novelraw Chapter 1062 - 1,061: Alaya and Gaia, The Force of Restraint is Strong!
Chapter 1062 - 1,061: Alaya and Gaia, The Force of Restraint is Strong!
On the other side of the yard—
The Command Seal on the back of Emiya Kiritsugu's hand was already in the middle of activating as he tried to heal Gilgamesh.
But his Command Seal met the exact same fate as Maiya Hisau's.
That compulsory force of contract scattered all at once, as if it had slammed into an invisible, absolutely insurmountable wall before it could even touch Gilgamesh.
Right after that,
the three mistaken Command Seals on the back of his hand began to rapidly fade and disappear as well.
No matter how Kiritsugu pushed his mana, it was useless.
In the end, they were completely erased.
All of it happened in the span of just two or three breaths.
Maiya Hisau's Assassin was completely annihilated, her Command Seals disappearing with it.
Emiya Kiritsugu's attempt to invoke his Command Seals was forcibly interrupted, and the Seals themselves were wiped out.
The fastest, most decisive counterattacks the two of them could muster were, in Rei Ao's eyes, no better than children swinging wooden sticks—ridiculous and powerless.
Crushed utterly and effortlessly.
The courtyard once again fell into a deathly silence, even heavier than before.
Only the sound of the river flowing in the distance, and Waver's ragged breathing—rough from sheer shock—stood out with painful clarity.
Kiritsugu stared blankly at the bare skin on the back of his hand.
Then he lifted his head to look at the black-haired young man across from him, who was still casually holding a silver-haired woman in his arms, as if he'd just done something utterly trivial.
A chill rushed straight up his spine to the top of his head.
It felt like every trump card he had meant absolutely nothing in the other man's eyes.
That absolute, suffocating gap in strength made him think of that moment years ago when he'd been just as helpless to resist.
"…What… exactly… did you do?"
Kiritsugu's voice was low and hoarse, with a faint, almost imperceptible tremor.
He locked his gaze on Rei Ao,
trying to find even the slightest crack or explanation on that face.
But Rei Ao only gave him a faint glance.
There was no emotion in that look.
No mocking triumph of a victor.
No sense of taking an enemy seriously.
Only the same indifference you'd have for a pebble by the roadside—or an ant you'd stepped on without noticing.
"There's no need to explain an ant's struggles to the ant."
Rei Ao's voice was calm and flat.
Yet it carried a kind of dismissive superiority that was colder and more crushing than any open contempt.
He couldn't even be bothered to answer Emiya Kiritsugu's question.
At that moment,
the King of Conquerors, Iskandar—who had been watching the whole time—finally snapped out of the shock of seeing Hundred-Faced Hassan appear and then be erased in an instant.
His massive frame shifted slightly.
"Truly unbelievable."
His booming voice shattered the suffocating silence.
His gaze moved back and forth between Emiya Kiritsugu, Maiya Hisau, and Rei Ao, filled with scrutiny and confusion,
before finally settling on Rei Ao.
"Rei Ao-sama, these two… and that Servant who was just wiped out in an instant—the one that seemed to be an Assassin… they're what you meant by 'the errors of this Holy Grail War,' aren't they?"
"That Assassin was supposed to be the proper Assassin-class Servant of this war, yes?"
Rei Ao actually answered Iskandar's question.
He nodded. "That's right. Emiya Kiritsugu, an erroneous Master; Maiya Hisau, likewise an erroneous Master—though her Servant is already gone."
"And the one that just dispersed was the legitimate Assassin-class Servant of this Holy Grail War."
"However, the Master who summoned him, and the summoning itself, were also erroneous. So he was a 'Wrong Assassin.'"
Iskandar's thick brows furrowed tightly.
He asked the crucial question.
"But… why?"
"Why would a Holy Grail War have errors like this?
"Wrong Masters, wrong Servants… that can't be a coincidence, can it?"
"You just casually erased their Command Seals, summoned the Holy Grail, and you mentioned 'infinite mana'… all of this seems to point to something beyond the normal scope of this war."
That question captured the doubt in almost everyone's heart.
At those words, Rei Ao's expression, for the first time, showed a hint of amusement mixed with a deeper meaning.
He didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he slowly lifted his head.
His gaze seemed to pierce through the bounded field around the Tohsaka residence, through the night sky over Fuyuki, reaching into some endless void.
Or rather, toward some more abstract, grander level of existence.
His fingers tapped lightly and rhythmically on the tabletop, making a steady tok, tok sound.
After a brief silence,
he lowered his head again.
His eyes returned to Iskandar.
The corner of his lips curved into an unreadable smile.
Then, in a clear and even tone, he quietly spoke three words:
"The Counter Force."
Those three words seemed to carry a kind of magic, making even the air freeze for a moment.
"!!!"
Iskandar's eyes sharpened.
Waver jolted hard in his seat.
As a student of the Clock Tower,
he had heard that term mentioned, vaguely, in the most advanced lectures and in forbidden texts.
But he had never truly grasped what it meant.
Watching their shocked, confused faces, Rei Ao went on in that same plain yet somehow essence-piercing voice:
"Alaya—the collective unconscious of mankind, the Counter Force that exists to ensure the continuation of human history."
"Gaia—the will of the planet, the Counter Force that exists to ensure the planet's own survival."
"When the development of certain events or certain existences threatens the continued existence of 'humanity' or of 'the planet,' or veers too far off the proper course, these Counter Forces may activate corresponding 'safety mechanisms.'"
His gaze swept over Emiya Kiritsugu and Gilgamesh.
"A Holy Grail War that should have been relatively normal ended up with a distorted Servant—one capable of bending the rules and potentially causing unpredictable consequences."
In truth, he knew very well:
Ishtar, Ereshkigal, and Medusa were the ones who weren't supposed to exist here.
But because of his interference, the three of them had been summoned early and took the places that should have belonged to Gilgamesh and Hassan.
And even then, with the full roster of Servants already present, the Holy Grail War should have been able to proceed normally. Forcing Gilgamesh to appear on top of that…
There could only be one explanation.
The Counter Force had stepped in.
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