001 - What Makes it Hard to Go Home ?

Bonus chapter because this novel finally reached 100k words~

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"There's something I need to check, so I need to go," Rei suddenly said to them, disappearing from the spot.

"Huh?" Rin and the others looked confused as Rei vanished out of nowhere, but they didn't think too much about it and returned to their main objective.

"I'll just wait here. There is nothing interesting inside that church for me," Saber replied to them.

"Alright then. And also, even though this is a neutral area, tell us if you sense something weird happening," Rin said to Saber. She and Shirou then began to enter the church.

Meanwhile, Rei, after disappearing from there, reappeared in a dark room.

Despite the darkness, he could still see clearly what was in this room.

There were so many unconscious teenagers in the room, and the condition of the place was filthy, as if it hadn't been cleaned in a long time.

Rei then explored the area, checking their condition. They were still alive because they were being used as Mana fuel; if they died, Gilgamesh would not get his Mana.

"Kirei Kotomine!!" Rei clenched his fists tightly, feeling furious at the sight of this.

But then he took a deep breath and tried to calm down; otherwise, his Astral side would take over, and everything would turn really bad.

He always needed to remain calm to control his Astral side and couldn't get too angry. "Lyria, can you hear me?" Rei immediately used his connection with Lyria to talk to her.

"Yeah, I'm here, Rei. Do you need my help?" Rei heard Lyria's voice in his mind.

"I'm probably going to use that weapon, so if you feel something coming out of your body, that's me, alright?"

"What!? You're actually going to use that weapon??? Who did you meet to actually need to use that weapon??" Lyria sounded shocked upon hearing what Rei had said.

"Someone that really pissed me off."

"...Alright, if you've already decided... But I didn't expect you to use it except for fighting Versusia," Lyria said, then cut off their link.

After that, Rei continued examining everyone in the room, but he was slightly surprised when he found an adult woman missing her left arm in that place.

"This is Bazett Fraga? She's actually still alive? Did they use her as a Mana battery too?" Rei approached her and checked her condition.

Bazett's condition looked worse than the others, and the fact that she was still alive was a real miracle.

Rei easily healed her before she could die and regenerated her arm.

He didn't need to heal the others in the room because they were not injured; they were just running out of Mana and suffering from malnourishment. Their lives were not in as much danger as Bazett's.

And he can't really do anything to a malnourished body besides rewinding their body's time back to before they were malnourished.

But if he did that, it would turn them back into children before they came to this church.

After finishing, Rei then created a strong barrier around the room to ensure that if something happened, they would be safe inside and not get hurt.

"Now, there's one more problem I need to deal with," Rei muttered, looking up to where Rin and Shirou were talking to Kirei.

"Let's end this conversation here. Do you wish to participate in the Holy Grail War?" Kirei asked Shirou.

"Tch..." Shirou didn't quite understand all of it, but he did know that the incident ten years ago, when Fuyuki City burned, was because of this grail.

He couldn't let that happen again, so, "I will fight as a Master. If there are only two choices, fighting or running away, I will never run away." Shirou answered the priest in front of him.

"Then I shall approve you as Saber's Master," Kirei replied with his emotionless voice.

After that, Rin and Shirou seemed to breathe a sigh of relief because the situation in this place had been really intense.

"So it's decided. Then I'm going home," Rin said, turning towards the exit.

"Wait, Rin. What kind of Servant did you summon?" But Kirei suddenly stopped her.

Rin stopped walking and turned back towards him. "What do you mean? I already told you I lost my command spell earlier, right? So, I don't have any Servant."

Kirei's gaze sharpened, clearly not believing what she was saying. "You know what I mean, Rin."

"Are you talking about Rei? Hmm, weird... how could you know about him? The only one who ever met him is Lancer, and I don't think Lancer's Master actually came here." Rin looked suspiciously at Kirei because, as far as she knew, besides herself, no one had come to this church.

From Lancer's previous behavior, where he told her that his Master didn't want him to fight and had to retreat when he failed to kill a Servant and when his name was known, Rin was convinced that his Master's want to stay hidden.

But before Kirei could answer, Rin and Shirou suddenly heard a very loud noise, *BAAAAAM*.

Something flew past them, crashing through the door behind them both.

They suddenly saw Rei in front of them, standing where Kirei had been moments ago. "Rei?? Why did you suddenly punch that fake priest??" Rin looked extremely shocked because it all happened so quickly.

"You can check one of the rooms in the basement; I don't have time to explain it," Rei said, walking away from the two of them towards where Kirei had been thrown.

"Basement? This place has a basement??" Rin murmured, completely unaware that this place had something like that.

Rei ignored them and walked out of the church. He could see Kirei had stopped at the large iron gate from before.

The gate was damaged from Kirei crashing into it. Kirei was staring at Rei as he approached him.

"Kirei Kotomine... You just disgust me," Rei said to him. He planned to finish this quickly by killing him.

