The initial One changed everything.
The subsequent Two affirmed more.
The succeeding Three revealed the future.
The sustaining Four concealed itself.
Thus, the terminating Fifth had already lost its meaning.
The Five True Magics were founded upon this.
Although it was a very vague metaphor, for an existence at the level of [Illya]—Jiang Qiao—it wasn't difficult to understand.
From creation to destruction, encompassing all the processes within, this was what the people of this world called 'miracles,' True Magic.
"Well, for most people who are only at the 'human' level, this can indeed only be called a miracle," [Illya] nonchalantly played with the lifelike familiar butterfly in her hand.
Admiring the torrent of magical energy that pierced the night sky and struck down the Bull of Heaven.
—Finish.
This was the Fifth True Magic mastered by that woman.
The lowest level of the world's processes, also known as the 'End.'
Speaking of which, she was quite a fated type for him.
Although he himself should be more inclined towards the 'One' of the origin, the boundary between one and zero, the end and the origin, was never that clear-cut.
Time... No, more accurately, it should be 'consumed magical energy.'
It was truly a nonsensical True Magic.
It didn't use 'magical energy,' but rather 'consumed magical energy' that returned to the 'End' after being used. Therefore, any amount of magical energy could be extracted without limit.
However, correspondingly, because this was 'negative magical energy' originating from nothingness, it was better at destruction than creation.
Indeed, a Master who complemented that useless goddess perfectly.
"If that hits you, not even ash will remain, right?" Little Illya swallowed.
"That's a matter of course. Ruby's protective magecraft can at best resist B-rank or lower magecraft. And that, undoubtedly, is an EX-rank magical energy attack. Even without any thaumaturgical formula, the sheer heat alone is enough to incinerate a city. Coupled with the infinite mana characteristic common to True Magic, even that Goldie's Ea couldn't contend with such a cheat-like thing."
"Are we going to fight someone like that?" Little Illya felt like things were getting increasingly dangerous.
"Well, that woman isn't a very troublesome type. Compared to her, that useless goddess would be worse—that being said, we still need to make preparations." The girl, like a snow elf, glanced at the former and sighed.
Honestly, he didn't have to fight this. He came here initially just to help that child retrieve her somewhat crazy 'parents,' and incidentally satisfy his own interest in Servants. But it turned into this.
But after summoning this JS (elementary schooler), many thoughts had to change.
It didn't matter if a regular Servant was eliminated, but Illya... what was important wasn't whether she returned, but that Jiang Qiao knew very well the fate this child carried.
The Illya-Emperor who cut across eons... something like that.
Although she was a magical girl, as a masterpiece from the same school as Urobuchi, little Illya's setting wasn't 'for children,' but like Chaldea, a 'survival, choose one of two.'
To protect something, you have to lose something—if it were that simple, then it would be easy.
But the girl named Illya was the type... who wanted a happy ending!
Everyone can be happy. Holding such a willful thought, it was indeed filled with the innocent colors of a children's magical girl show.
If she were an ordinary child, then just being happy would be enough. But if she held such a 'cruel' thought, then to possess the power and conviction to match this ideal, she could only be baptized by blood and fire.
The Holy Grail War, although just an amusement park in his eyes, was quite suitable as this child's 'trial.'
However, accidentally, this Holy Grail War, which already had a huge disparity, seemed to have become a bit more intense...
Setting aside others, Manaka Sajyou, the Princess of the Root... and this Magic User loafer who had snuck in from somewhere—weren't these typical examples of the Master being stronger than the Servant?
If the later generation hadn't grown up, if he had participated in the Fifth War, Mr. Jiang Qiao would really suspect if something even more terrifying might be mixed in... For example, that overworking teacher's strange student concentration camp, maybe even an old Akuta Hinako or something could pop up?
Should this be called the Holy Grail War's balancing mechanism? Although there were times when it was unbalanced, when selecting Masters and Servants, that damn thing did, to a certain extent, balance the overall strength among everyone.
Those who were too strong, even with a catalyst, might fail to summon, citing poor compatibility. Those who were too weak would be paired with a strong Servant, and that would be about it.
And he seemed to have pulled the difficulty factor too high—if he hadn't used the '[Illya]' shell to hide his true nature, perhaps some 'pigeon in disguise,' 'monk with a head full of bumps,' or 'dog-faced Odin' type of jokers would have all appeared.
The sky gradually brightened. One could see the messy aftermath of the bull's rampage, and on people's faces, well, it was hard to describe their expressions—after all, whether seeing a giant bull or the city in ruins, even if the Tohsaka residence was in a remote place, people would still feel 'What the hell is this?', right?
And as for the progress of the Holy Grail War, Miss [Illya] was also quite helpless.
It was clearly the first night of mutual probing.
But then....
King Arthur's True Name was exposed. Excalibur and Clarent Blood Arthur clashed, ending with Saber retreating after her spiritual foundation was damaged at the cost of one Command Spell.
The additional seven Servants, Mordred's team, directly lost all three Command Spells and had successive frictions with Lancer and Morgan.
Then... in the latter half of the night, Kariya Matou, with Lancelot, attacked the Tohsaka residence, almost crushing that arrogant Gold-pika—but the result was, the Master was eliminated, all three Command Spells gone, and Lancelot, who had lost his Master...
Well, at least in Mr. Gold-pika's eyes, that stray dog should have already dissipated due to lack of mana supply.
But the very bad news was, his Master, Mr. Pot-King, was turned into a cripple by Kiritsugu's sneak attack.
Enkidu fought with Ishtar, who was trying to sneak attack. The Enuma Elish directly clashed with Mountain Range Shaking, Star of Annihilation—what was worse, the Bull of Heaven also appeared, finally requiring a Magic User to step in to end it.
