Xyrin Empire
Chapter 495 Under the Moonlight

Chapter 495: Chapter 495 Under the Moonlight

Standing before us was a woman enshrouded entirely in a cloak, with even most of her face covered by an elaborate hood. This scene involuntarily reminded me of Visca, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that girl still had her obsession with collecting cloaks.

Since her appearance, she hadn’t said a word, choosing to confront us with her silence.

To be honest, at first I thought we would need to fight it out, since the Heroic Spirits I knew of usually had a speak-with-their-fists-first kind of temperament. Surprisingly, she complied with Lin Xue’s request to meet us obediently, which left the meeting-prepared-to-fight Pandora Sisters quite disappointed.

"Are you the magician who summoned Sasaki?" Tohsaka looked at the woman in front of us with a very surprised expression, bewildered by the situation, "But..."

"That’s correct, she is a Heroic Spirit, her class is Caster. Because she is also a ’magician’, she exploited a loophole in the Holy Grail System and managed to summon another Heroic Spirit. Sasaki was summoned through this rule-breaking method," I turned to explain to Tohsaka, "However, due to its illicit nature, Sasaki could only be bound in the front gate of Yododani Temple. Of course, with Sakura’s alteration, that restriction is now gone."

"Wow, so that’s possible?" Tohsaka immediately voiced her protest, feeling it was incredibly unfair.

Upon hearing her secret so effortlessly revealed, the woman veiled in a cloak finally reacted. Her lips, hidden in the shadows, moved slightly, yet her voice reached each of us, "I hadn’t expected anyone to delve into this Red Moon World. I thought I’d be safe here."

A conservative approach to action, perhaps?

This actually suited Caster’s nature well. As a magician, a professional not adept at straightforward assaults, and perhaps also due to her personality, her choice of this conservative strategy in the Holy Grail War was fairly normal. Moreover, based on what I knew, compared to face-to-face battles, this woman was better at staging a battleground in advance and manipulating the terrain to gain the final victory. Thus, her ability to hide within the Inner World since the beginning of the Holy Grail War was understandable.

Seeing Sasaki standing among us, Caster was understandably perturbed, and even more so, she was profoundly perplexed. According to common understanding, the contract between a Heroic Spirit and a summoner is bound by the power of the Holy Grail, and except if the summoner dies, regular means cannot sever this link. Of course, she possessed a certain Treasure which had the ability to dispel all mystic effects; employing that could break the contract between a Heroic Spirit and the summoner. It was obvious, though, that Sasaki wasn’t in such a situation.

The contract showed no signs of being damaged. Or rather, the half that she held was still intact. However, the Heroic Spirit before her had completely transformed into something else. Although she could sense his magic power, there was another element mixed within it that rendered the contract power she possessed completely ineffective.

To put it in a more grotesque metaphor, it’s like you bought a Sony big-screen TV, took it down to Old Wang for repairs one day, and when it returned, you found your remote didn’t work. Upon opening the TV’s casing, you faced the grim reality of "Sopo" branding inside, dumbstruck by a knockoff core shocking you to the core.

Hmm, that analogy was simply too classic.

The ghost-energy-transformed Sasaki was no longer a product of the Fate system. He had no connection whatsoever with the two great Suppression Forces, as if that TV with the exchanged core. Although its appearance was the same and the contractual link still existed, the nature of Sasaki had become a leaf of the World Tree of Dingdang’s world. Unless Caster could understand the system of another world, she would never be able to command Sasaki with a Command Spell again.

"I’m very sorry for taking away your Heroic Spirit," noticing that the cloaked woman’s gaze was fixed on Sasaki, I knew what she was contemplating, "but we have important matters to address right now. We are here to gather some information from you. You have the right to object, but we will act as if we haven’t heard you."

Next to me, the conscientious Emiya was once again unnerved by such unrestrained utterance, pressing his hand to his forehead, "Is it really okay to say something like that so matter-of-factly?"

Caster, too, was stunned for a moment, then contemplatively observed the crowd of invaders before her. There were four Heroic Spirits she could confirm through their magic power, a super eye-catching Giant, a tall man clad in red with white hair, a silent woman with purple hair reaching the ground, and a serious-looking golden girl with errant strands of hair. Just this array of fighting power already posed an overwhelming advantage; heaven knows how they managed to stand together so civily. Discounting the visible, conceivable combat strength, as well as the two girls with apparent magic fluctuations (referring to Sakura and Ilya; amongst the others, the faint magic power on Emiya was completely overshadowed by the complex energies from our side, whereas Sakura, being the Crystal Saint Mother, no longer had any trace of magic power), the unquantifiable bunch was actually the presence to be most wary of. Caster, with an intellect measuring two hundred, was not brainless like Shen Er; she would never assume powerless ordinary people would show up here.

Through the shadow beneath her hood, I could sense her scrutinizing gaze. Naturally, I could speculate on the type of trade-offs she was considering. Sure enough, moments later, she broke the silence.

