Chapter 24: Gilgamesh - A Flash of Gold, This King Shines Brightly

"Tch, they're all a bunch of superficial and vulgar people who only look at the surface."

Listening to the praises of Saber from the other viewers around her, Aoko coldly snorted.

"What about you then?"

During the transitional scene, Alice turned and asked in return.

Aoko raised her thumb. "Of course, I want to fight her!"

"...You're a superficial and vulgar person with muscles in your head."

Alice never thought that fighting was a good thing. She couldn't help but wonder what kind of sin she had committed in her past life to make such a friend.

"Hehe, Alice, what are you talking about? How could I be a vulgar person?"

Aoko had always had thick skin, so she didn't mind her friend's teasing.

"I just want to know if those Heroic Spirits are as strong as they're portrayed in the movies," Aoko said, picking up her cola to take a sip.

But before she could bring the straw to her lips, the movie's background music suddenly changed. On the screen, the male protagonist, Shirou, was out relaxing in the park and met Illya.

To emphasize that Illya would be the dominant character from this point on, Shinji deliberately shot her scenes from a low angle, while Shirou's scenes were all from a high angle.

This gave the impression that the character with a significant height difference, Illya, appeared taller in the shots.

Although most of the audience, including Aoko, didn't know much about cinematography, they all realized that there would be some exciting scenes between these two characters after seeing the camera switch between Illya and Shirou several times.

"Is that little girl planning to take on the male lead by herself?" one audience member whispered. "She's not using her Servant and is taking action herself? Something's not right here. The male lead is so much bigger than her."

"Ignorant," Alice retorted quietly. "She's a magus."

Magus didn't compete based on physique and stature. Even with the significant reduction in magical energy in the present era, taking down a single person in a one-on-one fight was still achievable.

But Alice's voice was too soft, and the audience member who was complaining didn't hear her.

Even if they had heard, it wouldn't have mattered because the big screen had already depicted what a magus's fight entailed.

Illya skillfully approached Shirou, greeted him with a cute demeanor, said a few words, and then her eyes flashed red, and then...

Smack

"I can't believe it..."

This wasn't the first time Kiritsugu had covered his face. His own son was truly embarrassing. He never learned from his mistakes, didn't remember what was important, and was too naive. Even when the other side exchanged a few words, he let his guard down.

That was an enemy!

Even though the enemy was the world's most adorable creature in the world (in Kiritsugu's words), she was still an enemy!

And Kiritsugu's son had more than one point of criticism in the movie. He challenged a Servant with a poster in hand, only retreated when reminded, and charged back into the front lines of the Servant battle. Even though he was told there was a problem, he only thought to shake someone when he was thrown downstairs...

At first, he wanted to forget all about this embarrassing scene, thinking that it's all something that Shirou would only do in the movie, but after evaluating his own son, Kiritsugu concluded that if such a situation really occurred, his son would definitely take these actions.

"It seems... I need to educate Shirou better in the future."

Feeling publicly humiliated, Kiritsugu let out a long sigh. He thought he might take his son to work next time and let him see the world.

"Such a Shirou is quite cute~" Irisviel said, tilting her head. "He's so innocent and easy to bully."

"..."

Kiritsugu didn't know whether he should remind his wife that their son wasn't a toy.

"But there's one thing I don't understand."

"What is it?"

"How did Illya manage to carry Shirou into the deep mountains?" Irisviel asked in confusion. "If she dragged him, with Shirou's height, his legs should be scraping the ground, right? Why aren't Shirou's pants worn out?"

"Who knows..."

Kiritsugu realized he couldn't keep up with his wife's thoughts anymore.

The regular audience didn't notice Irisviel's question. They were more focused on the main plot.

As the story progressed, the audience learned about Illya's background, understood that she was Kiritsugu's daughter, and discovered her complex feelings towards Shirou.

"I originally thought it was cliché that she didn't want to kill the protagonist alone," one viewer said. "But now, with this layer of relationship, it makes sense..."

At this point, many audience members began to sympathize with Illya. She wasn't a natural-born killer; it was her family background that had driven her to madness.

Her pure, angelic appearance was just a facade. Illya, who appeared romantic and innocent, would turn into a demon at the slightest provocation.

Especially in several close-up shots, Illya exhibited an unusual level of determination and madness that set her apart from ordinary people.

In the eyes of most viewers, this antagonist's character was much deeper than the previous one, Shinji Matou, and she elicited more sympathy.

"But does that mean all her misfortunes come from her dad?"

Shirou, who had no idea that his future vacation had already been arranged, whispered to Shinji.

"No."

Shinji shrugged. "Uncle Tokiomi is the best scapegoat."

