She turned back to Rei Ao's figure, his silhouette haloed softly by the light. The future was still full of unknowns, and unease lingered. But something newcalled hopewas quietly displacing the mission she'd been given.
She knew that if she followed this man, her life would veer onto a path entirely different from the one laid out for hera road toward the unknown and toward freedom.
And Irisviel wanted to try.
Chapter 989: Irisviel Command Seals!
In the tranquil room, the scent of tea curled softly through the air.
As Irisviel listened to Rei Ao describe the breadth and wonder of the outside world, the light of longing in those ruby eyes grew ever brighteryet, deep inside, the mission programmed into her and her fear of the unknown still coiled around her like invisible chains.
Rei Ao saw her struggle. He knew words alone wouldn't suffice; the shackles had to be removed at the root.
"Irisviel," he called gently, drawing her back to him. "I can give you a chance to break free completely from the fate of the Lesser Grail and live on as a truly independent person. Do you want it?"
"?"
Irisviel froze. Break free completely? Was that even possible?
She reflexively touched her chest, where the sigils that made her a vessel were engravedone of the central meanings of her existence (at least, the meaning imposed on her).
"C-can I?" she asked, her voice trembling.
"As long as you're willing," Rei Ao said, his words carrying quiet conviction. "The process may feel unusual, but trust meit won't hurt you."
Looking into those calm, sincere blue-green eyes, Irisviel's hesitation gradually lifted. An instinctive trust moved her to nod.
"II'm willing to trust you, Rei Ao-san."
"Good." Rei Ao smiled faintly.
He extended a finger; light bloomed at the tipclear radiance suffused with the power of law. This time the glow was gentler, flowing like moonlight. He touched that fingertip lightly to the center of Irisviel's brow.
A warm, immense power embraced her in an instant, like a mother's arms. She felt as if she were immersed in a spring of life, every cell leaping for joy.
At the same time, she could clearly sense the intricate, icy circuits and sigils in her body tied to the Lesser Grail function being gently and precisely peeled away by that warmththen dissolved into the purest energy and returned to her limbs and bones, in turn nourishing and correcting subtle defects and limitations that might have existed in her homunculus form.
This was not destruction. It was a higher-order remolding and completion.
There was no painonly a lightness like being reborn. Irisviel could feel something heavy that had always bound her slipping away. Her body moved more harmoniously; her senses grew sharper; even the hollowness that had lingered in her heart seemed fuller, more real.
After a while, Rei Ao withdrew his hand. "How do you feel?" he asked.
Irisviel opened her eyes slowly. She looked down at her hands, then felt through her body once more.
The heaviness was gonecompletely. In its place was an unprecedented freedom and vitality, a total sense of command over her own body.
"II feelso light" Her words trembled with incredulous delight, and her face blossomed into a bright, childlike smilejoy that came from the heart, something she had never known.
"Thank you, Rei Ao-san! Trulythank you!"
"This is the freedom that's yours by right," Rei Ao said gently.
Then he extended his hand again. As he had done for the Tohsaka sisters, he inscribed three Command Seals on the smooth back of Irisviel's handpatterns of vines and strange flowers, a soft azure light pulsing at their center.
"What isthis?" Irisviel felt the warmth linking to the back of her hand and stared, surprised, at the beautiful markings.
"Your qualification as a Master," Rei Ao explained. "Since you're no longer the Lesser Grail, then join the Holy Grail War yourselfas a Master."
"Eh?" Irisviel blinked, startled, and then began to seriously consider the new proposition.
(Rei Ao, for his part, wasn't counting on her to win or claim the Grailhe simply wanted her to summon a Servant.)
"To summon a Servant, you'll need a catalyst." His gaze shifted to Irisviel. "And as it happens, you already carry a very suitable holy relic within you."
Under her puzzled look, Rei Ao raised his hand and hovered his palm over her lower abdomen. A gentle power permeated inward, searching for something. A moment later, he drew lightly
"Ah!"
With Irisviel's soft gasp, a gentle, sacred golden light surfaced from within her, finally condensing in Rei Ao's palm into a tangible object: a splendid scabbard exuding a tranquil aura, its body a deep blue adorned with gold tracery, radiating a tender power of protection and healing.
"This isAvalon?" Irisviel recognized the Noble Phantasm that had been implanted in her to protect her body's functionssaid to be closely tied to a legendary king.
