You call this a projection?

Although Gilgamesh’s personality significantly restricted his performance—and even though the [Gate of Babylon] was a Noble Phantasm that could, in theory, pull out a ”wonderful tool” for any situation—the fact remained that Gilgamesh himself didn’t know everything inside his treasury.

Furthermore, he had self-sealed [Sha Naqba Imuru (The Star Which Sees All)], which could retrieve enemy intel and accurately find the perfect counter-weapon...

To put it nicely, this was ”no pride, no King.” To put it bluntly, it was throwing the game. He couldn’t play without being reckless.

But this didn’t mean Gilgamesh lacked the ability to resist. If he were to activate [Sha Naqba Imuru], even Emiya Shirou, with the decisive Stand ability of time stop, couldn’t guarantee that the [Gate of Babylon] wouldn’t contain a Noble Phantasm that granted immunity to time stops or could stop time itself. After all, gods and legends related to time certainly existed.

This was why Shirou had been so cautious, not using the Stand ability of [Pseudo-The World] from the very beginning. It was to ensure a one-hit kill, and to avoid handing the initiative of victory over to Gilgamesh’s potential whim of stopping his own arrogance.

Dispatching Bazett and the others to Ryudou Temple to stop Matou Zouken’s plot was also, in a way, a move to avoid over-stimulating Gilgamesh.

And now, Shirou’s caution had finally reached the time of harvest!

.

.

.

Meanwhile, Kotomine Kirei had not yet realized the severity of the situation.

He saw Gilgamesh leave Saber for him to deal with—or rather, in Gilgamesh’s mind, he would defeat Emiya Shirou in an instant. Kirei only needed to hold out until that ”diversion” ended. Naturally, after Gilgamesh finished off Shirou, he would proceed to deal with Saber... no, he would forcibly take Saber as his bride!

’What a willful King. However...’

Injecting magical energy, then throwing.

The three Black Keys pulled from his sleeves were readied and thrown in less than a second—a complete set of movements performed by Kirei with perfect fluidity.

”Your attacks are quite easy to read, Saber. Should I say, as expected of the Servant holding the title of King of Knights?”

Before Saber had been summoned, Lancer had already been successfully turned by Emiya Shirou. Even the Command Spells Kirei used to restrain Lancer had been taken back by Shirou using the restoration power of [Pseudo-Crazy Diamond]. This prevented Kirei from using Lancer to scout for information as he usually did.

But as a participant who lived through the Fourth Holy Grail War until the very end, Kirei had not forgotten Saber’s data:

Extraordinary [Instinct]; [Mana Burst], allowing Saber’s petite frame to clash with much stronger Servants; And the [Invisible Air (Bound Field of the Wind King)], usually used to hide her holy sword’s appearance, but which could also be used to accelerate her body with hurricanes or released to strike enemies.

Information about Saber flashed quickly through his mind.

As for the Noble Phantasms [Avalon] and [Excalibur]: Kirei was very unfamiliar with the former because Emiya Kiritsugu never returned it to Saber during the Fourth War. As for the latter, it wasn’t even in his considerations.

[Excalibur], the release of the holy sword, was indeed a powerful ”beam” Noble Phantasm. But its mana consumption was enormous. While Emiya Shirou was currently in a fierce battle with Gilgamesh, how could Saber possibly waste mana to release the True Name of [Excalibur]?

”After all, compared to a Servant, I am just a magus—a Master.

In the eyes of a Servant, defeating a magus like me doesn’t require the release of a Noble Phantasm.”

Kirei, showing no emotional fluctuation, calmly analyzed Saber’s character. Before Saber even moved, he accurately saw through the various counters she might employ.

”As expected, it’s [Invisible Air].

Since you cannot release the holy sword and are worried about your Master, you will choose to defeat me with maximum speed to go support Emiya Shirou.

Therefore, you will inevitably release [Invisible Air], using the wind to sweep away the Black Keys and using that same wind to accelerate.”

”[TRANSFER]...”

Though he had studied under a teacher, Kirei’s magecraft level was actually quite limited. In a community like the Magi, who valued lineage and inheritance, Kirei was destined never to inherit the Tohsaka Magic Crest from Tokiomi, nor could he learn the family’s Jewel Magecraft.

Like Shirou, he only knew simple magecraft. No—compared to Shirou, who had a unique talent for Projection, Kirei was mediocre in all aspects and was perhaps even inferior to Shirou in the field of magecraft.

But that didn’t mean Kirei’s magical output was weak.

As the supervisor of the Holy Grail War, Kirei had inherited numerous Command Spells from Kotomine Risei—leftovers from Masters of previous wars. He only needed to use the simplest ”Mana Transfer” to channel the massive magical energy of a Command Spell—which could achieve feats near the realm of True Magic, like space displacement—into the spells he used.

Then, even the most ordinary magecraft would become like a cannonball in Kirei’s hands.

Just like now!

When Saber moved exactly as Kirei predicted, Kirei threw another set of Black Keys at the same time. These were thrown with such precision that they struck the Black Keys he had thrown previously—the ones Saber had just blown aside with [Invisible Air]!

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!!

A total of six Black Keys, infused with the massive mana of a Command Spell and guided by Kirei, instantly expanded to the size of door panels, slamming down vertically and horizontally all around Saber!

”Defeating you here... no, I don’t need to do that.”

Kirei, having trapped Saber inside the formation, said: ”My task is merely to stall you here, Saber.”

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