Chapter 24

Edmund observed the scene with a calm smile on his face. Kiritsugu struggled to break free from the green creatures surrounding him—each shot eliminated one, but two more took its place. Maiya was also trapped, trying to keep them at bay with her combat knife.

"Tell me, Kiritsugu," Edmund said casually. "What do you think of my projection magecraft?"

Kiritsugu didn't respond, focused on eliminating the creatures clinging to him.

Edmund continued speaking calmly. "It's a magecraft I copied from a classmate... though I improved it. I can not only replicate objects, but I can also bring to life creatures from tales and legends. A trick that no second-rate mage, not even first-rate ones, could easily replicate."

Kiritsugu clenched his teeth. He already knew this man was no ordinary opponent. Still, his priority wasn't to eliminate him right now, but to rescue Irisviel.

The creatures had brought her before Edmund, holding her firmly without causing physical harm, but restricting any movement. Edmund leaned slightly forward and took a strand of her long white hair, examining it with interest.

"You have a unique presence," he remarked, letting the strand of hair fall gently. "You're a homunculus, aren't you? It must be fascinating to see you up close."

Irisviel maintained her composure, but her expression revealed the disgust she felt toward her captor.

Kiritsugu, seeing the situation, tried to push forward, but the creatures continued to block his path. Frustrated, he fired a shot in Edmund's direction, but with a simple movement of his reinforced knife, Edmund deflected the bullet effortlessly.

"If you keep insisting, things might get more complicated for you," Edmund said in a carefree tone.

With complete calm, Edmund brought his knife to Irisviel's cheek and made a shallow cut.

Irisviel, feeling the sharp pain, tried to pull away from Edmund, but he wouldn't let her.

"If you try to move away from me, I'll feel hurt, you know?"

With the same calm demeanor, Edmund lowered the knife to Irisviel's abdomen and, with a sinister smile, plunged the reinforced blade into her stomach. He inserted it slowly, savoring Irisviel's scream.

Irisviel, feeling the stabbing pain, began to bleed, staining her white clothes and dyeing them a dark red. With tears forming in her eyes, Irisviel screamed loudly in agony.

"Why are you screaming? I didn't stab you that deeply."

With a smile forming on his face, Edmund pulled the knife out of Irisviel's abdomen.

Kiritsugu, thinking the worst was over and trying to calm himself, watched as Edmund plunged the knife into his wife's abdomen once again.

Not just once, but twice, three times, four times, up to five times in a row, and with each stab, Irisviel screamed loudly, her cries echoing through the forest.

Standing up, Edmund looked at Irisviel, whose face was streaked with tears and whose gaze was lost in emptiness. It was enough for her, but not for him.

Edmund, now somewhat calmer, gestured for three goblins to approach her.

Kiritsugu, who had been watching the scene with trembling, didn't know what to do. When he saw his wife, still bleeding, being clumsily stripped by the ugly green creatures, he thought the worst.

"It's not that big of a deal, Kiritsugu Emiya. Let them be—they need to release all the stress built up from the deaths of their fallen comrades," Edmund said, smiling at Kiritsugu.

His entire body shook. With no other options available, Kiritsugu, with desperation and fear in his eyes, quickly used a Command Spell.

"Saber, come to my side and eliminate this enemy."

The red symbol on his skin glowed intensely, and magical energy surged through the air.

Kiritsugu felt his heart pounding. His hand burned after activating the Command Spell, but in that moment, only one thing mattered: saving Irisviel.

In a flash of light, Saber appeared by his side, abruptly teleported. Her gaze sharpened immediately upon seeing her master in danger and Irisviel on the ground, motionless, her eyes glazed over. She needed no further context—the culprit was clear.

Without hesitation, Saber lunged toward Edmund with a swift and lethal motion, her invisible sword cutting through the air in a deadly arc.

Edmund saw the situation change drastically. He had no immediate escape, and his options were rapidly dwindling. With a hurried gesture, he projected several creatures as a distraction.

Dozens of green goblins emerged in front of Saber, charging at her in a desperate attempt to halt her advance. However, they were little more than an annoyance to a Servant of her caliber.

Saber swung her sword just once, and a whirlwind of invisible steel swept through all the creatures, disintegrating them in an instant. Edmund felt cold sweat run down his back as Saber's blade closed in on him with unstoppable speed.

