"Am I going to turn into a chain?"
Prisma Illya stared at the Trap Card in her hand, the idea growing more absurd the longer she pondered it.
"I don't think so..."
Jiang You wasn't entirely certain, as there were no references for this thing's mechanics.
"If anything goes wrong, Ruby can just cancel the Install. No need to worry."
"You bastard!"
Easy for you to say! You're not the one doing it, so of course you're not feeling any pressure! Prisma Illya thought, pummeling Jiang You's head with a flurry of small, pink fists.
"I'll try it. Sapphire, begin the Install."
Miyu took the Trap Card from Prisma Illya's hand and initiated the Install without hesitation.
A golden light flashed, and Jiang You noticed the nullified lightning effect on the Trap Card. As expected, the Install failed.
"Looks like it's no good. If the Trap Card doesn't work, the Spell Card probably won't either. Thanks for trying, Miyu. As for you, Prisma Illya, no treats for you tomorrow. Both desserts are for Miyu."
"Hmph! I don't care anyway!"
Prisma Illya's allowance had increased recently, diminishing the allure of Jiang You's sweets.
"Alright, let's try this one next."
Jiang You pulled out a Card radiating an overwhelmingly ominous aura. Even without its true form manifesting, the sheer pressure emanating from it caused Ruby and Sapphire to tremble involuntarily.
"Wh-what is this?!"
Ruby's wings folded inward, the terror emanating from this thing far surpassing the pressure exerted by Kaleidoscope.
"Creator Mother Goddess, Tiamat," Jiang You declared, displaying the Card to the group. This Card depicted Tiamat in her intermediate form—the colossal humanoid version.
"That girl was Tiamat?!" Sapphire exclaimed.
Before Jiang You brought her to Miyu, Sapphire had indeed seen the white-haired girl with massive horns. She had glanced at her twice, confirming only that she was a servant—nothing particularly special. Sapphire had assumed she was some figure from ancient mythology, never imagining her true origin was so colossal.
"Wait, what stage has your Holy Grail War even reached? Are you fighting aliens now?"
"In a way, yes," Jiang You mused. Isn't FGO 2.0 just Earthlings versus aliens? "But that's beside the point. Let's see if this thing can be Installed. If it can, we can steamroll everything."
Even if Install couldn't unlock a servant's full power, Tiamat was far beyond the reach of someone like Darius. Moreover, the Tiamat Jiang You possessed wasn't an Alterego who had willingly downgraded herself in response to a summoning. She was a Beast—an enemy of Human Order—making her strength several tiers higher.
I mean, how could there be such a powerful maternal instinct?
Ruby nodded. "So she's the Mother of All Things? If we could complete the Install, wouldn't that mean we'd get a little loli with incredibly strong maternal instincts? This... this is amazing! A loli Mommy—it's a divine blessing! No, Sapphire, stop! Don't do it! Uwaaaaah—!"
Watching Sapphire electrocute Ruby, Jiang You's opinion of Kaleidoscope plummeted another level. The old man's tastes were truly bizarre. Had this guy taken some sort of advanced course in Zeon? "Like father, like son. The old man upstairs probably prefers little boys..."
"Mr. Jiang You, stop! Stop!"
Prisma Illya felt Jiang You was the more dangerous one. If Tiamat had manifested, then God might exist too. With the Church's growing influence, daring to say such things could get him crucified and burned alive in minutes.
"Keep talking like that and sulfur fire will rain from the heavens!"
"If it dares to fall, I'll grab it and force it to play cards with me!"
Jiang You remained fearlessly confident, though in truth, he couldn't actually draw the pigeon into the range of his Noble Phantasms unless the creature personally descended to participate in the Holy Grail War. If that happened, Jiang You would teach it the true meaning of universal equality.
"Alright, enough joking around. Who wants to try this card?"
Prisma Illya glanced at Miyu and, noticing her lack of interest, volunteered. "Since Miyu's already tried it, I'll take a turn. Ruby, time to wake up!"
The charred Ruby Jewel sprang up from the ground, shaking off its carbonized outer shell.
"Coming right up! Hehehe... Mommy(?)-Loli."
Ruby was immediately met with a furious spike from Prisma Illya, slammed to the ground, and stomped on repeatedly.
"No more chatter! Let's get to work!"
The Install Spell's magical structure unfurled, magical power converging on the Tiamat Card. Yet nothing happened. Illya's Install had failed.
"It's no use..."
Illya sensed an invisible barrier between herself and the card, preventing any connection.
"It's not that I can't transform... it's more like I'm being rejected. Could it be a compatibility issue?"
Jiang You didn't know why, but he looked at Miyu, who nodded knowingly. She took the Tiamat Card and initiated the Install.
As expected, it failed. Miyu described the same sensation as Illya—an inability to establish a connection with the Card.
Jiang You retrieved the Tiamat Card and pondered for ages, yet he couldn't figure it out. If Shirou Emiya could do it, why not Tiamat? He then pulled out the Fairy Tristan Card and offered it to the two girls. After another attempt, it failed again.
"Could it be... that only Big Brother is special?" Miyu suggested.
"That shouldn't be the case..." Jiang You muttered.
A sudden thought struck him. Could the activation conditions for these Cards be different from Class Cards? With Class Cards, acquiring one meant immediate use, whereas his Cards seemed to require a connection before they could be used. Perhaps friendship and bond truly mattered. He pulled out another Card.
"Try this one?"
Prisma Illya and Miyu leaned closer to examine it.
"Miss Medusa?!"
"Let's test the power of friendship and bond," Jiang You declared, uttering the classic Magical Girl line. "Maybe it'll trigger a miracle?"
"As if it were that simple... This isn't some anime!"
Prisma Illya thought it seemed too good to be true—reality couldn't possibly mirror anime. Still, she accepted Medusa's Card. They had spent a lot of time with Medusa recently, so perhaps some genuine friendship or bond had formed.
"Well, I'll give it a try anyway."
The Install summoning circle reappeared, and once again, a golden light soared skyward. Little Illya materialized before them, clad in Medusa's attire.
"No way! Not again?!"
As the saying goes, "One man's joy is another man's sorrow." At the Church, someone's face fell as they saw the light on the horizon. "When will this end?!" they groaned. "Is the gas company going to go bankrupt because of this?"