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Fate In Bleach (457)
🕑 Added 2025-03-27 17:00:17 +0000 UTCChapter 457 - Kiritsugu Emiya's Despair
"Huff…"
In the frigid air, the breath of Ailin, Kariya, and Sakura formed white clouds.
Kariya Matou even shivered.
"Achoo, achoo…"
Sakura sneezed twice, and Kariya quickly took off his coat and wrapped it around her.
"Are you alright, Sakura? Are you still cold? Hahaha, my apologies, I forgot you two couldn't withstand this temperature…"
Ailin apologized awkwardly to Kariya and Sakura.
Whether it was his Shinigami body or this body constructed of magical energy, Ailin had a strong resistance to such extreme climates.
Immediately, a blackish-red spatial ripple appeared beside Ailin, and a Zanpakutō flew out.
Ailin possessed many Zanpakutō with fire-type abilities.
Ryūjin Jakka, Ennetsu Jigoku, and Nichirin, when released, could all possess the temperature of the sun.
However, now, it wasn't a battle, but simply to dispel the cold. There was no need to use such powerful Zanpakutō.
"Bloom, Tobiume!"
Fwoosh… Fwoosh… Fwoosh…
With Ailin's call, the Zanpakutō quickly transformed. Two basketball-sized fireballs emerged from the branches on either side.
Under Ailin's control, these two fireballs circled around Kariya and Sakura, dispelling the cold for them.
"Thank you, Berserker."
With Tobiume's two fireballs released, the temperature around Kariya and Sakura rose sharply, driving away the surrounding chill.
"Don't mention it, it was my oversight."
Ailin shook his head at Kariya's thanks.
"Kariya, you and Sakura wait here for a bit. I'll dispel the low temperature in the Matou residence first, then you can come in."
With that, Ailin waved the Zanpakutō in his hand. Instantly, more than a dozen basketball-sized fireballs appeared around him.
"Go!"
Under Ailin's command, these fireballs dispersed. Some entered the basement, some entered the rooms, and some flew back and forth a meter above the ground in the courtyard, slowly raising the temperature of the Matou residence.
About ten minutes later, Ailin felt that the temperature in the Matou residence was similar to the outside. Only then did he control the fireballs to extinguish, returning the Zanpakutō to his Reality Marble.
"It's alright now, Kariya, Sakura."
"Much obliged, Berserker!"
While Kariya and Sakura began to tidy up the Matou residence, Ailin also began to walk around.
Since he had promised Kariya to set up some defensive measures for the Matou residence, Ailin naturally wouldn't do it perfunctorily.
However, Ailin didn't know the magic of this world. If he wanted to set up a defensive Kidō, it had to be a defensive barrier that could last for at least ten years.
Otherwise, once he left, Sakura's magical power wouldn't be enough to replenish the barrier, causing the defensive barrier to fail. If Sakura encountered any danger during that time, Ailin would be to blame.
Fortunately, after replicating the "Hōgyoku," Ailin had naturally also analyzed Kisuke Urahara's method of embedding Kidō within the Hōgyoku from it.
Kisuke Urahara could embed sealing Kidō in the Hōgyoku for over a hundred years. While Ailin couldn't reach Kisuke Urahara's level, setting up a defensive barrier that lasted for ten years wasn't a problem.
After circling the Matou residence, Ailin had an idea of what kind of defensive barrier to set up.
Ailin planned to set up two large-scale barriers in the Matou residence.
The first was Hachigyō Sōgai!
Hachigyō Sōgai was a high-level pseudo-Kidō created by Hachigen Ushōda of the Visored.
It was called pseudo-, but it was actually a form of hypnosis, or psychological suggestion.
Once this barrier was set up, it would make ordinary people subconsciously avoid the area covered by the barrier, and it could also block detection from external supernatural means.
The second barrier Ailin planned to set up was "Kyōmon" (Mirror Gate).
Kyōmon was a high-level defensive Kidō in the world of Bleach.
Its function was to completely reflect external attacks back at the enemy, causing them damage.
With these two barriers, to say nothing of magi, even Servants summoned by the Grail would have difficulty breaking through.
With Ailin's Kidō proficiency, setting up these two Kidō took him quite some time.
