Chapter 201: He Is Essentially the World Itself!

After a brief moment of reflection, Bai Zeming immediately cast aside these distracting thoughts and prepared to rush to the mountain gate to assist Emiya Shirou.

But by the time he arrived with the two Heroic Spirits, the mighty Heracles had already fallen to the hands of Golden Saber.

And now, Gilgamesh, dressed in modern casual attire, had plunged his hand into Illya’s chest and pulled out a heart pulsing with purple-black energy!

The plot had spiraled out of control, advancing too rapidly, leaving Bai Zeming utterly unprepared.

Gazing at Illya, drenched in blood and collapsing to the ground, he gritted his teeth and spent his final hundred points.

——This is why Lin Yu had only spent two days studying within his inner universe!

Amidst brilliant silver light, a handsome young man clad in white robes descended once more into this world.

Gazing at the ruined forest before him, Lin Yu raised an eyebrow and looked at Bai Zeming in surprise:

“What did you do?”

“...”

Bai Zeming looked embarrassed and hurriedly said, “Big Brother, I know things are chaotic, but now isn’t the time to dwell on it—Illya is about to die!”

“You want to save her?”

“If we can save her, we must!”

Bai Zeming answered without hesitation.

Lin Yu smiled faintly, then raised his hand and summoned Illya’s fallen body to him.

On the ground, the Tohsaka sisters, Emiya Shirou, and the three Heroic Spirits all noticed his action, lifting their heads in shock to stare at the several figures near the mountain gate.

“...Him?!”

Meeting the stunned gazes below, Lin Yu glanced at the bloody wound on Illya’s body, then his right hand erupted in brilliant silver light, repairing her body with healing and matter-shaping magic.

In an instant, the gruesome wound shrank and vanished, blood flowing back into her body.

Her pale face quickly regained its rosy hue, and her crimson eyes regained their luster, wide with astonishment and confusion as she stared at the handsome young man in white robes before her.

“Big brother... did you save me?”

“You could say that.”

Lin Yu smiled, patted Illya’s head, then vanished in a flash, reappearing before Emiya Shirou and the others.

At this moment, apart from the Tohsaka sisters, all three—Saber, Archer, and Emiya Shirou—bore varying degrees of injuries, whether from Heracles or Gilgamesh, no one knew.

Lin Yu’s gaze swept over them all, finally settling on Tohsaka Sakura.

“We meet again, little girl.”

“...”

Tohsaka Sakura froze, then hesitantly said, “Thank you... for what you did before...”

“You’re welcome.”

Lin Yu smiled in reply, then turned his gaze toward the two figures across from him.

The tall figure kneeling on the ground was the lingering remnant of Heracles, not yet dissolved.

The silent golden-haired youth beside him was the Heroic Spirit from the previous war—the ancient King of Mesopotamia, Gilgamesh!

He had lustrous golden hair, wore a white shirt beneath a black tracksuit, and possessed a face as beautiful as a god’s, with eyes of crimson red.

Before Lin Yu appeared, Gilgamesh had just defeated Heracles and extracted Illya’s heart—or rather, the Small Holy Grail used to recover Heroic Spirit mana.

But upon seeing Lin Yu, he fell silent, frowning intently at him.

“I never expected...”

Meeting Lin Yu’s gaze, Gilgamesh suddenly spoke, his expression calm: “A mere whim led me to encounter a being like you.”

“Oh?”

Lin Yu raised an eyebrow, surprised—he hadn’t expected Gilgamesh to sense even a hint of his true nature.

...Was it because of the two-thirds divine nature within him?

Lin Yu regarded him with interest, then lowered his gaze to the purple-black heart in his hand.

“So this is the Small Holy Grail inside Illya?”

What?!

Gilgamesh’s pupils shrank sharply; he whirled to look at his right hand—only to find the heart gone, replaced by a grotesque mass of unknown organic flesh.

A chill ran through him; he hurled the flesh away and glared furiously at Lin Yu ahead.

Just as everyone expected him to once again sneer at Lin Yu with insults like “common cultivator,” this man instead drew a deep breath and forcibly suppressed his rage!

Seeing this, not only Emiya Shirou and the others, but even Bai Zeming and the others who had just arrived with Illya, stared in astonishment.

Emiya Shirou snapped out of his shock and blurted:

“You’re saying this heart is the Small Holy Grail?”

“Why was it inside Illya?!”

“Don’t you know?” Lin Yu glanced at him and explained with a smile, “The Small Holy Grail is the prize awarded to the victor of the Holy Grail War.”

“But in truth, it’s merely a vessel to recover Heroic Spirit mana—and a necessary artifact for achieving the Third Magic.”

“Though a vessel, it requires a Master as a living sacrifice. Illya Fae von Einzbern is this war’s Small Holy Grail—a creation born of human and homunculus.”

“Her mother, Alice Eisl, was the Small Holy Grail of the previous war—the former Master of the Saber beside you...”