At the last moment, he made the most calculated decision he could: instead of trying to completely dodge the strike, he twisted his body to take the blow in a non-critical spot.

Saber's sword pierced his flesh, but before she could deliver a fatal strike, a swift shadow burst onto the scene.

A lightning-fast strike interrupted Saber. Rider, with the Winged Sandals activated, descended with brutal speed. Saber reacted quickly and dodged Rider's kick with a graceful leap backward, avoiding being left exposed.

Edmund felt relief as he noticed Rider's intervention. He quickly stepped back, pressing the wound on his side. It wasn't fatal, but the pain was real.

He took a moment to catch his breath and then raised his voice toward Kiritsugu, his tone mocking despite his condition.

"Well, well, Kiritsugu!" he exclaimed, smiling wryly.

"Your reaction is interesting. Instead of taking revenge yourself, you decide to send this lovely lady to do the job for you."

Kiritsugu didn't respond. His expression was one of absolute coldness, showing no emotion.

He tried to mask his initial desperation so the unknown mage wouldn't take him lightly. He was clear about one thing: this mage was dangerous.

Edmund clicked his tongue, feigning disappointment.

"Are you a coward? Do you lack the courage to face me yourself, so you resort to her?" His eyes gleamed with provocation.

Saber clenched her teeth. Her face darkened. There was something in those words that deeply unsettled her. It wasn't just the accusation against her master, but the implication that she was merely an execution tool. However, she didn't respond with words. Her invisible sword rose again, ready for the next attack.

Rider, on the other hand, let out a soft laugh. "Well, well, Edmund. You have a strange way of thanking someone for saving you."

Saber fixed her gaze on Rider. She knew she couldn't advance toward Edmund without him interfering.

The air in the forest grew heavier.

..........

Waver remained seated on the ground, his breathing still heavy from the adrenaline of the moment. He still couldn't believe he had come out of that situation alive. He looked up and, to his surprise, saw Edmund standing in front of him, holding a simple kitchen knife in his hand. It was a surreal image.

The young mage didn't move from his spot. His body was still too tense from the earlier situation, but the relief of seeing his friend nearby allowed him to relax a little. He watched in silence as Edmund acted with an unsettling calm, as if everything happening around him was just a passing annoyance.

Then, his attention shifted to the strange green creatures surrounding Kiritsugu and Maiya, blocking their movement. Waver felt a shiver run down his spine. This wasn't an illusion—they were projections. Projections that, unlike what he knew, were real, tangible, capable of attacking and causing physical harm.

His mind immediately recalled one of his classmates in Professor Kayneth's class: Camus Perigord. She possessed a magical crest that allowed her to generate illusions and projections, but her magecraft had a clear limitation: her creations couldn't interact with the real world. They were just images without substance.

But what Edmund had done far surpassed that concept.

"It can't be..." Waver murmured, feeling his skin crawl.

Edmund hadn't just replicated Camus's magecraft—he had taken it to an entirely different level. His projections weren't illusions; they were real entities capable of affecting their surroundings. Waver realized in that moment that Edmund had created his own version of that magecraft from scratch. Not only had he perfected it, but he had surpassed it in a way that even the descendants of the Perigord lineage could only dream of achieving.

"That's beyond the capability of any normal mage..." Waver thought in awe.

It was terrifying. If Edmund could do this with projections, what were his limits? Waver felt a mix of admiration and jealousy churning inside him. He always knew his friend was a genius, but this was something more. Edmund had broken the conventional rules of magecraft, creating something that surpassed the knowledge passed down through generations.

"A monster…" Waver thought.

His friend wasn't just a prodigy. Edmund was an anomaly, someone who could transcend what lineage mages refined over centuries with nothing but his individual effort. And the worst part was that he had done it alone. Without the help of a prestigious family. Without an inherited magical crest.

It was terrifying.

And at the same time, fascinating.

Waver swallowed hard, trying to process everything he had just discovered. The battle wasn't over yet, but he already knew one thing for certain: Edmund was a monster when it came to magecraft.

......................

This is it... I'm losing my pace, my imagination is stuck, so I'll take a day or two to continue continuing with the story. hahaha, until Monday.