Chapter 361: Seniority-Obsessed Workplace Culture
The Magical Girl Zwei Form was not something meant for prolonged combat, and thus, Illya had to end the fight as quickly as possible.
On the surface, this mode seemed to unleash power far beyond the user's limits, but the method used to achieve that was extremely brutal.
That vast amount of mana didn't come from nowhere.
Under the influence of the Mystic Code, Illya's entire body was being forcibly "materialized" into magic circuits.
Not just her original magic circuits—her muscular system, cardiovascular system, even her lymphatic and nervous systems were all being disguised as magic circuits. It was a complete deception of the body itself, tricking it into believing that it suddenly possessed several times its normal number of circuits.
Naturally, forcing organs that were never meant to handle mana to bear such pressure could only end in disaster.
It was no different from the Kaio-ken in Dragon Ball or the Eight Gates in Naruto—a classic life-burning technique that dealt a thousand damage to the enemy at the cost of eight hundred to oneself.
Illya severed the Mountain-Cleaving Sword, shattered the indestructible Shield of the Gods in a single blow, and struck Gilgamesh hiding behind it.
Yet the blood streaming from the corners of her eyes and mouth made it painfully obvious what kind of price she had paid.
"Ha… ha…"
Even though she had landed the hit, the backlash was severe. Having completely drained her mana in that one strike, Illya could no longer press the attack.
Unlike the panting Illya, Gilgamesh looked positively exhilarated.
Not only did he fail to erupt into an angry, profanity-laced tirade, he actually burst out laughing.
"So that's how it is. You can even pierce the Shield of the Gods?"
Gilgamesh casually grabbed the light spear that had struck him and crushed it in his hand.
"If you can go this far… then perhaps you truly could succeed."
His tone lost its mocking edge, replaced instead with a hint of admiration.
"To destroy yourself willingly… just to save your friends?"
Illya's overwhelming strength had earned her the right to stand face-to-face with Gilgamesh.
And her resolve—to stake everything for the sake of her friends—earned the recognition of the King of Heroes himself, despite her being nothing more than an elementary-school-aged magical girl.
"You—"
Gilgamesh abandoned any further control over the black giant and reached into his treasury, drawing forth EA.
Just like the King of Conquerors before him, Illya was an opponent worthy of respect—one worthy of his personal intervention.
The crimson runes along EA's blade flared brilliantly as the sword began to rotate along multiple axes.
"You're worthy of my full power!!!"
The arrogant divine sword whipped up raging winds, gathering strength to reenact the miracle of creation itself.
Just as the TV screen showed Gilgamesh—his form wreathed in black lightning—condensing mana to unleash EA, Gil and the others returned from outside after finishing two matches.
Seeing the scene, Jeanne, who had suffered the worst defeat in the earlier brawl, immediately teased,
"When in doubt, pull out EA. King of Heroes, you really never change—same three tricks every time."
"And you have the nerve to talk, you immovable whiteboard?"
Arturia shot Jeanne a look of pure disdain, her tone dripping with contempt.
During casual sparring, it was an unspoken rule that no one used their ultimate trump cards.
Under those conditions, Jeanne—tough as nails and armed with nothing but a defensive Noble Phantasm—earned the nickname Immovable White from Arturia.
To put it bluntly, as long as Jeanne planted her flag into the ground, everyone else would just ignore her entirely.
"..."
Struck right where it hurt, Jeanne snorted unhappily.
She hated her own abilities too. Every sparring match left her feeling suffocated.
If she didn't use her Noble Phantasm, she was at a disadvantage—but the moment she did, everyone stopped playing with her altogether.
But what could she do? Her Saint Graph was already fixed.
"If only Master could switch me to a different Saint Graph…"
Jeanne glanced at Shinji, who was currently turned away from her and whispering something to Cloris. A strange glint flickered in her eyes.
"Should I wrap myself in a chest binder and cosplay as the King of Knights in front of Master?" she muttered. "Maybe I could ask him if there's a way to modify a Saint Graph?"
Even if she didn't get an answer from Shinji in the end, Jeanne could always hide behind the excuse that it was actually the King of Knights who wanted a bigger bust.
That way, even if the other Servants found out later, the one losing face would be the King of Knights. What would that have to do with me, Jeanne d'Arc?
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
"Oh no—!"
On the television screen, sensing the raging storm, Chloe cried out in terror.
The scene of the Mirror World being shattered earlier was still vividly etched into her memory. She could never forget that apocalyptic vision—everything reduced to chaos, a sight that had left a deep scar in her heart.
A ferocious grin spread across Gilgamesh's face as he shouted toward Illya in the sky.
"You can feel it, can't you? The primal memories engraved deep within your genes!"
Amid the deafening roar of the gale, immense magical energy erupted from the golden hilt of the sword.
The black-clad king declared proudly:
"I will cleave you—and the world—apart with a single strike! Here, I shall weave the primordial hell itself!!"
Even the clouds above were drawn in by the Sword of Creation, spiraling into a massive vortex.
The arrogantly rotating blade whipped up violent winds, gathering power to reenact the miracle of creation once more.