"Correctthe lost 'Everdistant Utopia.'" Rei Ao weighed the scabbard in his hand, feeling the powerful causal link it shared with a certain Heroic Spirit. "With this as the catalyst, it's more than enough to summon the most renowned King of Knights."
He led Irisviel to a clear space in the garden and casually set a simple ward to keep disturbances out. Then he placed Avalon on the ground and guided Irisviel to stand within the summoning circle.
"Focus. Link to the Command Seals on your hand, and call for an answer from the Throne of Heroes," he instructed from the side.
Irisviel drew a deep breath. Following the formula Rei Ao had taughtthe same one the Tohsaka sisters had usedshe began to chant. Her voice was airy and devout, her silver hair stirring softly in the night breeze.
"Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill
Proclaim!
Let thy body heed my command; my fate shall be with thy blade
From the Wheel of RestraintO Guardian of the Scales!"
Light roared skyward from the circlebrighter, more solemn and majestic than when the Tohsaka sisters had summoned. A fierce vortex of mana swept the garden, billowing Irisviel's dress and long hair.
Within the radiance, a petite yet resolute silhouette gathered and took form: a girl clad in blue over silver armor, golden hair gleaming as if it captured the sun, green eyes clear as a tranquil lake, a porcelain-fine face bearing an undeniable dignity and steel.
She stood at the center of the circle. Her gaze swept the scene and settled at last on Irisvielwhose hand bore fresh Command Seals, whose face was alight with wonder and hope.
"I ask of you," she said, voice clear and unwavering, carrying the poise of an ancient knight across time.
"Are you my Master?"
~~~
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Chapter 990: Saber is Here!
Meanwhile, in a safehouse somewhere in Germany, Kiritsugu Emiya was on an encrypted line with his assistant, Maiya Hisau, assigning the search for Irisviel and Rei Ao.
"Focus your sweep toward Fuyuki City. That's the last place the man mentioned.
Mobilize every"
Suddenly his words cut off. A stabbing agonylike a piece of his soul being torn awayripped through the back of his right hand.
"Ugh!"
Kiritsugu grunted; the phone slipped from his grasp and clattered to the floor. He jerked up his right hand. The three Command Sealsthe very marks that carried his hopes of entering the Holy Grail Warwere fading like washed-out ink, their edges blurring before his eyes.
"No! That's impossible!"
For the first time, panic and disbelief broke across his usually impassive face. He tried to steady the marks with prana, but it was like trying to catch the moon with bare handsutterly futile.
In mere seconds, the three Seals vanished completely under his desperate stare. The back of his hand was smooth again, as if they had never existed.
From the other end came Maiya's puzzled voice: "Kiritsugu? What happened?"
"," Kiritsugu said nothing. He could only stare at the empty back of his hand, face drained of color, cold sweat soaking his spine.
The loss of the Command Seals meant the loss of his status as a Masterand of his ticket to the Holy Grail War. His path to the Grail, to world peace, had been severed before it even began.
That man. It had to be him.
He'd taken Irisvieland now he'd stripped Kiritsugu of his Seals. He hadn't seen how, but he knew the culprit, and he knew the result.
A killing chill and a tidal fury, mixed with the despair of a plan in ruins, swallowed Kiritsugu whole.
In the quiet room, Irisvielelated yet a little spent from her first successful summoning and her bond with the legendary King of Knightshad, at Rei Ao's urging, retired to rest.
Under the lamplight, only Rei Ao and the newly summoned King of Knights remainedSaber.
Saber stood silently in the garden, feeling the breath of this eraand the unfathomable aura emanating from the man before her, a force wholly unlike any system of power she knew. He wasn't a Master, and yet he seemed to hold sway even over the one who was.
"Sir, who are you?" Saber spoke first, emerald eyes keenly fixed on Rei Ao. As a battle-hardened king, her intuition was razor sharp. Though the summoning had furnished her with this world's knowledge, she still felt Rei Ao was out of joint with everything she knew.
Rei Ao wasn't surprised she perceived as much. He smiled slightly. "As expected of the King of Knightskeen intuition. The truth is, I'm not from this world."
Saber didn't bother to question the claim. "You seemto know a great deal," she continued. She could see it in his gazethat he already knew her identity, her past, and evenher wish.
"I know your wish, Artoria Pendragon," Rei Ao said, speaking her true name. "You want the Grail to change Britain's fate and deny your past as king."
