lesser Grail first.

Glancing through his sleeve at the mottled, crisscrossing red markings on his right arm, Kirei Kotomine, in the face of this unexpected turn of events, was already planning to use the Command Seals he had 'taken over' from his father during the previous Holy Grail War.

If these Command Seals are used as a one-time source of magical energy, even a human can inflict damage on a Servant by using about 10 Command Seals.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Amidst the clanging of the axe and spear, Rin Tohsaka pressed Kirei Kotomine for an answer.

In fact, when she discovered that Kirei Kotomine was Lancer's Master, she had some vague suspicions in her mind. At this moment, she was simply feeling lingering fear.

Fortunately, she did not send Sakura, whose Servant had already left the stage, to the Holy Church for protection.

"That's exactly what it sounds like. I was originally planning to tell you about it in a couple of days, before the Holy Grail War ended."

Kirei Kotomine lowered his hands, adopting a harmless and kind-hearted demeanor, as if he had already given up on fighting.

"That's right, I am Lancer's Master."

"So you admit it? Ha, you really kept me in the dark from the very beginning..."

Rin Tohsaka recalled how Kirei Kotomine urged her to register at the Church of Christ when she first summoned Archer. She hadn't thought much of it at the time, but now she realized that he was probably planning to gather information about other Servants.

Fortunately, at that time she was too lazy to deal with trouble—well, no, I should say she was cautious by nature, and didn't fall for the fake priest's trick!

Shaking her head, Rin Tohsaka found a suitable reason to justify her actions in her memory and installed it into her mind, feeling satisfied.

However, while she was satisfied, Ilya, who had been ignored by them, was not.

"Hey you lot! You barged into someone else's house without permission, and then started chatting here without permission. Aren't you taking me a little too seriously?!"

Standing on the thick roots of a large tree that protrude from the ground, Ilya took in all the people around her who were fighting, chatting, or just standing there in a daze, seemingly doing nothing.

Ilya gritted her teeth and plucked out a dozen or so strands of silver-white hair. With a wave of her hand, she used magic to transform them all into White Stork Knights. Crimson magic circuits spread directly across her entire body, but they were not noticeable under the thick clothing. Only the part that spread to her face was visible.

"Tear these invaders to shreds!"

"Roar--!"

As if in response to her words, after the Master's magical energy supply increased, Heracles, who was being held back by Cú Chulainn, also let out a roar, and the force and speed of his swinging stone axe increased even more.

"Wow, even after all this, it can still improve?"

Cú Chulainn narrowly escaped a downward slash from the stone axe, and the already wounded man tried to step on the stone axe that was deeply embedded in the ground to disarm Hercules, but ended up being picked up by Hercules along with the axe.

"Tsk, really, all I've been running into lately are these muscle monsters!"

Cú Chulainn was quite helpless when he encountered two opponents who completely overwhelmed him in strength in one day.

Originally, he could only rely on his slight advantage in agility to keep pestering Heracles like a mosquito, but now he was finally sent flying far away by the enhanced opponent's axe.

Meanwhile, on the other side, facing the attack of more than a dozen white stork knights, Yuuto and Rin Tohsaka did not appear flustered. Even when all of them fired their sword-shaped spears, turning into a small rain of swords, the two did not make any defensive movements.

Is there any permanent defensive Mystic Code?

Kirei Kotomine glanced in their direction but paid them no heed, and charged back toward the location of the Lesser Grail, his target. He dodged the swords fired by the White Stork Knights whenever possible, and threw his Black Keys to take them down with him when he couldn't dodge them.

Got it!

Just as he was thinking this, Ilya in front of him simply took a breath and shouted loudly in front of him.

“Berserker——!”

"Roar!"

Startled, Kirei Kotomine stared wide-eyed at the pitch-black wall that had suddenly appeared before him. He only had time to use several Command Seals to strengthen his defenses and hold the Black Key in front of him before being cleaved away by the stone axe, which was so fast that only a blur could be seen.

Bang!

After a loud crash, Kirei Kotomine's body slammed into the trunk of a large tree and came to a stop. The violent impact caused a metallic taste to rise in his throat, and the resulting dust completely obscured his figure.

"Give an order with a command spell..."

A faint shadow emerged from the slowly dissipating dust, and a crimson mark lit up on Kirei Kotomine's arms, which, even with the Command Seals' enhancement, had been broken by this attack.

At this point, even if we summon Lancer, it would be useless, right?

As Rin Tohsaka was thinking this, she noticed that Yuuto was staring intently at Kirei Kotomine with a serious expression.

Is there a problem?

Then, the words that Kirei Kotomine uttered from his blood-soaked mouth caused Rin Tohsaka's eyes to widen in astonishment.

Come to my side—

"Archer!"

Archer?!

Rin Tohsaka subconsciously looked Yuwatari up and down beside her, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that he did not turn into golden particles or show any signs of becoming ethereal.

That was terrifying! She thought her servant had somehow signed a contract with Kirei Kotomine.

However, if it wasn't Yuuto, then the Archer summoned by the imposter priest...

Rin Tohsaka suddenly had an unbelievable guess in her mind.

"No way……"

As the dust and mist gradually dissipated, a dazzling golden light appeared before the figures, followed by a highly recognizable voice carrying a hint of pleasure.

"Roar? How dare you disturb me without permission? Are you prepared to atone with your death, Kirei?"

Chapter Forty-Three: Rampant Ignorance

"How can it be?!"

Illya, who is the Lesser Grail, was just as surprised as Rin Tohsaka.

When the souls of departing Servants enter her body, she will naturally become aware of their class.

Rider, Caster, Assassin.

Berserker is her Servant, Lancer is the mad dog in the blue bodysuit, and Saber should be the blonde girl she met before.

Therefore, she could easily deduce that the Servant class summoned by Rin Tohsaka was Archer.

However, the Servant summoned by Kirei Kotomine using a Command Spell is indeed an Archer, otherwise the Command Spell would not have taken effect in a Holy Grail War.

But... how could two Servants of the same class but different classes appear in a Holy Grail War?

Even the twin sisters of Edfeld in the Third Holy Grail War, the two Sabers they summoned were merely the light and dark sides of a Servant, completely different from the current situation!

Ilya wrinkled her nose as she looked at the figure that appeared after the smoke cleared, a keen sense of displeasure rising within her.

Wearing a suit of glittering gold armor that looks like something a nouveau riche would wear, this guy's taste is really terrible!

"Ahem, I'm sorry, King of Heroes, the original plan has encountered a slight mishap..."

Wiping away the blood he coughed up from the corner of his mouth, Kirei Kotomine's voice remained completely calm as he stood behind Gilgamesh, his injured body bulging.

His appearance caught the other's eye, prompting Gilgamesh to chuckle.