"Hold up there, Foreigner," Lancer suddenly appeared in front of Kirei.

"Lancer... What are you doing? You know what he did, right?"

Lancer looked back at Kirei, who was trying to stand up. "Yes, I know. But even if I don't like what he did, he's still my Master, so I have to protect him."

"No, he's not your Master. Your Master is the one unconscious in the basement, Bazett Fraga."

Lancer looked surprised when he heard that. "You mean she's still alive?"

"No, she's not dead. So get the hell out of here," Rei began to release his aura.

"*Cough* *Cough* Lancer, with my Command Spell, I order you to protect me," Kirei used his Command Spell to order Lancer.

After that, Lancer's body began to glow a faint red, indicating the activation of the Command Spell. "Well, you heard him. I can't really do anything about this," Lancer said, getting into his battle stance just like before when he fought Rei.

Rei didn't respond to Lancer and instead focused his gaze on Kirei. "Chain of Depravity," he muttered. From Rei's side, a purple chain suddenly appeared, shooting swiftly towards Kirei.

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"!?" Kirei tried to dodge, but the chain was too fast for him, binding him instantly.

"You just shut your mouth for now!"

"Rei, what happened?" Saber landed beside Rei after sensing something had occurred.

Earlier, she had been taking a short walk, enjoying the night air after being freed from her foolish dream. Suddenly, she heard a loud noise, prompting her to rush over.

"Saber? You look different than before. Did you get a makeover or something?" Lancer remarked when he saw the changed appearance of Saber.

"TL;DR: that priest has been using orphanage children as mana batteries for 10 years, so I'm here to make him pay for everything," Rei explained to Saber.

"!? Are you serious!?" Saber exclaimed, then turned her gaze toward Kirei, who was bound by the purple chains.

"So, both of you are working together? Then I definitely can't win this fight," Lancer sighed in resignation, realizing that he had no chance against Rei from the start and now had to deal with Saber too.

"Not really. There's another one here," Rei said, his eyes shifting to another direction, specifically above the church.

"What is your purpose in this world, abomination?" they suddenly heard a dignified male voice.

"This voice!?" Saber murmured, instantly recognizing it.

A moment later, someone landed beside Lancer: a man with golden hair and eyes as crimson as blood, clad in golden armor.

"Archer!" Saber unsheathed Excalibur and pointed it at the newcomer.

"Saber, you look much better than you did 10 years ago," Gilgamesh stated, not taking his eyes off Rei. "But unfortunately, I don't have the time for you."

"So once again, what are you doing here, abomination?"

"Abomination? So you can see my true form? Your clairvoyance is quite an interesting ability, Gilgamesh," Rei smiled as he said that.

"Answer my question!" Gilgamesh demanded again, yet strangely, he still hadn't summoned his Gate of Babylon.

"Heh, I'm here for my own reasons, not like you, Gilgamesh. Your era is already over, and you've been staying here for 10 years. Go back to Uruk and rule your own people," Rei taunted Gilgamesh.

Hearing his homeland, Uruk, mentioned in a mocking tone, Gilgamesh's expression twisted with rage. "You!" Instantly, countless Gates of Babylon opened behind him, unleashing a barrage of weapons.

Rei could see that all of those weapons were of high rank, probably ranging from A to A++. "What I said is true, isn't it? You should just stop and return to Uruk," Rei continued.

"Shut your mouth, abomination!" Gilgamesh roared, firing hundreds of swords in their direction.

"Walls of Babylon." Rei summoned a massive golden aura barrier in front of them, tall and wide, blocking the onslaught.

All the weapons hurled by Gilgamesh bounced off the golden barrier effortlessly.

As Gilgamesh continued his assault, "Rei, I'm going to fight Lancer. I'll let you handle Archer," Saber said to him.

"Sure, but be careful. There's a Berserker in the area."

Saber nodded and dashed away quickly, focusing her gaze on Lancer. Understanding Saber's intent, Lancer decided to follow her, and their battle began elsewhere.

"Is that all you've got, Gilgamesh? Just throwing weapons at me?" Rei taunted.

Suddenly, Rei noticed a scythe appearing behind him, rapidly moving toward him. Reacting quickly, he caught it with his hand, but he immediately sensed something off.

"This feeling... It's absorbing my energy?" Rei muttered, realizing the scythe was draining his power. But before it could sap too much strength, he crushed the scythe with ease.

But then, *BOOOOOM!* Something massive struck his barrier, making him turn back to Gilgamesh.

Multiple giant swords had fallen in front of him. It seemed that while Rei was momentarily distracted by the scythe, Gilgamesh had thrown the giant swords at him.

"Tch," Gilgamesh clicked his tongue in frustration when all the weapons he launched failed to bypass Rei's golden barrier.

Shortly after, Gilgamesh stopped his barrage, and the scattered weapons around them began to vanish.

Rei then lowered his Wall of Babylon, and now the two of them stood facing each other, surrounded by the utterly destroyed landscape.