Saber trembled, her eyes growing more solemn. "So you do know. Then tell medo you think my wish is wrong? I can see that in your eyes."
"Wishes themselves aren't right or wrong," Rei Ao said, stepping to her side to look up at the stars with her. "But the Grail you're pinning your hopes on can no longer grant any pure wish."
He turned his head, regarding her fine-boned profile. "The Fuyuki Grail was tainted by the Evil of This World during the Third Holy Grail War. It's no longer an omnipotent wishing machine, but a source of calamity steeped in curses and malice. Whoever winswhatever wish they makeit will be twisted, realized in the worst way, bringing greater ruin and despair.
"You wish to save Britain through it? The end result may well be Britain destroyed in a more tragic, more humiliating wayand the harm might even spread to the entire world."
"!"
His words struck her heart like a hammer. Saber's green eyes widened, shock and doubt surging within. "The Grailtainted? The Evil of This World?" To her, it was a bolt from the blue. The goal for which she had fought and sacrificedfalse and dangerous from the very start?
"Nohow could that be" she murmured, fists clenching, body trembling. If the Grail couldn't grant wishes, what meaning did her summons hold? What had all her persistence been for?
Seeing how the blow had shaken her, Rei Ao gentled his tone. "I know it's hard to accept. But it's the truth, Artoria. I've no need to deceive you. Sometimes clinging to changing the past isn't true salvation. Facing it, accepting it, and making different choices in the futurethat may be the real courage."
Saber fell into deep silence. Rei Ao's words upended convictions she'd held for so long, leaving her with an unfamiliar confusionand vulnerability.
Just then
Knock, knock.
A soft rapping broke the stillness. "Rei Ao-san, are you asleep?" Irisviel's voiceshe seemed unable to sleep.
In an instant, Saber drew her exposed feelings back in, resuming her usual regal, untouchable poise. With a flicker, she turned to spirit form and vanished into the air. She wasn't yet used to revealing too much of herself before her Master.
Chapter 991: Just because you're beautiful...
The night was deep, and all was silent.
Bathed in the tranquil glow of the moonlight, Irisviel lay restlessly on the soft bed that had been assigned to her, unable to fall asleep.
Everything that happened today felt too surreal. Too overwhelming.
Her body's transformation, the granting of the Command Seals, the summoning of Saber
And most of allthe mysterious man who had pulled her away from that cold, preordained fateRei Ao.
His figure, his words, those azure eyes that seemed to see through everythinghis entire presence lingered ceaselessly in her mind.
An indescribable flutter, mixed with curiosity, gratitude, and a faint unease, swirled in her hearta heart that had only just tasted freedom.
At last, she gathered her courage, rose quietly, and draped a light coat over her shoulders.
With silent steps, she made her way to Rei Ao's room.
She hesitated for a moment then gently knocked on the door.
"Rei Ao-san, are you still awake?"
Inside the room, Rei Ao sat by the window.
Saber, upon hearing the voice, immediately faded into spirit form.
When the knock came, a knowing glint flashed in Rei Ao's eyesas though he had expected her arrival all along.
"The door isn't locked. Come in, Irisviel."
She slowly pushed open the door.
Only a dim bedside lamp lit the room.
Moonlight streamed through the lattice window, tracing a silver outline along Rei Ao's face, making him look even more enigmatic and untouchable.
"It's late. What's the matter?"
His voice was calm as always.
Irisviel fidgeted slightly, twisting the hem of her robe.
Her gaze swept around the room, but she didn't see that small yet dignified blue figure.
"Saber isn't she here?"
Rei Ao smiled faintly.
His eyes driftedalmost imperceptiblytoward a seemingly empty corner of the room, where Saber stood silently in spirit form, watching everything unfold.
Naturally, he didn't reveal it.
"She's a Heroic Spirit, after all. She doesn't need to sleep like humans do," he replied evenly.
"She's probably patrolling the mansion grounds, familiarizing herself with the area. No need to worry."
Then, after a short pause, he turned his full gaze toward Irisviel.
In the dim light, his blue eyes looked deeper, almost unfathomable.
"So, you came to see me at this hour. Is something troubling you?"
Irisviel took a deep breath, as if summoning all her courage.
She lifted her head, her ruby eyes locking onto his.
And at last, she asked the question that had haunted her ever since he brought her away:
"Rei Ao-san why are you being so kind to me?"
