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After the feud between Gilgamesh and Kaito ended, Kaito, who was thrown far away by the explosion's impact, found himself lying on his back in a desote nd devoid of structure and life.
Throughout his body, he felt excruciating pain, unable to move his body except for his head, and even then he could taste blood both in his mouth and in his breath.
Although he didn't know his experience, he really underestimated power, as if power could be obtained at will. He didn't seem to have a substantial understanding of how to obtain power.
Kaito never felt this miserable before.
His breath is full of blood, making it difficult to even breathe.
His right leg and left arm are missing, and his whole body suffers from burning injuries.
He is dying... Even though he is already going all out in this holy grail war.
Affected by such a powerful attack, indeed, Kaito was lucky he was still alive but he currently did not care about his body's condition right now.
...
"...I won, but what's the point..."
Realizing what he had done, Kaito muttered in deep regret and remorse.
Because of his idea to end Gilgamesh's fight and his confidence in his trump card, he ignored the side effects of their attacks... and when he realized it, it was too te.
Their exchange of final attacks had destroyed Fuyuki City to the ground... and who knows how far their attacks went because Kaito could only see the nd filled with aftermath destruction as far as the eye could see.
Kaito realized that his one careless action now had killed thousands, if not millions of innocent lives.
He achieved an ending which is way worse than the original.
While those are enough to make him fell depressed, there's one more thing that made him into completely despair and regret.
The fact that he had hurt his family members because of his stupid decisions-- something he swore he would never do.
"Est... Everyone..."
After the explosion, Est's only remaining possession is her hilt, and Kaito is still unable to communicate with her at all.
Kaito also remembers he never invited Est to the chat group, so the mechanism of chat group members' protection from each other's attacks never applied to her.
At this point, Kaito could only imagine the worst possible outcome after using his trump card... which means...
He had killed Est.
One of his own family member.
...
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"
"DAMN IT! FUCK!! FUCK!!"
Realizing what he had done, Kaito cried and sobbed as he screamed with the curse, filled with frustration and regret. Realizing he had killed his family members and millions of people alongside it, Kaito's mental state broke down.
...
*Sob* *Sob*
"Fuck... Fuck... Why?... Why?!"
"Why... this is happening...! Why I am so stupid!"
"I did my best! But why it become like this?!"
"Est! Please come back alive! I am so sorry!"
At this point, Kaito shouted, insulted, envied, cursed, and even wanted to kill himself for what we had done.
Even if the chat group somehow could resurrect everyone after he finishes the task, the fact he already killed them can't be denied and he know he would never forgive himself for this.
Kaito is fully aware that he made a wrong judgment and will take this sin with him forever.
Although the mastermind was controlling his movement, to the point the plot he know isn't happening at all, the reason for that is mainly because Kaito himself is impulsive and overconfident.
Now he has no pressure off the task (as he is dying anyway), and Kaito realizes that some of his decisions were very dumb.
Everything won't happen if he is slightly more cautious.
For example, when they realize that the enemy knows the future, his priorities should tell Rin and Shirou first no matter the condition since his task is basically tied to them.
Instead, he got overconfident always thinking he could take every servant in this holy grail war. He sent his clone to assist them (which was already easily defeated by Kirei) to his master instead he came himself to secure their situation... which ultimately led to a desperate situation where he got tied to both sides.
'Well, there's no way I could finish the task with this situation... I am sorry everyone...'
...
While Kaito was busy bming himself and dying, he suddenly heard footsteps approaching from a distance.
*Tap*
*Tap*
With curiosity and joy, because there might still be survivors, Kaito tried to turn his head-- only to see someone he didn't expect to be here. A pretty blond woman with a fair look smiled at him, wearing an intact buttoned-up green dress despite everywhere full of traces of destruction.
"You..."
"Despite winning the fight, you look very ugly right now, Archer Kaito."
"No way..."
"Well, I guess congratution is needed since you technically won the holy grail war by defeating the strongest servant here."
Recognizing the identity of the "little" woman in front of him, Kaito muttered in disbelief and asked, "Root Princess... or I should call you... the mother of Beast VI, Manaka Saijyou"
"Why are you here?"
"You guess? I am here because of you, Kaito-kun."
"???"
Kaito didn't understand her answer, but when he saw a little white-haired girl behind her following and stared at him with disdain, Kaito immediately guessed what was happening... and gritted his teeth in anger.
"Mom... this man is dying. Can we kill him?"
...!!!
"No, you can't do that, little jack." Manaka pyfully flicked Jack's forehead, "Kaito is undeniably the winner of holy grail war and it's not like we need that thing anyway?"
"Umm... okay, mom."
"Good kid." Manaka nodded and turned at Kaito again, "So, do you have any guesses about us, Kaito-kun?"
"...Yeah."
"You are the mastermind behind all the strangeness behind holy grail war, right?"
"Pfft... I won't deny that."
Staring at Manaka with anger, Kaito gritted his teeth and replied, "Damn it... if you are the mastermind, everything makes sense... since it's easy to expin everything."
"The reason why this task is so difficult is because the world itself wanted to kill me, huh?!" Kaito added, his expression almost bckened and full of anger.