Facing this world-remaking blow, Illya spoke softly.
"Ruby… you're not going all out yet, are you?"
"But, Illya…!!"
The jeweled staff cried out in alarm. It was true—it still had a final failsafe. But activating it would go far beyond merely putting a strain on the body.
"No matter what, if we lose here, it's over."
Illya knew this clearly. If she couldn't overcome this trial, there would be no future waiting for her.
So—
"Muscles, blood vessels, lymph glands, nerves—use everything I have!"
Blinding white light erupted from Illya's entire body. This time, she was truly compressing her potential to its absolute limit.
Magic power rivaling the red storm gathered at the tip of her staff. Both Illya and Gilgamesh were now pushing every last bit of mana they could possibly muster.
A red beam—no, a tidal wave of light—came surging toward Illya like a meteor fired from the earth.
"The Star of Creation That Splits Heaven and Earth—!!!"
"Illya! Watch out— cough—!"
A piercing pain shot through her chest, and Chloe couldn't help coughing violently.
But Illya, fully focused on gathering mana, had no time to care about what her body was feeling. Staring at the rapidly approaching beam, she wanted only to unleash all the pain in her body together with the magic she had accumulated.
"Multi-Instrumental Saturation Bombardment—!!!"
There was no technique to this move whatsoever. From a technical standpoint, it was nothing more than firing condensed mana straight out as a beam.
The difference was that Illya had compressed the magic to the absolute extreme. Just like its name implied—no matter what kind of enemy you were, this attack guaranteed overwhelming firepower!
The instant the two beams collided, a massive shockwave pulverized everything around them.
As mere spectators, Chloe and the others would have been erased on the spot if they hadn't instantly cast protective spells. Just the impact from the beams colliding was enough to send them straight to meet the Counter Force.
Even so, the blinding light born from that colossal mana made it impossible for them to open their eyes.
"Hahahahahahaha—!"
"Uwaaaaaaah—!!!"
Many people like to complain that characters shouting while attacking in movies and anime is stupid. But Shinji could say this with absolute confidence to those nitpicky viewers that when the audience can't physically feel how much strength the characters are putting in, volume equals output. It's the best solution available.
Of course, if you closed your eyes and only listened to this scene, you might end up with a very unfortunate misunderstanding—something about a crazed, laughing pervert violently overpowering a screaming little girl.
BOOOOM—!!
In the end, thanks to protagonist-level plot armor, the advantage of clashing beams from the "right side," and her willingness to literally burn her life away, Illya finally emerged victorious in this beam struggle.
The once-invincible red tide was pierced straight through by Illya's Multi-Instrumental Saturation Bombardment, blasting cleanly into the body of the black giant.
The black giant, once as massive as a mountain, slowly melted away within the curtain of light, like ice cream left under the sun.
Gilgamesh's fate once again proved an eternal, unchanging truth—
In beam clashes, the one on the left always loses.
With the sole exception of that idiot from Dyna.
Doesn't matter whether you're the King of Heroes or whoever else—stand on the left, and you're doomed to lose.
Of course, the Son family is excluded.
"That duel was really gorgeous," Cloris said, nodding in appreciation. "The visuals were completely movie-tier. To pull off something like this, you must've put in quite a bit of effort, right?"
The biggest advantage of filming with magecraft was cost efficiency. But when it came to creating scenes with true realism, the amount of work involved was anything but small.
Shinji grinned smugly. "It was okay, I guess… We used slimes for the modeling this time. The actual mana output wasn't nearly as big as it looked."
Hearing that, Archer silently raised a middle finger behind Shinji's back.
Shinji himself hadn't spent that much effort. The hardest part of the scene was making the slime models accurately replicate Dark Gil and Illya well enough to pass for the real thing.
Because the black mud covering Dark Gil and Illya's wings of light were constantly shifting, static models wouldn't work. Someone had to continuously fine-tune the mana output to maintain that dynamic effect.
In other words, the truly miserable one during this shoot was the staff member constantly controlling the mana to preserve the slime props' appearance.
Yes—Archer himself.
"Hey, Master."
After some thought, Archer leaned in and whispered to Shinji.
"I know I'm the modeler here and that the job comes with responsibilities, but for this kind of delicate work, but… could you maybe not dump it all on me every time?"
Shinji seemed to completely miss the complaint. "Didn't you have Touko, Illya, and Cu helping you this time?"
"What I mean is… could we let some of the newer Servants try it next time?"
"Come on, Archer. Are you trying to pull workplace bullying now?"
Shinji patted Archer on the shoulder and spoke earnestly.
"That seniority-obsessed workplace culture in Japan is no good. Around here, we believe in rewarding competence with more work—and more pay."
Archer swore that if Shinji Matou truly wasn't operating on zero emotional intelligence, then he had to be deliberately dodging the issue.
Either way, in the upcoming production work, these kinds of high-precision tasks were absolutely going to keep landing on his shoulders.
Damn it. Why can't Heroic Spirits get sick? At least then I could call in sick.
Archer seemed to forget that the only sickly Servant in the company hadn't received any special treatment from Shinji either.
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