In the end, the Illya in the memory and Berserker had no intention of continuing their fight with Shirou and the others. According to that Illya, she had become very interested in Archer and had therefore spared them.
As for whether that was the truth...
Nobody could say.
Still, everyone got to experience firsthand the destructive power of a Broken Phantasm combined with Caladbolg.
From a distance, it looked like fireworks.
Experiencing it up close, however...
"Victorian profanity! That scared the life out of me. I almost thought I was going to die."
Blaze, who frequently participated in breakthrough operations, had more experience with explosives than most people, making the experience especially immersive.
Had she not merely been a consciousness inside these memories, she was certain her heart would have leapt out of her chest.
Of course, she was not alone. Blaze simply had more experience with battlefield explosions, but the sheer visual impact and the devastated landscape afterward left everyone with the feeling that they had narrowly escaped death.
And yet, despite such a powerful attack, Berserker stood there completely unharmed.
Had Illya not suddenly lost interest and ended the battle, Shirou and the others might have met their end there.
"Did Shirou somehow know beforehand what Archer was planning?"
After recovering from her shock, Exusiai remembered how Shirou had suddenly frozen for a moment, glanced in Archer's direction, and then hurriedly grabbed Saber's hand to pull her away from Berserker.
A moment later, the Broken Phantasm had arrived.
At first, she had not thought much of it, but now that she considered it carefully, something definitely felt strange.
"Things with the same frequency resonate with one another. Is that not obvious?"
Illya answered Exusiai with a rather peculiar expression.
Things vibrating at the same frequency resonated with each other.
Was that not basic science children knew?
"Uh..."
Exusiai was left speechless after being subtly looked down upon. The answer had practically been right in front of her, but her poor academic foundation prevented her from realizing it.
"It is okay, Exusiai. It is perfectly normal that we do not understand the world of magic."
Croissant suppressed the laughter threatening to escape and patted Exusiai on the shoulder.
Although she had not noticed the detail herself, she still found it hilarious. Then again, after remembering how much wider her horns felt after being pulled earlier, Croissant decided that comforting her teammate was the wiser option.
Her words worked immediately.
The awkward expressions on everyone's faces noticeably eased.
So it was not because they were uneducated.
The problem was simply that magic made no sense!
Though the embarrassment lessened somewhat, some lingering discomfort remained, prompting someone to quickly change the subject.
"What happened to being discreet? That explosion produced such a huge flash. Surely someone noticed it? And that trajectory was pretty obvious too, was it not?"
"Oh, I remember this clearly! That priest used the gas explosion excuse again. As for the trajectory, it was not that obvious. Ordinary people would probably just think they saw a meteor."
Knowing what everyone was thinking, Illya did not dwell on the previous topic and seriously answered the question.
"Gas explosions, gas explosions... I finally understand why Shirou said that phrase was basically code over there."
Upon hearing the same excuse again, Texas suddenly understood why Shirou always wore such an awkward expression whenever he mentioned those words.
After all, she herself felt similarly strange whenever she had to explain certain Sicilian underworld slang.
So literally everything was blamed on gas leak.
"That really is..."
Everyone else gave up trying to complain.
The world of magic was simply too distant and absurd for them.
Thus, they decided to settle down and focus on the memories.
Illya had already said that as the Holy Grail War progressed, the darker side of the world of magecraft would gradually reveal itself to Shirou.
And when that happened, they too would gain a deeper understanding of what magecraft truly meant.
After Berserker's departure, Shirou apparently collapsed again due to his previous injuries and the shockwave from the explosion.
The scene suddenly jumped to the next morning, when he finally woke up.
Watching Shirou unintentionally provoke Rin with his sharp-tongued remarks, the four members of Penguin Logistics all agreed that they completely understood her suffering.
The difference was that, unlike Rin, they were utterly helpless against Shirou.
Which made things rather painful.
Though after getting used to it, it was not that bad.
Life soon returned to normal, as though the Holy Grail War had never happened.
School remained school.
Household chores remained household chores.
One noteworthy detail was that Sakura, someone very close to Shirou, apparently also had some connection to the Holy Grail War. Illya had accidentally let that slip.
Judging from the regret in her voice, the fate of that purple-haired girl with the impressive figure had apparently not been a happy one.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that nobody, Shirou included, had received a happy ending.
Perhaps Shirou's amnesia was only an excuse.
Maybe he simply did not want to remember those painful memories.
Whatever the truth might be, it no longer mattered.
They would witness the conclusion of this Holy Grail War here with their own eyes.
As time passed, Shirou officially formed an alliance with Rin.
For the time being, they agreed to present a united front against the outside world.
For Emiya Shirou: As long as the Holy Grail does not fall into the hands of those with ill intent, that is enough. Rin was a very suitable choice for that role.
The next enemy Shirou and the others encountered was Rider, and her Master was someone Shirou was also familiar with.
Matou Shinji, Sakura Matou's older brother.
How should this be said... he had once been a rather decent person, but for some reason he had suddenly become malicious and unpleasant.
In any case, the group did not think highly of him, especially since he had previously beaten Sakura.
They also noticed that Shinji seemed to control Rider using a book in his possession, which suggested that he had likely used some kind of magical item to take Rider under his control.
If that was the case, then Rider's true Master was clearly Sakura Matou.
