After watching Hercules leave, Shinji walked to Scathach and raised his hand to carve a healing rune.
"Master, are you alright?"
"It's OK. I didn't die this time."
Scathach said exaggerated words in a complaining tone while slowly standing up. The wound on her shoulder had stopped bleeding. I wonder how she treated it.
"Don't be so stubborn at this time."
Shinji put one hand on his master's shoulder and the other on her waist, apparently intending to give her a princess hug.
But before she exerted her strength, Scathach used her uninjured hand to push one of Shinji's hands away, and said unhappily: "I'm not that weak yet."
Shinji looked at his arm that bounced back and touched his nose with it: "I almost forgot that Master is the queen. It's not appropriate to hug her like a princess. How about I carry you on my back? If that doesn't work, I can just carry you."
This deliberate act of innocence naturally drew Scathach's eye roll: "Put away your evil ideas. Don't think I don't know what you're thinking?"
"Well, I admit that my thoughts are not so pure, but Master, you are indeed injured and unable to move. I cannot leave you alone."
"You don't need to worry about me. Have you forgotten? I am a Servant now. I can transform into a spirit body. No matter how badly I am injured, my activities will not be affected."
"..." Shinji's expression froze. Damn, how could I have forgotten about spiritualization? Not being restricted by physical rules means not being affected by injuries, and it also saves mana, which is the best way to recover from injuries.
Scathach's sharp eyes did not hide the complaints in her heart. She stretched out her finger and poked Shinji on the forehead, complaining angrily and amusedly: "I really don't know what to say about you. You are still talking nonsense to me here. Where is the person you are looking for?"
"Yahad... Damn it, he ran away!"
After hearing what the master said, Shinji realized that the old man who had been protected by Hercules had disappeared. It was probably because he lifted the blockade when he was demolishing the building, and Yahad took the opportunity to run away.
Perhaps Hercules' final all-out battle was also meant to buy time for the Master. A hero is always a hero.
"Master, can you determine his location?"
"He's in the direction of the back mountain. He hasn't gone far. It's still not too late to catch up with him now."
"Okay, I'll go after you now!"
Shinji immediately poured magic power into his feet, took half a step, stopped, turned around and asked.
"Master, are you really okay on your own?"
"It's okay, go ahead, that thing is very important to you and Justisa, isn't it?"
Scathach's face was pale, but she still smiled and waved.
"Well, have a good rest, I'll be back soon.
The footsteps finally landed on the ground, and the white clothes broke through the air and disappeared in a flash.
When Shinji's figure completely disappeared, the Queen of the Demon Realm lowered her arms, and her body fell backwards as if she had lost balance. The blood that had stopped flowing gushed out again, and a hint of weakness was revealed in her deep and strong eyes.
Even so, she was still laughing, with a strong sense of sarcasm, and it was unclear whether she was mocking her disciples or herself.
"Your vision is still not good enough, Shinji. I am now powerless to resist you if you really want to do anything. Haha, I am really lazy. I actually have such thoughts... When will these days end... Death... The end... Setant... Shinji..."
His eyes were closed and his voice was almost inaudible.
◇◇◇
"Ha, hoo, hoo, hoo!"
With the breathing of a wild beast, Yahad wandered in the forest.
No, actually he was walking along the exact route, but his mood seemed as if he was lost.
For a body that is only concerned with escaping, the word "wandering" is the most appropriate word.
Of course, in Einzbern style, Yahad at this time probably did not realize that he was deviating from the castle's central program, the rules set by Golem Jubstacheit, the father of all artificial humans.
The gap between his perceived certainty of victory and the reality of having to withdraw from the battlefield soon after the war began made his emotions fluctuate more and more, and he, who had suppressed his inner emotions for two hundred years, finally began to change towards being a human being.
"Damn it—why did it turn out like this?"
He pushed aside the branches with one hand and ran on the wet soil.
Leaving bloodstains on the road, the old man followed the pre-planned retreat route.
Although he was the highest level android created by Jubstacheit, his strength was focused on magic power and lifespan, and his physical functions were not outstanding, and could even be said to be fragile. When he escaped from the collapsing villa, he was naturally hit by the rubble and suffered serious injuries.
"Ha-ho, hoo, ah!"
He couldn't lift his left shoulder, and his right leg was limping. He couldn't walk properly with only one hand and one foot, and he slipped and fell towards the tree.
In the current condition, it won’t be long before my wounds fester, which will affect my entire body functions and may even lead to my death.
Some emotion gradually boiled in the heart of the old man who was walking numbly, and he suddenly felt like laughing.
"Ahem, hahahaha."
Unexplained, inexplicable laughter, like a cough, hysterical.
"It's just like the third time. We were fully prepared, but in the end, it was useless."
As he laughed, his high spirits quickly dropped again.
"... In this case, isn't that even worse than those two traitors?"
No matter how you treat Emiya Kiritsugu and Irisviel, you can't hide the fact that they successfully made it to the end of the last Holy Grail War, became the victor, and took the Holy Grail...
When he thought of this, a nameless anger burned in the old man's heart, burning him so much that his whole body was stinging, as if he was broken.
"Why? Why would you give up the victory you have worked so hard to achieve? Why would you give up your wish? Was everything you said before a lie?"
He doesn't understand, doesn't comprehend, and isn't clear.
"You will never understand me. You only know how to follow orders. You are a puppet of Jubstacheit, the central program."
The sudden sound made Yahad stop, and a man appeared in his blurry vision.
He had a thin figure, a black windbreaker, and a cold expression, just like when he came to the castle twenty years ago.
"Emiya... Kiritsugu." The old man gritted his teeth and recited the name that he had nailed to the pillar of shame.
"Long time no see, Ahadeon."
Emiya Kiritsugu stared at the old face, his eyes as complicated as the old man's expression.
"What are you doing here?"
"I came to thank you and apologize. Thank you for letting me meet Irisviel and Illya. I'm sorry, for their safety, I have to kill you."
His windbreaker fluttered in the wind, and the former cold-blooded killer raised his gun.