Looking at the newspaper in front of him, Tohsaka Toki’s expression was solemn.
The fire at the Matou residence last night naturally made it to the morning news, but the official investigation concluded that a gas leak led to an explosion. Tohsaka Toki certainly didn’t believe this. After all, the Matou residence was a magecraft workshop; it’s unheard of for a mage’s workshop to be blown up due to a gas leak.
"Shichen!"
Just then, the door abruptly opened, and Tohsaka Toki saw his wife Tohsaka Aoi rushing over anxiously.
"What happened at the Matou residence? Is Little Sakura alright?"
"...I don’t know either."
Faced with his wife’s inquiry, Tohsaka Toki shook his head. He had already sent someone to investigate, but so far there was no information. Luckily, the police didn’t find any human remains inside the Matou residence, possibly because the Matou family already knew about the situation and hid?
After all, the Holy Grail War was about to begin.
Although it seemed irrational for a mage to destroy their own workshop as a diversion, it wasn’t entirely impossible.
However, this served as a warning to Tohsaka Toki.
"Aoi, today take Rin and leave here, go back to Zen City."
Clearly, Fuyuki City was no longer safe.
While Tohsaka Toki was making arrangements, in the Hyatt Hotel’s presidential suite, Fang Zheng in his Red Ponytail form was also recounting the entire storyline of FATE/ZERO to Illya.
"So, that’s how it is—at the end, Kiritsugu had SABER destroy the Holy Grail, gained nothing, and caused a fire that burned many people in Fuyuki. He returned to the Einzbern Family only to find not even the trace of you, adopted a child, and eventually died in depression, with the story ending."
Fang Zheng clapped his hands, and Illya showed a frightened expression, for in her world, Kiritsugu and Ellie had given up on the Holy Grail War. She hadn’t considered what it would be like if they participated, but now it seemed way too tragic!
"MASTER...what do we do? How can we help Dad and Mom?"
"Isn’t it simple?"
Fang Zheng spread his hands, indicating he had long since thought about it.
"All we have to do is eliminate all the other Servants before then to win the Holy Grail War. As for your side, it’s even simpler—if Kiritsugu can’t do it, we can, right? After finishing the Holy Grail War, we’ll dash to Germany, take the you trapped at the Einzbern Family, and hand it over to your parents, easy peasy. Oh, and that little one..."
While speaking, Fang Zheng raised his chin, pointing to Tohsaka Sakura sleeping soundly on the bed.
"By then, have your parents adopt her too; you get an extra little sister for free, how nice."
"Huh? Aren’t we bringing this child back?"
"Of course not. There’s already a Tohsaka Sakura in that world, and she wouldn’t want to leave her family either. Here, at least she can meet her sister and mom, right? If you take her back, how could she meet her mother and sister again?"
"Hmm...that’s true..."
Reflecting on Fang Zheng’s words, Illya agreed. She had chatted with Sakura a bit before, finding her to be obedient and well-behaved, much better than Little Hei. Illya would love a sister like that.
Little Hei is just too unruly!
"So it’s quite simple then."
At this point, Fang Zheng clapped his hands.
"I’ll take down that Golden Pika, and you handle the other Servants. Easy for us, right?"
Indeed, Fang Zheng was confident about winning the Holy Grail War; with his current abilities, the Fourth War’s Heroic Spirits were no match for him.
As for Gilgamesh, Fang Zheng didn’t even consider him a threat.
The oldest Hero King? It’s all hype. During China’s Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors period, he’d still be a fertilized egg! What’s he flaunting about anyway? We killed you once before, we’ll do it again. It’s not difficult.
"I’ll do my best!"
Hearing Fang Zheng’s words, Illya clenched her small fists, nodding resolutely. In Illya’s world, she didn’t know SABER and wasn’t familiar with these Heroic Spirits, so seeing them as enemies posed no pressure.
In the end, strength allows one to do as they please; only wimps like Emiya Kiritsugu need to scheme.
In the end, all that scheming got him caught up too.
"But MASTER..."
At this moment, Illya suddenly remembered something.
"According to you, my mom is the Little Holy Grail; once all the Heroic Spirits are dead, my mom’s body will automatically disintegrate..."
"You don’t need to worry about that."
As he spoke, Fang Zheng reached behind him, pulling out a glowing, golden cup.
