After Ray had departed, all traces of solemnity and tension vanished from Irisviel's face as she slumped down on the nearby seat like someone who just survived a disaster.
Illya looks confused by her mother's reaction and hesitantly approaches her. However, all those worries were cast aside as she is simply happy to see her mother once more.
She had no doubt, this was her real mother.
Even if Irisviel is now a servant, the maternal affection radiating from her unconsciously made Illya feel certain.
But instead of a long overdue warm reunion that Illya expected, she was met with her mother's stern expression.
Irisviel stood straight with the dignity of a mother facing Illya which made the latter shrunk a little unconsciously.
"Illya… Please tell mama who that person… My Master is?"
Hearing her mother's unexpectedly grave tone, Illya narrates everything without leaving any details behind from the first moment of her encounter till the end.
Irisviel fell silent and pondered for a moment.
She is certain that Ray, her Master, is no normal Magus. Or even a human at all.
As a Servant, she forms a binding contract the moment she is summoned by him and they form a certain bond unique to a Master and Servant. With this bond, she is certain he is no human.
Why?
Not to mention his peculiarly alien energy aside, she had a personal skill named [Child of Nature] which made her an extension of the Earth itself and she can sense the extreme rejection of the planet toward the energy he used which typically reserved to Alien Gods and any similar existence which come from beyond the world itself.
These rejection reaction is not without reason as power that fundamentally subvert the very logic of physical law of the planet by simply existing.
Inside the Fuyuki Grail System, there is no information about these alien existence. However the Throne of Heroes have such record called the Foreigner Class, a class of Servants that typically used to categories the hosts of Alien Gods and by virtue, Irisviel think her Master is a host of an Alien God use to interact with the physical world.
However, the strange part is that from Illya's narration. This Alien God's host is merely seeking the Third Magic?
But, regardless of her Master's purpose. Irisviel is not someone with sense of justice trying to defend the world.
The one she cares is only her family and clearly whatever her Master is pursuing had nothing to do with harming her family and instead had helped instead with her resurrection and soon Kiritsugu too.
Rather than enmity, she owe her debt of gratitude and she is the kind of person that can differentiate between gratitude and grudge.
———
Meanwhile with Ray.
Once he left the Einzbern castle, he made his way to the Emiya residence via the mirror dimension while admiring the command seal on the back of his right palm.
The command seal resembles the image of two open palms beholding a floating goblet, clearly a design that follows the motif of Irisviel as a Servant being the manifestation of the Holy Grail Terminal.
Analysing the command seal helped Ray strike an unexpected fortune.
The command seal is basically just a vessel that stores a portion of Mana accumulated by the Greater Grail.
The compelling effect of the command seal didn't come from the seal itself but from the Greater Grail's mechanism.
The vessel used by each Servant is created by the Greater Grail and these vessels have a back door installed by default as a precaution to control disobedient Servants by the creators of this ritual.
The effects such as enhancing, teleporting, etc are achieved via the Greater Grail using the Wish attribute of the Justeaze ancestor of the Einzbern that transforms into the vessel of Greater Grail.
Each time a command seal is used, the mana stored will be flooded into the Servant via the magical bond between both parties and the Wish attribute in the Greater Grail achieves the effect using the Mana in the seal as fuel.
Basically, if someone has access to a large amount of Mana . One can 'recharge' the command seal endlessly. Or in the case when someone has access to a larger and higher quality energy like Ray, he can even bypass the command seal limit and pour even more Mana to achieve an even better effect.
Although the Wish attribute of the Grail is similar to his Omnipotent. It does have research value that can further refine his Omnipotence.
Mentally jolting down the Wish attribute on his mental list of power to copy, Ray arrived at the cemetery in Fuyuki City.
Although Kiritsugu's Mystic Code like the Origin Bullets or the pistol that fires the origin bullet works better as a catalyst to summon Assassin Emiya.
Kiritsugu had used up all the Origin Bullet and the gun was locked away in the Clocktower. It's a hassle to make a trip specifically to grab those.
Instead, Ray chose to visit his grave instead and use his bone as a catalyst.
After a quick grave digging, Ray performed another summoning ritual and summoned Assassin Emiya or the Servant Kiritsugu Emiya.
Normally, a Master who already summoned a Servant can't summon another one. But the Holy Grail ritual is made by Magus. Mortal creation can easily be seen through by Ego who helps Ray bypass such restrictions.