"Seriously, fighting so intensely on the first night."
Fortunately, when daylight arrived, even if the participants in this Holy Grail War were terrible, they wouldn't resort to bashing each other's heads in broad daylight.
The disaster-ridden Fuyuki City finally welcomed a relatively safe period.
"Dear citizens, last night, the gas pipelines buried under Fuyuki City exploded due to disrepair from age, causing considerable damage to the city. The city management has already held the Fuyuki Underground Pipeline Management Company accountable for this matter. At the same time, according to expert reports, Fuyuki City also experienced a once-in-a-century 'mirage' phenomenon due to extreme weather. This is the source of last night's giant illusion."
"It's true! It's true! I really saw that bull! And people flying in the sky!"
"Director! Director! How did a mental patient get in? Send him back quickly!"
"Click—"
[Illya] listened to the broadcast in the store, her expression somewhat subtle.
Yes, it seemed the Church and the Association had already tried their best to C-rank (cover up) it.
A moment of silence for the employees of the Fuyuki Pipeline Company.
"Have you picked one out?"
They were currently in a clothing store in the Fuyuki shopping mall. Because little Illya, apart from her Ruby magical girl transformation outfit, only had extremely thin casual clothes, she had to come pick out some everyday clothes.
Of course, for a Servant, this wasn't really necessary, but [Illya] basically didn't treat this JS as a Servant.
Well, if one had to say, it was more like a child entrusted to her care.
In that case, a suitable outfit was very necessary.
Of course, creating one with magecraft or her own power was also possible, but that kind of thing couldn't really be called a waste. Magecraft was meant to be used; there was no such thing as waste. But if it wasn't necessary, there was no need to use magecraft even for such trivial matters. Doing so could easily lead to becoming disconnected from the world.
Because their appearances were practically identical, it easily attracted strange looks from the store staff. [Illya], in a purple dress and purple hat, waited for the former.
"How does it look?"
Dressed in an exquisite new autumn outfit, little Illya emerged from the fitting room, twirled twice, and asked for the latter's opinion.
"Not bad."
"Well, that's great... But, are you really giving this to me?" Little Illya was still somewhat excited. Previously a JS—due to Kiritsugu and Irisviel's intentional actions, plus the Einzbern family fortune being shattered, she, who should have been a young lady from a prestigious family, had become an ordinary JS of European descent. Even her allowance was controlled. Suddenly being given clothes and such, she was truly excited beyond words.
"It's fine, it's not my money anyway." The girl said quite calmly.
The store clerk's expression was subtle upon hearing this—Hmm, she must mean an adult, right? These two children don't look like bad kids who would do bad things.
Of course, for [Illya], she could only thank those 'lamppost pendants' (rich people) for their friendly sponsorship. Anyway, their money was just piled up there to perform 'financial magecraft.' If so, she might as well take it to stimulate the economy.
Suddenly, he noticed Illya's gaze, fixed on him.
"?"
"You should change too~" Little Illya looked restless, eager to try.
Although this purple hat and purple dress were nice, for little Illya, who favored the new and tired of the old, she was somewhat tired of seeing it.
Of course—saying this was more to cover up her own terrible 'interest' in wanting to get her hands on '[Illya],' another version of herself.
Just like when she caught Miyu, she couldn't wait to put her in eighteen different poses. If it were herself, although she would be very shy, she could ultimately accept it. Undoubtedly, being a closet pervert was ingrained in this JS's bones.
"Yada (No)."
[Illya] rolled her eyes.
"Come on!"
Little Illya boldly dragged [Illya] into the fitting room. After some commotion—
A moment later, the silver-haired girl walked out calmly.
And little Illya, following closely behind, looking somewhat disheveled, her little face slightly red, let out a whimper like a small animal:
"...Wuwu."
It seemed like a complete defeat!
She clearly wanted to make a move on this world's version of herself, but because she wasn't up to par, she ended up being treated as a 'toy' instead. This was inevitable.
[Illya], having disciplined the JS, looked slightly helpless but was also observing the shopping mall.
Should it be said that this was one of Fuyuki City's few large shopping malls? It was indeed quite lively.
He had already seen that red-haired giant and his 'little wife' at the game store—Iskandar and Waver.
And in the adult clothing section, that Magic User was leisurely trying on clothes with Ishtar while constantly bickering.
And that...
[Illya]'s gaze fell on a certain blonde, mannishly dressed beauty who seemed to be waiting for something.
Saber... But why wasn't Irisviel with her?
Shopping mall restroom—
Because she was teasing someone, but ended up being teased instead. Although the latter was just a small punishment, unfortunately, as an artificial creation of the Einzbern family, her development in that aspect seemed to be more mature, even more prominent, than others of the same age.
As a result, even though she knew that was bad, had only heard of it, and had only tentatively tried it before without actually doing it, now, after being provoked, she couldn't help it anymore. She wanted to release a little, otherwise, little Illya felt like she would burst.
However, such a strange thing obviously couldn't be discovered—otherwise, she would definitely be doomed, right? She might even be labeled a 'pervert' or something, and be stared at with those strange eyes. Just thinking about that possibility made little Illya shiver... However, with her somewhat masochistic personality, thinking about this kind of thing also made her feel a little... well, should it be called a thrill?
With her hard-to-suppress feelings, stirred by the former, little Illya subconsciously swallowed.
Her beautiful, ruby-like eyes gradually became hazy.
A door to a new world seemed to have opened for her.
"Feels pretty good."
The next moment...
The flimsy restroom door slowly revealed a gap, followed by a slightly embarrassed and apologetic voice:
"Sorry..."
"I..."
"...Eh?"
"Illya?!"