"Huh?"

Shirou was becoming increasingly puzzled by Shinji's vague answers. He glanced around cautiously and asked quietly, "Shinji... Do you really dislike the Tohsaka family so much?"

Shinji shook his head, smiling smugly. "It's not about disliking them. It's just a matter of passing the blame to Uncle Tokiomi. Isn't it the politically correct thing to do in this world?"

"When did your company have such a thing as political correctness?"

The audience in the theater didn't care about whose fault it was for Illya's misfortunes. After a lengthy dialogue-heavy segment that lasted for tens of minutes, the action scene they had been eagerly awaiting finally arrived.

The epic battle between the revived King Arthur, Saber, and the great Greek hero Heracles began with a bang!

"Saber, go for it!"

The theater echoed with gasps of amazement followed by enthusiastic cheers.

Sakura couldn't even count how many times she had heard this, but she never grew tired of it. The audience's cheers were for the people who had made this film possible.

"Onii-sama, you did it."

A hint of pride appeared on Sakura's slightly flushed face, a pride that was uniquely hers.

Although she had always believed in her Onii-sama, Sakura was still incredibly excited at this moment.

"But..."

Sakura's initially excited expression suddenly turned dark, and whispered softly, the aura around her darkening.

"Why do I only have so few scenes?"

"God damn, it's really cold in here, did they turn on the air conditioning?" Shinji couldn't help but shiver unconsciously.

Meanwhile, in the Tokyo preview screening.

"That Matou kid is quite impressive."

As she enjoyed the visual and auditory feast the movie provided, Aoko praised the director.

"Compared to other directors, this guy uses explosions a lot, but it's unparalleled. Watching these explosion scenes is a real treat~"

Due to her magecraft affinity, Aoko had always loved explosions of all kinds, and the visuals designed by Shinji to showcase his skills were right up her alley.

In the scene that had just passed, Rin Tohsaka threw a gem at Heracles, and the ensuing ice explosion resembled wild waves crashing. It was as if they had used ice as explosives for the explosion!

Sparks from weapon clashes, the flashes representing Shirou Emiya's magical circuits, the various light explosions when magecraft was used, and the strong winds caused by impacts in the forest... all of these stimulated the audience's nerves.

From Shinji's perspective as a seasoned fan of commercial films, he felt that his movie might have gone a bit overboard in many places and needed some restraint.

But for most of the "newbie" audience members who didn't know much about special effects movies, such a wild movie was exactly what they needed—a feast prepared just for them!

They cheeEMIYAnd applauded, not caring that cola and popcorn were scattered everywhere. They were completely immersed in the movie.

It was "Fate/Stay Night" that made them so excited, and only "Fate/Stay Night" could make them this excited!

And "Fate/Stay Night" didn't disappoint them. The tense and thrilling plot unfolded, intense Heroic Spirit battles left them breathless, and the plot advanced without any unnecessary detours, like a high-speed racing car. Wasn't a movie like this thrilling enough?

"This is a movie that breaks the current film market paradigm! It will bring about an unexpected wave of excitement!"

Takayanagi Natsu was an entertainment journalist. As an industry veteran, even though the movie hadn't reached its conclusion, he had already made up his mind.

Because he had never seen a movie that could captivate the audience so deeply, and this movie wasn't relying on the beauty of women's bodies but on action scenes, which had always been looked down upon by film critics.

"This is a different kind of movie, a peculiar one," Natsu wrote. "The film's pace and scenes are as if they have no end, teasing the audience's most sensitive nerves with the director's most dazzling, beautiful, exciting, and fast-paced shots."

FSN was not without flaws; if you really looked for plot holes, with Natsu's experience, he could easily find several.

However, the fast-paced plot progression and dazzling visuals were enough to make people overlook these minor details and immerse themselves fully in the movie.

"Perhaps this is what the film industry has always been striving for, a sense of realism," Natsu mused as he paused his pen, gently pushing up his glasses with his hand.

"Now, let's see how you're going to wrap this up. Don't overdo it at the beginning and leave a mess at the end."

And this movie, which Natsu referred to as a game-changer in the industry, did not disappoint him because finally, the King of Heroes, Gilgamesh, made his entrance.

The golden armor, the disdainful and proud expression, and the countless Noble Phantasms...

"You wretch, you deserve to die a thousand deaths!"

With these arrogant lines, the King swung his arm, and a rain of Noble Phantasms descended.

For a moment, the entire screen was filled with the magnificent figures of various Noble Phantasms.

Gilgamesh, the arrogant and dazzling King who held an important position in the Fate series' story, made an entrance that captured everyone's attention.

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