...
Seeing the mastermind's identity, Kaito feels that all of his questions about the strangeness of the Holy Grail War now has been answered.
If the mastermind is Manaka Saijyou, who has been connected to the root since birth-- she can indeed perform all the strange operations that have occurred in this holy grail war.
How could everyone get informed about him st night, how that bastard priest could have that holy barrier on his church, how Gilgamesh knew his identity as an outsider, and how Jack the Ripper came to appear here...
For the 'Root Princess' who could use any magic and predict her own future, all things above are easy to do.
To make it worse, the implications of how could she appear here mean that the world consciousness itself, or the root itself, probably marked him as an illegal traveler who wanted to steal their treasure... and would do anything to prevent him from winning.
No wonder the situation has become like this.
No matter how strong Kaito is, there is no way he could defeat the 'world'.
Forget about "Very Hard", against the "world" in this task, the system should bel the task as "Impossible."
...
"This is it... huh?"
*Sigh*
Understanding the reason behind his defeat, Kaito who knows he's currently dying, could only surrender to his fate. He felt sorry for betraying the chat group member's expectations, but Kaito couldn't think of any idea of how to get out of this situation.
The chat group can't help him, he can't even move, and in front of him is the enemy which is even more dangerous than Gilgamesh himself!
Looking at Manaka with resentment, Kaito gred at Manaka with hatred, "Are you here to finish me off? After all, there's no way I can fight in my current state."
"Calm down. I never said that I am here to kill you."
"Then, if you don't want to kill me, what do you want to do? How do you know my identity... well, forget about my stupid question."
"Pfft... No, you asked a good question there, Kaito." Manaka replied with a bright smile and answered, "Let me answer why I, no... we change the holy grail war you know."
"I am here as part of an agreement between the complex multiverse system behind you and our world consciousness system."
...!!
"Fuck." Hearing an unexpected answer from Manaka, Kaito's eyes widened, shocked by the revetion, "What kind of agreement?"
"According to the agreement with the system behind you, we just need to make things difficult for you, the hero from another world, and try to push you to the limit, so your win of holy grail war feels earned."
"Difficult huh? I thought you wanted to kill me for sure."
"No. We never intend to kill you... or dare to do so, it's just we need to fulfill the agreement. Even if you didn't do anything, In the end, we still going to give you the holy grail."
"..."
Hearing Manaka's answer, Kaito's mouth gaped open in shock as he realized... that everything he experienced in this world was a pn from the chat group system.
He admits that he did learn a lot in this world because of these bitter and extremely painful experiences. Starting from overcoming his weaknesses with the holy attribute, his overconfidence, realizing not to always rely on the plot he knows, how protagonists are not guaranteed to have plot armor, and many more.
Even so, Kaito still cannot accept it... because this 'task' resulted in him killing Est and millions of innocent people! There must be a better way than doing this kind of thing to him!
For the first time, Kaito had an idea to dismantle this damn chat group system that makes things difficult for him.
...
"Well... Nice to know the truth, but it's no use. After all, I ended up failing the task, killing everyone!" Kaito gred at Manaka again in anger, "What's the point of winning the holy grail war like this?!"
*Sigh*
Manaka sighed in disappointment and then answered Kaito, "Stop throwing tantrums. Even we didn't expect you could make such a move that is capable of destroying the world."
"Also, what if I told you that everyone you care about is still alive and I could bring everything back to normal?"
....!!
"Everyone is alive?!" Kaito excimed, his eyes suddenly full with hope, "Are you serious?!"
"Yeah."
After saying that, Manaka raised her hand, and the area around them was instantly surrounded by a golden barrier with a radius of 100 meters in all directions.
*SHINE*
...!!
Kaito, who knew the information about the moon, recognized this as the Inherent Barrier—a barrier that cuts off and isotes that space from the outside world.
"An inherent barrier?"
"Let me show you something that you want to see, Kaito-kun."
At that moment, from outside the barrier appeared the appearance of the people he cared about in this world from all directions... Shirou, Rin, Sakura, Artoria, Heracles and even Medea. They were in standing position, unconscious but also unharmed... floating in the air, giving the impression that they were being dispyed on air to him.
...!!!
"Everyone! Thank god-- damn it, it stinks!"
Upon seeing all he cared this world was still alive, Kaito couldn't help but begin to cry in happiness and joy... never felt so happy before. Kaito knew that Manaka should have something she wanted from him for doing this, but at this point, he didn't care.
He would do anything if it meant giving him a chance to atone for his sin and correct his mistake in doing this task, especially if he could also bring Est back to life.
"Then, Root Princess, can you... can you bring my partner back to life?"
"Partner?"
"My sword! I-I will do anything as long you can return her!"
Kaito said in an expectant tone, stretching out his right hand despite the excruciating pain... show the hilt of Est to her. However, Kaito was bound to be disappointed, as Manaka shook her head with a regretful expression, "Your partner, it's impossible for us to repair... because we didn't detect the presence of her soul in this world."
"I am sorry... It seems her soul shattered and escaped from this world alongside some part of your curses, and we don't know where it goes."
???
Renaxan
