Chapter 20

~Shinji Matou POV~

"Hahaha." The melodic laugh of Gilgamesh rang in my ears. "Come on, Shinji, it's not so bad. In fact, you should be honored that the great King Gilgamesh will be your bride, hahaha."

I couldn't help but have my eye twitch as once again Gilgamesh brought up the fact that she would be my bride.

"Like I said, you were a guy not even a day ago, Gilgamesh! And besides, why me? And why aren't you helping Illya!?" I yelled at Illya, who was staring at me with a blush on her cheeks as she muttered bride over and over again under her breath.

"Man, women, none of that matters to me. In the end, I am the one true king that walks upon this earth. And as such, my word is law, so obey and be mine, Shinji!" Gilgamesh said with a smirk.

"Yeah no." I said with a deadpan. "Anyway, what are you going to do now, Gilgamesh? I plan on saving Miyu along with Illya."

"Well, you won't be able to get there without my help. Besides, my interest has been peaked since we were in the last world. I want to see how far your resolve will take you." Gilgamesh then turned around, opened her Gate of Babylon, and began pulling random things out of it. "Now, where is it?"

Gilgamesh, you are the only one who can do this so casually. Leaning to the side, I dodged the dagger noble phantasm. After throwing noble phantasms for a couple seconds, she pulled out a long black cloth that I knew was Hades's cap of invisibility. "There, now everyone hold on tight." She said cheekily as she handed the cloth to all of us as we made our way to the crater.

"Wait, why are we doing this!?" Illya asked with a comical expression.

"The Ainsworth have this entire crater under a bounded field, which is basically a barrier, and the Ainsworth's are connected to it. With this cloth, however, we won't get caught by them and get inside undetected."

"Wow, then this thing is really powerful, right?" Illya said excitedly.

If only you knew you were holding Hades's hat, Illya. Now I need to focus, as I'm about to go into the den of the lion.

The next couple of minutes, Illya was talking to Tanaka until we were almost to the center of the crater.

"Hey, keep your voices down; the cloth doesn't hide your voices." Gilgamesh said just before our surroundings changed.

We were now in an elegant courtyard in front of a pristine white castle.

"Wha… What the–!" Before Illya could yell out in surprise, me and Gilgamesh covered her mouth.

"Whew, it's like a warm and cozy autumn." Tanaka whispered as she released a sigh.

"Not spring!?" Illya said with a comical expression. "Anyway, what's going on? One second we're in an empty crater; the next we're in front of a castle."

"It's like pretending there's nothing there. The invisible castle walls make the inner citadel invisible. Setting up such a flashy residence while keeping it completely hidden. Shows how twisted these mages are." Gilgamesh said with a slight smile as he gazed at the castle. "So, Shinji, how should we go about doing this?"

"We'll have to sneak in, obviously, as sneaking through the front door is a bad idea."

"Also, we don't even know if she's in the main castle or not. And my gut is telling me that she's being held in a second building."

"That is how it is usually set up, right?" Gilgamesh said with a shrug.

Before I could speak, the door in front of me opened, and Angelica walked out. Immediately, I used Lurk despite holding the cloth.

We all pressed ourselves against the wall as she began to walk right in front of us. Suddenly, she pulled out a knife and slashed the wall right above me and Illya.

"Nothing huh?" She whispered as she placed the knife back in its sheath and began walking down the corridor. "But I smelled mapo?"

Releasing Lurk I breathed out heavily as Angelica finally went out of sight.

"Man, that was almost game over." Gilgamesh said as she rubbed the sweat off her forehead.

"That was the one who kidnapped Miyu!" Illya said as she stared down the corridor.

"Be careful out of all the dolls; she's one of the most formidable." Gilgamesh said.

"Dolls? Now that you mention it, the Beatrice girl said something similar."

Gilgamesh let out a small laugh as soon as Illya started talking about Beatrice. "Oh, so you met her, huh? She's still bad news, but in a different way." Gilgamesh then gained a serious expression. "Anyway, dolls are more or less enforcers created by the Ainsworth's. If you're planning to destroy them, those dolls will definitely stand in your way." She then turned away from me to look at Tanaka. "So what do you plan to do, Tanaka?"

"Mmm, I don't really know, but it doesn't feel like she's one of the people I have to destroy."

"Hmm, if you say so." Gilgamesh said with a shrug.

"Anyway, Shinji-san, doesn't it seem fishy?"

"Yeah, there's no way she would be coming down here for no reason." While I knew that she wasn't down here, I knew Shirou was down here, and I needed to hand over something to him.

"Then let's go and save Miyu!" She said as she led us through the door, Angelica just came out of leading to some stairs, heading down.

"What's with this castle?" Illya said once we made it all the way down the stairs. "Is this really Fuyuki City?"

"It's an underground aqueduct, Illya. But the Ainsworth's really are pretentious building all this here." Looking around, I immediately noticed the cell door that led to this world's Shirou Emiya's. I ignored the others as I walked up to the door. Not a second later, Illya ran past me and started banging against the door.

"Miyu!! Are you there!? If you're there, answer me, please!"

"Who's there?" A weak and raspy voice said from behind the door.

"That must be someone the Ainsworth's captured." Gilgamesh said while rubbing the back of her head.

"You're not the Ainsworth's people... and you people know Miyu."

"We're her friends! We came to help!"

"Friends, I see." Shirou fell silent for a couple of seconds before slowly beginning to laugh. At first, it was low and slow, but then his laugh gained volume before it devolved into full-blown laughter. Accompanying his laughter was the sound of water dripping on metal, which I knew were tears. "So it came true... I'm Miyu's older brother."

"So it is you!!" Gilgamesh said while walking up to the door as well. "I can't believe they let you live. But it looks like you're in bad shape."

"Who are you? And you know who I am?"

"Yes, I know. I'm pleased to meet you... faker."

"Miyu's brother. Why are you locked up here?" Illya asked.

"Because…I failed. I fought the Ainsworth's… to get Miyu back. And I was able to do it. I released her from this goddamn world. But despite all that effort, I still failed in the end, as she ended up right back here!" He yelled out in frustration. "After all that effort, she still wasn't able to escape the chains of fate."

With a click of my tongue, I walked up to the cell door. "First Miyu, and now you. And to a lesser extent myself." I said the last part to myself before continuing to speak. "I really don't care about crap like fate or destiny anymore. I'm blazing my own path down the timeline. But don't worry; it's fate that Miyu will be saved, that I guarantee as her friend. The Ainsworth's took what was mine, so I'll obviously take it back with interest."

The crying behind the door became even more prominent. "Oh, oh, thanks to you all, half my wish has already come true. Go to Miyu. Don't worry about me."

"What are you talking about!? You're obviously coming with us!" Illya said as she tried to open the door. "What is with..." I tuned Illya out as I felt the eyes burning into my skull. Turning around, I had just enough time to throw up a water barrier just in time to block a sword that was aimed to take off my head.

"Ambushes are for commoners, you know." Gilgamesh's voice rang out as the dust cleared. Slowly, the sounds of metal clanking filled my ears as another female voice spoke up.

"Tell me how you broke into this place…" As the dust cleared, it revealed Angelica, who was already using the Gilgamesh class card, as she donned the golden armor. "If you don't, I'll kill you one by one." She said as several golden gates opened behind her and a plethora of weapons slid out.

"It feels really weird to fight against that vestige." Gilgamesh said with a twitching smirk.

This time, I'm going all out from the very start. Not like my fight with Gilgamesh, this time I'll use everything I have to win.