Of course, this wasn't because the setup of these two Kidō barriers was difficult, but mainly because Ailin needed to completely encompass the Matou family within these two Kidō barriers.
By the time Ailin finished setting up the Kidō barriers, Kariya and Sakura had also more or less finished tidying up the rooms.
After explaining the functions of the two barriers and how to open and close them to Kariya and Sakura, Ailin left the Matou residence and flew towards the Einzbern's castle.
Landing in the Einzbern castle's courtyard, Ailin's body shimmered with brilliant colors.
Once these brilliant colors completely covered Ailin's body, his figure completely vanished from the Einzbern courtyard.
This was the twenty-sixth Binding Spell—Kyokkō!
Kyokkō distorted the light around the caster, making it so that light did not touch the caster's body.
Without light touching the body, naturally, it wouldn't be captured by sight.
However, Kyokkō only concealed the caster's figure, it didn't make the caster completely disappear.
If the distorted light around the caster was disrupted, the caster would naturally be revealed.
Furthermore, a person cloaked in Kyokkō, while their figure was hidden, if they spoke, or left footprints while walking on the ground, they could still be discovered.
The last time Ailin had come to the Einzbern castle, he had followed Iskandar, charging in.
This time, although he didn't have Iskandar to lead the way, Ailin was familiar with the route. He went directly to the central building.
Last time, Iskandar had smashed through the gates of this building. Artoria and Irisviel had also descended to the hall from one of the stairwells.
Arriving in the hall, Ailin expanded his spiritual awareness.
Soon, within Ailin's spiritual perception, he sensed a massive source of magical energy.
Around this source of magical energy, there was also a slightly weaker source of magical energy, and a source of magical energy that was almost negligible.
Needless to say, the massive source of magical energy was undoubtedly Irisviel, who had already absorbed the souls of four Servants and was gradually transforming into the Grail.
The weaker source of magical energy could only be Saber, Artoria Pendragon.
Ailin hadn't expected that Artoria, who had been absent the night before, hadn't been eliminated.
Could it be that after his explanation, Gilgamesh still believed that Artoria would be drowned by her dreams, wanting to see Artoria's despairing expression upon learning the truth about the Grail, and so hadn't killed Artoria?
As for the negligible source of magical energy, it was certainly Artoria's Master, the "Magus Killer," Kiritsugu Emiya.
Having sensed the location of Irisviel and the others, Ailin didn't hesitate, and walked towards where they were.
Arriving in a hall that resembled a church, Ailin quickly found Irisviel.
At this moment, Irisviel was placed on a bed covered with flower petals, and Kiritsugu Emiya was holding Irisviel's hand beside her.
Opposite Kiritsugu Emiya was Artoria, her sword drawn.
"Kiritsugu, don't you think you need to give me an explanation?"
Although Artoria was wearing a black suit at the moment, not her armor, her expression was extremely serious.
"What happened last night? And Irisviel, why has she become like this… Why is Avalon in your hands… How much more are you hiding from me?"
"If you can't give me a reasonable explanation, then I'm sorry, Kiritsugu. From now on, I will fight according to my own will. At that point, perhaps even you will become my enemy!"
Faced with Artoria's questioning, Kiritsugu Emiya remained silent.
In fact, from the moment he summoned the King of Knights, Kiritsugu had regretted it.
Like Iskandar, Kiritsugu also felt that it was too cruel for Great Britain to place its survival on the shoulders of a young girl like Artoria.
Therefore, after summoning Artoria, Kiritsugu had no intention of relying on her. He wanted to rely on his own abilities to obtain the Grail.
Unfortunately, in this Holy Grail War, he had encountered Ailin.
His several attempts to target Ailin's Master, Kariya Matou, had been thwarted by Ailin.
Not only that, but Kiritsugu Emiya's childhood friend, Maiya Hisau, had also been seriously injured. In order not to expose himself, Kiritsugu had been forced to kill Maiya Hisau himself.
After discovering that Berserker's threat might be greater than Archer's, Kiritsugu had directly and forcefully killed Kariya Matou.
However, to Kiritsugu's disappointment, even though he had killed Kariya Matou, Berserker hadn't withdrawn, and had even found a new Master, causing his abilities to increase significantly.