"Power-wise, we’re completely incomparable now, it seems I have no chance to resist."

Being as smart as she was, she wouldn’t stubbornly choose to resist to the end under these circumstances.

"However, before I cooperate with you, I’d like you to clear up my confusion first," Caster suddenly lifted her head, revealing a stunningly beautiful face, "Who exactly are you? I feel that you are very different from the magicians who participate in the Holy Grail War."

Hey! I like this question!

Almost competing to answer, we promptly said, "Do you know about photography enthusiasts? Centaurus? Traffic accidents caused by Ultraman roaming wildly in space? We come from..."

"Cough cough!" Tohsaka decisively cut in before we could expound on our unbeatable photography enthusiast theory, "That’s not important. They’re just my external support, and I am a participant in the Holy Grail War. Any problem with that?"

Caster, who had been stunned by our sudden noisy eagerness to answer, finally reacted slowly with a nod, only to find out that despite all the commotion, her question remained unanswered.

And she would soon find out, even more sadly, that communicating with this bunch of inexplicable folks was a problem in itself.

"This desolate place is indeed a good hideout," I surveyed the surroundings, where, with the movement of the Red Moon, a massive amount of earth and stone was slowly rising along the distant horizon, "How did you find your way in here?"

"What if I say I don’t know myself?"

Caster replied, carefully observing our reactions. It was obvious, despite appearing very calm, she was still very nervous faced with a combination of invaders who could crush her a dozen times over. However, it was also very clear that she had no intention of telling the truth.

We, of course, weren’t satisfied with such a response, and Sandora coldly huffed before turning her gaze in a certain direction in the distance.

"There’s a human over there."

With that single statement, Caster’s face drastically changed.

In such a desolate place, finding the thought waves of a human was far too simple for Sandora, who didn’t even need to use a life radar to scan, she could point instinctively to the exact location of the man Caster had carefully placed.

"We have no intention of making things difficult for you, nor any intention to harm you or your master," Sandora said coldly, looking at Caster as an invisible spiritual shock caused blood to seep from the corners of Caster’s mouth, "but that depends on your cooperation. The courage you showed by appearing before us alone is commendable, so I will generously tolerate your first deception. However, a second time, and the punishment will fall not only on your head."

Tohsaka and the others looked at Sandora with a gaze of astonishment, as if seeing the golden-haired girl who suddenly exuded an aura of noble chill for the first time, and I grimaced and shrugged my shoulders at them, "This is the real Sandora."

"It’s Yanfeng Qili!"

Whether it was the pain of a burning spirit or Sandora’s threat taking effect, Caster this time did not hesitate to reveal her secret.

"That human gave me something that allows Kagari Ge Mu and me to enter this space."

Gasping for air with dramatic intensity, Caster had finally calmed down from the psychic pain that burned her spirit. She looked at the noble girl before her with a gaze filled with terror, unable to fathom how a mere look from her could almost cost her, a Heroic Spirit, her life. Such peculiar and horrifying strength left her utterly astounded.

"Fake Priest?" Tohsaka immediately exclaimed in surprise, low-toned; the name Yanfeng Qili appearing here was beyond her expectations. Emiya let out another cry of astonishment, "Suzuki? Could it be Teacher Kagari?"

"Yes, Kagari Ge Mu," I patted Emiya on the shoulder, "Boy, you better start getting used to all kinds of incredibilities. Your sister can now transform into a Floating Giant Soldier, so there’s no point sweating the small stuff..."

Emiya nodded, his face a knot of confusion, speechless.

Only now did we understand, Yanfeng Qili had known about the existence of the Inner World from the beginning. He gave Caster a black crystal dagger, which to me seemed ordinary, yet it harbored energy fluctuations that subtly resonated with the Red Moon above. It was like a simple formula that could break open the entire cipher. Whoever held the crystal dagger could use it to enter the Inner World. After Sandora’s warning, Caster finally cooperated a lot more, and it seemed she had no affection for Father Yanfeng in the first place. Had she not been reluctant to expose the secret of preventing herself and Kagari Ge Mu from entering this world, she probably would have taken the initiative to hand the black crystal dagger over to us to examine.

"I don’t like being treated as a pawn," Caster confessed her disliking for Yanfeng, "I could tell that his ’help’ for me and Suzuki was completely purposeful."

However, as for why Sasaki was stronger than an average Heroic Spirit, and why his weapon had mutated, Caster couldn’t give us a clear answer. She herself didn’t understand how all this had happened. The only clue we had was that during the summoning ritual, she had been in the Inner World, which meant that the secret behind Sasaki’s increase in strength and the ghost energy contained in his weapon was somehow related to the Inner World.

"If I must mention something noteworthy," Caster added quickly, seeing our dissatisfied expressions and fearing that the despotic and harsh golden-haired girl might take rash actions if displeased any further, "at the moment the summoning concluded, the Red Moon in the sky suddenly turned blue."

Wow, so not only does the moon’s gravity keep changing, but its color too?