"For the Little Holy Grail, I asked Gaia for one. After defeating those Heroic Spirits, their souls will be automatically collected here. Your mom’s is artificial; it can’t compare to this."
So again, with strength, one can do as they please.
Having backing makes it even easier to do as one pleases.
Here, Fang Zheng and Illya summarized the Fourth Holy Grail War in a few sentences, while the unaware Masters were just beginning to summon their Servants and head to Fuyuki City. They didn’t realize their fate had already been decided before they arrived.
Next, just like in the animation Fang Zheng watched, Irisviel pretended to be SABER’s Master, showing off their love in public, and in the evening, SABER was drawn to the battle aura emitted by LANCER at the port warehouse district, where the two fought fiercely.
"Alright, get ready, let’s move!"
"Um... MASTER..."
Though she had been decisive before, Illya suddenly hesitated.
"Should I transform before going..."
Looking at Irisviel standing not far away, Illya felt somewhat uneasy. Even though she had made up her mind, as a child, seeing her parents could make her flinch.
Moreover, in Illya’s world, she had been a Magical Girl secretly, hiding it from her parents.
Now it felt like revealing a hidden part of herself to her parents, akin to secretly playing at an internet cafe behind your mom’s back and now playing openly, showing your mom you getting a pentakill.
That’s truly awkward...
Nevertheless, answering Illya’s inquiry, Fang Zheng smiled, reaching out to pat her little head.
"Illya, in your world... do you feel happy?"
"..."
Upon hearing Fang Zheng’s question, Illya closed her eyes, hesitated for a moment, then nodded vigorously.
"I am happy, although many things have happened, including some bad ones. Little Hei sometimes teases people, but I feel happy..."
"That’s right then."
Fang Zheng snapped his fingers.
"You wouldn’t want your counterpart in this world to be unhappy, right? Let Kiritsugu and Ellie see that the choice they gave up wasn’t wrong!"
As he said this, Fang Zheng stood up, his bright red ponytails fluttering in the wind.
"Today we’ll give it our all, and aim to take out all these Servants in one go!"
That being said, I wonder what’s going on with BERSERKER?
Fang Zheng remembered that in the original animation, BERSERKER’s MASTER was Matou Kariya, but when he saved Little Sakura, Kariya hadn’t returned yet, so he couldn’t be sure if Kariya would still be the owner of BERSERKER this time.
Anyway, it doesn’t matter. After all, just a BERSERKER can’t compare to the one I encountered at the World Tree of a Thousand Realms... Forget it, better not to think about it, that was just too disgusting.
Thinking of this, Fang Zheng shivered, then shook his head, trying hard to cast that disgusting smiling face out of his mind. Then he raised his hands, and soon, as Fang Zheng moved, roaring flames erupted in his right hand while a bone-chilling icy aura appeared in his left hand.
In the next moment, amidst the roaring flames and bone-chilling ice, a red and a black greatsword appeared in Fang Zheng’s hands.
The bright red greatsword in his right hand was a weapon transformed from a hair ornament when Fang Zheng transformed into the Red Ponytail, and the pitch-black greatsword in his left hand was, of course, Frostmourne!
Yes, to appease Restia and Ester, Fang Zheng chose to use Frostmourne while in the Red Ponytail state, so those two Sword Sprites had nothing to say... because when Fang Zheng transformed into the Red Ponytail, she wouldn’t use them anyway.
And now, with Fire Joy in his right hand and Frostmourne in his left, Fang Zheng felt invincible!
She took two steps back, then charged forward swiftly, and suddenly leaped into the air!
"Haaa!!"
At the same time, the fierce battle between SABER and LANCER reached a critical point, but just then, both suddenly heard a roar from above. They quickly looked up to see a petite figure leaping down from the sky, the sword light in her hands flashing as she swung down towards SABER and LANCER!
Faced with this sudden attack, both SABER and LANCER quickly raised their weapons to defend against the descending sword light!
"Clang clang!!"
With two heavy crashing sounds and a strong force of impact, the two Servants were immediately pushed back by this powerful impact, and it was only then that they saw the true face of their attacker.
It was a girl, about 130 cm tall, with bright red twin ponytails. She wore a peculiar form-fitting battle suit, with the upper body resembling a black and white one-piece swimsuit, and armor on her lower body. In her right hand, she held a fiery, burning red greatsword, and in her left, she wielded an icy, bone-chilling longsword.
"Who are you?"