It was obvious that a Servant forcibly taken through external means could not possibly win against Saber and Archer. Moreover, Shinji was, like Shirou, an unqualified Master.
As long as tactics were properly arranged and they did not act recklessly, victory was basically assured.
After repelling Rider and warning Shinji, the Rider faction temporarily quieted down.
However, Rider did not fully withdraw. At the last moment, she took Shinji away, leaving behind a school full of unconscious students and teachers for Shirou and Rin to deal with.
At first, Rin was somewhat panicked when faced with so many unconscious people, but Shirou remained unusually calm. He walked into the crowd with a serious expression, checked Sakura's condition, and confirmed that everyone was only unconscious.
This reaction was extremely abnormal. Rin's response was what a normal person should have had.
But for Shirou, this kind of situation was nothing compared to the fire ten years ago.
Everyone understood this, and could even empathize to some extent.
Although they were not as composed as Shirou, they were able to calm down quickly after panicking and assess the severity of the situation.
However, this did not mean Shirou's reaction was normal. From this incident, even those who had not noticed before began to realize that there was something wrong with Shirou's personality.
Amiya, who had been paying attention to this from the beginning, understood this even more clearly. She did not worry as much as the others.
On Rhodes Island, there were quite a number of operators with similar conditions. In such cases, only psychological treatment from professionals could help.
However, Shirou was very resistant to that kind of treatment. In the end, it would likely have to be Kal'tsit who handled it.
Kal'tsit would certainly find a way to deal with it, especially since the two of them had some level of private cooperation, not in treating the children from Fuyuki's store, but in other, longer-term matters.
In some sense, Kal'tsit might actually be the most suitable person to treat Shirou.
Because Kal'tsit herself often ignored her own condition in the same way Shirou did such as staying up three days in a row to perform surgery, or forgetting to eat while arranging operator deployments.
Perhaps when two such similar people collided, something unexpected would happen.
However, compared to Shirou, Kal'tsit herself seemed unaware of this.
After all, no one dared to say anything to Kal'tsit, and most of Rhodes Island's workload rested on her shoulders.
That was also why she wanted to bring the Doctor back, to share some of Kal'tsit's burden.
But at present... the Doctor probably would not be able to share the burden. In fact, they might even become a new source of stress for Kal'tsit.
Hopefully the Doctor is fine.
Thinking of this, Amiya silently prayed for the Doctor in her heart.
They had been inside Shirou's memories for a very long time, but the subjective sense of time had not changed much. Perhaps that was another mystery of magecraft.
At present, their situation was somewhat like being in a shared dream. After waking up, they might forget some unimportant details.
After the Rider incident, Shirou and the others next faced Caster.
Compared to Rider, Caster was a far more troublesome enemy.
As a Caster, she was highly proficient in magecraft, and could also strengthen her Master to fight directly.
Saber had already suffered in their first encounter and was badly beaten.
The good news was that Shirou suddenly stepped in and projected his signature black-and-white twin blades, successfully blocking Caster's Master, Shirou's own teacher.
This gave Saber room to recover and forced Caster's team to retreat.
After the battle, Saber and Rin quickly recovered, but Shirou's condition was not good.
The right side of his body seemed to have some problems, and he only improved after Archer's help the next day.
According to Archer, he had discovered something hidden beneath the Holy Grail War. This was not the time to deal with personal matters. Although he was unwilling, rationally speaking, having Shirou as an additional combat asset was the best option.
However, he still said many things, seemingly hoping Shirou would abandon his ideal of becoming an ally of justice and simply live an ordinary life.
Unfortunately, Shirou's mind was not fully functioning at the time, so he did not understand what he meant at all.
It could not even be said that he failed to understand, his physical condition was poor, and most of his attention was focused on the hidden truth beneath the Holy Grail War.
He simply did not hear what Archer said at all.
Everyone could vaguely see him closing his eyes, with faint vein-like patterns appearing on his forehead and hands. It could be inferred that Archer was very close to directly taking action against Shirou.
But in the end, he did not. He only left behind a single sentence before departing:
"The belief of being an ally of justice will forever curse Emiya Shirou."
The sentence left Shirou and Saber both confused and unable to understand.
Their confusion was understandable, they did not know Archer's identity.
However, the group observing from a third-person perspective clearly understood what was going on. With some additional explanations from Arina, they had also gained a more complete understanding of Archer.
For someone to say something like this...
He must have gone through many things, right?
Rejecting his younger self's ideals, treating them as a curse, even going so far as to want to kill his past self.
He was denying his past, and also denying his own existence.
Many things only become clear after they are completed, only then does one realize the outcome may differ from what was originally imagined. Yet by that point, it is usually already impossible to turn back.
This is not a transaction where one can simply return the goods and get a refund.
This is reality. Once something has happened, one can only grit their teeth and continue forward.
But no matter how long one persists, there will eventually be a point of exhaustion. When one can no longer endure, one's mentality begins to change, and various negative emotions start to emerge.
Archer is the latter type, and the target he chose to vent those emotions on was… himself.
If the future self kills the past self, then will the future self disappear?
This is a paradox. After all, time travel itself should not be possible.
Yet the example of Archer and Shirou was right before their eyes.
With this question in mind, everyone turned to Illya for clarification.