Hearing this, Emiya Shirou froze again, turning to look at Saber.

Saber still gripped her invisible sword, but her expression had grown silent, as if acknowledging the truth.

Lin Yu smiled and said, “As for the Great Holy Grail...”

Before he finished, he suddenly lifted his right foot and lightly stamped.

“Boom!”

Instantly, the entire Ryūdōji Temple and Mount Yuancang trembled with thunderous resonance.

The ground rose with a rumble, hard earth and stone cracking through bricks, sprouting upward like bamboo shoots after rain.

Everyone stared in shock at the rising ground beneath them; before they could react, an invisible force surged forth, lifting every person present into the sky.

Soon, the trembling and rising of the earth ceased.

All looked down in awe—there, at the very center of Ryūdōji Temple, at the core of Fuyuki City’s ley lines, rose a colossal stone pillar.

Upon its upper circular platform lay a magical array so vast it was terrifying.

The mana contained within was seemingly endless, filling every mage present with profound dread.

“What is that?”

Emiya Shirou asked in shock.

Tohsaka Rin, forcing down her astonishment, said grimly: “The Great Holy Grail.”

What?!

That’s the Great Holy Grail?

It was buried beneath Ryūdōji Temple all along?

Emiya Shirou stared in disbelief at the colossal magical array.

Bai Zeming snapped back to himself and flew over to Lin Yu’s side, whispering: “Big Brother, what exactly are you planning?”

“To permanently end this Holy Grail War.”

Lin Yu chuckled, “The magical array beneath Ryūdōji Temple—the Great Holy Grail—requires the Small Holy Grail, filled with Heroic Spirit mana, as its spark to activate.”

“Now, this heart has already absorbed one Heroic Spirit, plus your Caster, and three Masters whose souls have been transformed into Heroic Spirit forms by the Throne of Heroes—that’s five.”

“Only one more is needed to fully fill the Holy Grail’s contents...”

As he spoke, his gaze turned to Gilgamesh, standing atop a tree branch.

Gilgamesh’s expression darkened, but before he could speak, Lin Yu shifted his gaze behind him.

“All have gathered, yet someone is absent...”

Lin Yu said coolly, “How can that be allowed?”

Before his words faded, the Qimen formation covering all of Fuyuki City activated instantly.

Brilliant silver light erupted from the ground below, spitting out two disheveled figures.

Simultaneously, everyone except Lin Yu was teleported to the space beneath the stone pillar.

Tohsaka Rin and the others were startled, but quickly recovered, watching warily toward Gilgamesh and the two figures emerging from the silver light beside him.

One was their old acquaintance—the blue-armored Lancer wielding a crimson spear.

The other was Tohsaka Rin’s legal guardian, the fake priest of the Church, notorious tax evader, and supervisor of this Holy Grail War—Kirei Kotomine!

The moment she saw Kirei Kotomine and the blue-armored Lancer, Tohsaka Rin recognized his identity.

“You’re Lancer’s Master?!”

She stared at Kirei Kotomine in disbelief.

But Kirei paid her no mind; instead, he frowned, scanning the ruins and the stone pillar before finally fixing his gaze on the white-robed figure in the sky.

“It seems something has occurred here even you cannot resolve...”

“Hmph!”

Gilgamesh, hands in his pockets, snorted: “It’s an act of God.”

An act of God?

Kirei Kotomine pondered, then suddenly lifted his sleeve, revealing his arm covered in full-length Command Seals.

“By the Master’s authority, Lancer—return to the church!”

As he spoke, the Command Seals on his arm glowed crimson.

The blue-armored Lancer beside him was engulfed in overwhelming mana, his form twisting violently.

But the next instant, the distorted space was smoothed over by some force, and Lancer’s figure remained standing in place.

“Truly an irresistible force!”

Kirei Kotomine lowered his arm and gazed calmly at Lin Yu in the sky: “If I’m not mistaken, the one up there is the person you encountered at school before?”

“A person?”

Before Lancer could answer, Gilgamesh snorted and glanced at Lin Yu in the sky: “Kotomine, this fellow isn’t human…”

“In my eyes, his radiance surpasses even the gods—he might as well be the world itself!”

The world itself?!

Kirei Kotomine blinked in surprise, frowning: “If that’s truly what he is, how could he possess personality and consciousness?”

Gilgamesh glanced at him: “Good question. I’m curious too. Why don’t you go ask him yourself?”

Kirei Kotomine fell silent—he clearly had no such intention.

Gilgamesh gave a light snort, then stomped his foot.

In an instant, golden ripples appeared out of thin air, and a golden vessel woven from gold and emeralds emerged, carrying his body upward at great speed until it reached the same height as the top of the stone pillar.

Sensing the solid spatial barrier above, Gilgamesh frowned slightly and looked up at Lin Yu.

“Though I do not know your true identity, I am certain that a being like you would never take interest in something as trivial as the Holy Grail!”

Gilgamesh stared fixedly at him: “So what is your true purpose?”

(End of Chapter)