Staring at the girl in front of him, LANCER quickly raised his dual spears and coldly demanded. If he had not already met SABER, he might even think the girl before him was SABER herself.
In response to LANCER’s question, the girl merely snorted coldly, then raised her hands.
"I am the MASTER of CASTER, the magical girl of justice, Red Ponytail. I have come here today to defeat you and claim final victory in the Holy Grail War. Prepare to die!"
"What........."
Hearing the girl’s response, both SABER and LANCER were stunned—not only them but even Irisviel, Emiya Kiritsugu hiding in the shadows, and Kenneth were dumbfounded.
However, Fang Zheng couldn’t care less about chatting, aiming for a decisive victory with six strikes—he intended to dance on the enemy corpses once defeated!
Thus, he resolutely gripped his dual swords and struck at the two in front of him.
"Clang clang clang!!!"
Facing Fang Zheng’s onslaught, both SABER and LANCER could only retaliate. They weren’t concerned whether their opponent was a MASTER or a Servant, but just from that single strike, they realized her strength was formidable!
However, upon engaging, they discovered that the girl’s strength far exceeded their expectations!
Logically speaking, this girl called Red Ponytail, fighting two people simultaneously, should have had an imbalance in pressure. Yet SABER and LANCER shockingly found that, even though she engaged both of them at once, it felt as if they were each facing her attacks alone!
This, of course, was because of Fang Zheng’s ability as the Time Dragon. Indeed, on one timeline, he could only fight one person at a time. But by splitting the timeline into two, Fang Zheng could simultaneously attack two different targets on separate timelines!
So even when facing two people at once, Fang Zheng wasn’t intimidated.
He just slashed through without hesitation!
Faced with Fang Zheng’s attacks, SABER and LANCER internally cursed.
Their opponent not only seemed mysterious and was overwhelmingly strong, but the two swords she wielded were terrifying. The flames enveloping the bright red greatsword burned them like a monkey in Laozi’s furnace. Meanwhile, the strike of the pitch-black longsword made them feel as though they were wrapped in the frigid, biting winds of a frozen wasteland, freezing even their souls. Moreover, its bone-chilling cold seemed to sap their very strength.
What on earth is this thing?
Of course, neither knew that Fang Zheng’s Primordial Fire was the flame of creation itself, while Frostmourne was a deadly force against souls, capable of siphoning them. For Servants, who are essentially spiritual beings, this was a specialized attack!
I, Red Ponytail, swing a flurry of blows with cleaving strikes. Aren’t you scared?
What should we do?
Watching the battlefield unfold, Irisviel, Emiya Kiritsugu, and Kenneth were all at a loss. They had indeed seen the Command Seal on Fang Zheng’s right hand, confirming that he was a MASTER.
However.........
A MASTER making two Servants unable to lift their heads?
Were the Servants we summoned fakes?
No, that wasn’t the issue. The problem was... what should we do now?
Kiritsugu had thought about sniping but quickly dismissed the idea. After all, their opponent dared to jump out and take on two Servants; she probably wouldn’t fear his bullets. Moreover, since she claimed to be CASTER’s MASTER, it meant CASTER was nearby, and recklessly firing could reveal himself, which would be disastrous.
But...... if this goes on, the situation will become dire......
"Boom!!!"
While Emiya Kiritsugu was still hesitating, a bolt of lightning suddenly struck down!
"Whaaaa!!"
Amidst a series of exclamations, everyone saw a chariot-rider descending from the sky, charging towards the chaotic melee.
Has RIDER arrived?
Fang Zheng certainly knew what RIDER was there for, however.........
Are you kidding me? I’m here to initiate a team battle, who cares about your grand entrance!
"Illya!"
"Yes, MASTER!"
Following Fang Zheng’s shout, Illya immediately appeared behind him, raising her magic wand.
"Defense deployment!"
With Illya’s call, a triangular, pyramid-like barrier appeared before her, colliding heavily with the charging chariot!
"Moo—! Moo—!!"
The two bulls pulling the cart lowered their heads, pushing firmly against the barrier, electricity crackling, yet after a moment, the chariot failed to breach the defense and came to a halt.
Only then did everyone clearly see the small girl identified as CASTER standing behind Red Ponytail. Upon seeing her face, both Kiritsugu and Irisviel were astonished, their eyes widening in disbelief.
"That is........."
"Illya?"

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