Is that darned thing even a moon anymore?!

Unfortunately, although Caster was in the Inner World during the summoning process, the Holy Grail system confined Sasaki to "be born" only in the Outer World. He had never seen this world’s scenery and naturally couldn’t vouch for his former master.

The blue moon, that’s an absolutely crucial clue. The events that had transpired told us one thing—if a world discovered relics left by the Xyrin Apostle, be it noncombustible trash or one or two despairing Avengers, it signified that immense trouble was on its way. Therefore, anything that could explain the source of the ghost energy on Sasaki’s weapon was something we absolutely couldn’t overlook.

"Miss Xue, can you see the blue moon?"

I established a spiritual connection with Lin Xue. Her eyes were watching both the past and the future. If the blue moon had ever appeared, and was likely to do so again, it wouldn’t escape her observation.

"I’m sorry, I haven’t seen it," Lin Xue’s response surprised me a little, but her subsequent explanation clarified things for me. "Did you think bypassing the world’s structure to observe a space that exists as a concept was so simple? Plus, even as a Prophet, there are things beyond my power, right?"

Sorry, I’d forgotten about that.

From Caster, we finally learned of another figure hidden in the shadows: Yanfeng Qili. Though from the start, I had suspected that he was the type shaped by deep cover, I hadn’t imagined that he would have connections to this Inner World. Moreover, he had indirectly aided Caster in gaining strength for potentially winning the Holy Grail War by allowing her into the Inner World. What exactly was his purpose?

Caster avowed that here, the Red Moon could gradually increase her strength, something like magic power but acting more like a catalyst contained within the red moonlight, which was greatly beneficial for a magic user like herself. Saber also sensed this subtle power after concentrating, but Tohsaka felt nothing, indicating that this magic power only affected Heroic Spirits. Since Yanfeng Qili possessed a "key" that could open the gateway to the Inner World, it stood to reason that he knew the secrets of the Red Moon’s light.

The more clues we had, the bigger the enigma—such was my feeling at the moment.

But at least now we knew whom to seek to unravel this riddle.

"Seems like that’s all you know," I shook my head, having thought we could uncover the secrets of the Inner World from Caster in one go, but it turned out she was just another chess piece. "Sorry to have bothered you. It’s getting late; we should head back. You and Kagari Ge Mu don’t overwork yourselves and get some sleep..."

Boom—a sound of collapsing echoed.

"Hey! Alien freak uncle!!!" Tohsaka was truly furious this time, even foregoing the more polite "uncle," "Is that all?"

Even more dumbfounded was Caster herself. She had braced herself to nobly face death today, and yet this man, who’d brought a bunch of Heroic Spirits and henchmen to crash the scene, was only here for some baffling questions and then... he was leaving?

"You’re joking, right?" Tohsaka and Caster asked at the same time.

I straightened my expression, "I’m a serious person who never jokes!"

"But..." Tohsaka tried to say something else. Even as the situation had taken an incredibly bizarre turn, the Holy Grail dream in the girl’s heart stubbornly lingered, "At least, she is a hostile Heroic Spirit... Alright, I give up, I admit defeat, I couldn’t care less about how this Holy Grail War turns out!"

Now it was my turn to be surprised. I had thought Tohsaka’s stubbornness on this matter would last until Doomsday, but it had all crumbled so quickly?

Well, not that quickly, after all. The once harmonious and friendly Holy Grail War really had become unrecognizable.

"Wait, you’re just going to leave like this?"

As we turned to leave for real, Caster, trying to suppress her mixed feelings, hastily asked again. I shrugged at her, "Give me a break. I didn’t sleep well last night, and now you want to keep me from going to bed early?"

As soon as the words left my mouth, Sandora, blushing, stealthily poked my waist — good thing my body had been strengthened, as there was even a bursting sound when Sandora’s fingertips made contact. Can you believe how heavy-handed this girl gets when she’s embarrassed?

"What I mean is," Caster took a deep breath, "aren’t we enemies?"

"Oh, you mean that we should be killing you now?"

The cloaked woman in front of me hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"So, what you’re saying is, you came out here hoping that after killing you, we’d spare Kagari Ge Mu, who’s no longer a threat?"

I asked quietly. It sounded cruel, but it was the reality of the situation. Facing four Heroic Spirits and a Sasaki who had betrayed her, along with a whole host of henchmen with undefined strength, it wasn’t a stretch to imagine Caster had come out with this in mind.

After a few seconds of silence, the woman hidden within the cloak nodded gently, "Although I don’t know how you came to know so much, if killing me means you’ll spare Suzuki, then go ahead. Of course, even with such a great disparity in strength, I won’t just sit here and wait for death."

I gazed blankly at this woman who was willing to gamble her own life for her "master." After a while, I suddenly burst into laughter, "Tohsaka, you take everyone back first. I have something to discuss with her. Hmm, Sakura, you and Rider stay behind." (To be continued, if you want to know what happens next, please visit www.qidian.com. More Chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)