At the Feast of Kings, Kiritsugu had known that Berserker's trump card was his Reality Marble, and wanted to infiltrate the Tohsaka residence, to discuss with Tokiomi Tohsaka whether they could cooperate to eliminate Berserker first.
But unfortunately, when Kiritsugu infiltrated, he happened to witness Kirei Kotomine sneak attacking and killing Tokiomi Tohsaka.
At the beginning of the Holy Grail War, Kiritsugu Emiya had already obtained information on most of the Masters.
This naturally included Tokiomi Tohsaka and Kirei Kotomine.
Through understanding these two people's past lives, Kiritsugu Emiya knew that if it was Tokiomi Tohsaka, they might still have the possibility of cooperation.
But when Archer's Master became Kirei Kotomine, the outcome between them was only one of unending conflict.
Because, from Kirei Kotomine's life in the first half of his life, Kiritsugu Emiya felt Kirei Kotomine's terror.
He felt that Kirei Kotomine and himself were two completely opposite types of people.
Kiritsugu Emiya considered himself a "partner of justice," while Kirei Kotomine could be called "born evil."
Kirei Kotomine's personality was flawed, unable to resonate with the "beauty" that ordinary people could feel.
On the contrary, those existences considered ugly and evil by the world often made Kirei Kotomine feel unforgettable.
If these ugly and evil things were created by his own hands, it would make Kirei Kotomine feel even more pleasure.
Under the guidance of Gilgamesh, Kirei Kotomine completed his "filicide."
At that time, Kiritsugu Emiya, seeing this scene, directly attacked Kirei Kotomine.
However, because of Gilgamesh’s obstruction, Kiritsugu Emiya's actions failed, and he exposed himself.
In order to survive, Kiritsugu Emiya used a Command Spell to summon Artoria, and after Artoria and Gilgamesh briefly clashed, he had Artoria take him away.
Kiritsugu Emiya and Artoria's infiltration perfectly covered for Kirei Kotomine.
For Kirei Kotomine, who said that his father had been assassinated by an enemy magus, Rin Tohsaka had no doubt.
Kirei Kotomine personally handed the dagger that had killed his master, Tokiomi Tohsaka, to his master's daughter, Rin Tohsaka.
When he saw Rin Tohsaka, unaware of the truth, carefully treasuring the dagger that had killed her father, and saying that she would cherish her father's memento, Kirei Kotomine's heart was filled with immense satisfaction.
This also allowed Kirei Kotomine to see his own heart clearly.
He was born to be the opposite of "good," and only "evil" could make him feel that he truly existed.
Within the Einzbern castle, faced with Artoria's questioning, Kiritsugu Emiya didn't respond to Artoria at all.
At this moment, Kiritsugu Emiya's heart was shrouded in despair.
Archer and Berserker were definitely the two strongest Servants in this Holy Grail War.
Originally, Kiritsugu Emiya's plan was to ally with one to fight the other, and then, when Archer and Berserker were both weakened, he would reap the benefits.
Now, this option had been completely ruined by Kiritsugu Emiya himself.
On Berserker's side, Kiritsugu Emiya originally had a high chance of allying with him to eliminate Archer.
Unfortunately, after seeing the power Berserker displayed, Kiritsugu Emiya felt that Berserker's threat was much greater, and he ambushed and killed Kariya Matou.
Although Kiritsugu Emiya didn't know how Berserker had found a second Master, Kiritsugu Emiya knew that Berserker would definitely not cooperate with him, who had killed his previous Master.
Last night, Tokiomi Tohsaka had been killed by Kirei Kotomine, and Kirei Kotomine was Archer's new Master. It was even more impossible for them to cooperate.
With Saber's power, it simply wasn't enough to contend with Archer and Berserker.
And after last night's attack, Kiritsugu Emiya knew that it wasn't easy for him to kill Kirei Kotomine.
As for Berserker's new Master, in the past few days, he had almost flipped through all of Fuyuki City and the recent comings and goings of people, and still hadn't determined who Berserker's Master was.
In this situation, Kiritsugu Emiya had already begun to despair about this Holy Grail War.
"Saber…"
Kiritsugu Emiya didn't explain to Artoria, but Irisviel couldn't.
In this Holy Grail War, although nominally Saber was Kiritsugu Emiya's Servant, Saber had always been protecting Irisviel!