Before any pleasantries can be exchanged, the cold gleam of an M9 Bayonet shot up from Kiritsugu's waist holster and another hand swiftly grips a manifested his signature pistol Thompson Contender streak with red.
This is one of the reasons why he didn't summon Kiritsugu directly in front of Irisviel and Illya.
The current Kiritsugu is a younger one who forms a contract with the Counter Force early on in his mercenary days before even having a chance to meet Irisviel.
Meaning, the current Kiritsugu is a Counter Guardian and Ray is an enemy he must kill.
Just before the blade could stab Ray, he already jumped back a step. But distancing from Kiritsugu is a fatal mistake as the moment Ray exits the range of the blade, the pistol in Kiritsugu's hand is already aimed at his head.
*Bang!*
The hand cannon exploded with great recoil and the Origin Bullet inside already flew out with speed exceeding the speed of sound.
At just the nick of time, Ray's palm flew toward the trajectory of the bullet before he created a small hole the size of his palm to swallow the bullet aiming for his head, banishing it into the mirror space imitating the future Queen Sirin although he couldn't achieve true spatial transfer like she did to reflect back the attack since the power he copied is just a half formed Herrscher Authority.
"Spatial power? A bad match." Kiritsugu complained and clicked his tongue with a muffled voice as his mouth was covered by cloth wrapping the lower half of his face.
Despite the complaint, he still looked ready to fight as he swapped his single shot hand cannon for a submachine gun.
Staring at the obviously non compliant Kiritsugu, Ray raises his right hand showing his command seal before invoking its power.
"By my command seal, Servant Assassin. Cease all action." Ray declared and even supplied his own power to enforce the restraint on this Counter Force agent Kiritsugu.
Obviously Kiritsugu looks shocked as a Command Seal shouldn't work on him with the support of the Counter Force. Yet, the impossible still happened.
Kiritsugu also noticed this unique power that felt distinct compared to the Mana generated by the breath of the planet.
"Power of the Alien God." Kiritsugu mutters grimly with his eyes and turns even more resolute to kill Ray who is a great threat to humanity.
"Believe it or not, I have no intention to harm this world. I'm not that bored… Yet." Ray sighed helplessly and shrugged.
Seeing how Kiritsugu is gnashing his teeth, struggling against the compelling power of the Command Seal. Eager to chop off his head, Ray didn't bother to be polite and immediately get back to work.
Since the Throne of Heroes is an archive that stores information from past to the future regardless of timeline, he just needs to replace the current one with another from the 4th Holy Grail War.
Such a delicate operation is obviously not something a clueless person like Ray can perform. But with the help of the Wish attribute and sufficient energy to brute force the fulfilment of his wish, swapping souls is simple enough. Not to mention that the foundation of the Fuyuki Holy Grail Ritual itself is using the Third Magic as a component.
Once the soul swap is completed, the previously tense and agitated Kiritsugu immediately replaced with a dazed and confused Kiritsugu as he attempted to gather his bearings.
To be exact, this is Kiritsugu years after the 4th Holy Grail War. The most suitable and cooperative one as he had lost everything and was at the verge of death filled with regret.
Sensing the change in atmosphere and the departure from the previous tense standoff, Ray dismissed the restraining power of the Command Seal.
Kiritsugu this time didn't attack. But his wariness still up which Ray didn't blame him as they are literally standing on his grave right now and the hole he previously dug still hadn't been filled back yet.
"What do you want from me?" Kiritsugu asks tentatively. More confused than offended.
Finally, able to communicate. Ray didn't hesitate and said,
"Fulfilling my contract with your daughter, Illyasviel. To resurrect both you and your wife from death and later perform true revival." Ray explains briefly and concisely.
Hearing both names of his loved ones that left him with many regrets, Kiritsugu's eyes widened in disbelief and about to refute Ray's empty boast. However, Ray didn't bother to explain as he turned around and headed back to the Einzbern castle.
Kiritsugu didn't argue and believed that no one was bored enough to dig his grave to summon him just to tell lies. Besides, he can verify it with his eyes if he just follows Ray and returns to the Einzbern castle.
Naturally, Ray didn't walk on the street back to the Einzbern castle. Not when there is a chance to stumble upon that Golden King that is present in the city. Instead Ray opens a mirror dimension as before.
While totally evading Gilgamesh is not possible with his clairvoyant eyes. But as long as he can stay under the radar for now, evading his prying eyes temporarily is possible since that proud king has no habit of spoiling his future using his clairvoyance unless necessary.
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