A Saiyan's Journey

Zuke had nothing to do with gods. If there was any connection, it was when he impersonated the God of Destruction's agent before North Kai.

Even considering that, the "god" he impersonated was from the Dragon Ball world—what did the divine nature of the Type-Moon universe's gods have to do with him?

The Chains of Heaven, even without their divine attribute suppression, were a formidable restraint against most Heroic Spirits. However, they were completely ineffective against Zuke.

"Don't struggle, Gilgamesh. It'll be over soon."

Ignoring the golden chains wrapped around him, Zuke squinted his eyes. His Black Bird Stand shot out a hand and grabbed Gilgamesh's spiritual body firmly.

"You... what is this!? Damn it!"

Unable to see the Stand, Gilgamesh only felt an invisible force gripping his body tightly, preventing him from breaking free.

Raising his right hand, he tried to summon his most powerful weapon—the Sword of Rupture, Ea—from his Gate of Babylon. However, he soon realized that his entire body was powerless.

Looking down, he was horrified to see his lower body being devoured by an unseen force, gradually vanishing.

The force consuming him spread upward. Soon, Gilgamesh's abdomen and chest began to disappear as well.

Zuke watched everything clearly. The Black Bird was feeding. Starting from below, Gilgamesh's body was being devoured piece by piece by the shadow of the Stand.

"You... you wretched thing. How could I, the King of Heroes, lose to someone like you—someone so obscure..."

Despite his severely damaged body, Gilgamesh struggled to curse Zuke one last time.

Finally, the Black Bird advanced, engulfing Gilgamesh's head entirely into its shadow, erasing him from existence in the basement.

With Gilgamesh's death, the Chains of Heaven binding Zuke shattered.

However, while Gilgamesh's Chains of Heaven broke, new ones were born for Zuke. After devouring Gilgamesh, Zuke gained a new ability—he could now unleash Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon, filled with numerous prototype Noble Phantasms.

"Amazing... truly amazing, Berserker!"

Sitting on Zuke's arm, Rin Tohsaka had witnessed the slaughter up close. Kirei Kotomine and Gilgamesh were effortlessly taken down without much resistance.

Rin hadn't even seen Gilgamesh fight back in any meaningful way. She likely still didn't realize that Gilgamesh was among the top-tier Heroic Spirits.

While seeing Kirei Kotomine stabbed to death before her eyes did leave her feeling slightly uneasy, Rin quickly adjusted her mindset.

After all, compared to Kenneth's mangled corpse, at least Kirei left behind an intact body. This made it easier for Rin to accept.

"Just a trivial matter," Zuke said with a slight smile.

Stepping over Kirei's lifeless body, he approached a table in the basement. On it lay documents recently printed by a nearby magical device.

The machine, resembling a printer, was something Tokiomi Tohsaka had used in his lifetime to receive information about the Holy Grail War from others.

Now, the device had been appropriated by Kirei Kotomine, and intelligence about the Holy Grail War continued to flow in.

The documents on the table contained the latest information. Kirei likely hadn't even read them before meeting his end, leaving them conveniently for Zuke.

"This is intel on the Holy Grail War... There's even news about Lancer and his Master possibly being dead."

Rin, still seated on Zuke's left arm, leaned forward to read the detailed information in the documents with him.

"All Masters except Caster's have been identified?"

"Well, the Tohsaka family is the local powerhouse of Fuyuki City. If they couldn't gather this level of intelligence, the people your father employed would be utterly useless," Zuke quipped with a grin.

The intelligence contained many useful details. For instance, the Einzbern homunculus and Saber had arrived in Fuyuki City earlier that afternoon and spent the evening strolling around before heading to the Einzbern Forest, their stronghold in the city.

Additionally, there was information about Kiritsugu Emiya. However, the intel suggested that Irisviel von Einzbern, the homunculus, was the actual Master, with Kiritsugu acting as a supporting assassin.

This was part of Kiritsugu's plan—to have Saber and Irisviel act together, creating the illusion that Irisviel was the true Master.

The intelligence agents had indeed fallen for the deception.

However, what intrigued Zuke was the information about Irisviel. The report mentioned that her daughter, Illyasviel, was also a pure homunculus.

"I thought Illya was born from Irisviel. Did something change?"

Scratching his chin, Zuke pondered. In his impression, Illya should have been naturally born to Irisviel, not purely a homunculus.

The opening of Fate/Zero was supposed to depict Irisviel giving birth to Illya... Could Kiritsugu have become impotent?

Although he wasn't sure what had happened, such unrelated details wouldn't have been fabricated by Kiritsugu. It seemed Illya truly wasn't born from Irisviel's womb.

Considering the Einzbern family's tradition of creating homunculi as vessels for the Holy Grail, they might have decided to make Illya entirely artificial.

Perhaps to avoid complications from a natural birth, they chose to bypass Irisviel's involvement altogether and created Illya through pure alchemy.

Though such minor details weren't worth dwelling on, Zuke continued reading Irisviel's profile primarily to check if her body had undergone any changes.

After all, before her arrival, Zuke had already eliminated two Servants. According to the lore, the death of Servants would increase the burden on the Lesser Grail.

And the Lesser Grail was Irisviel herself.

As more Servants died, their magical energy would return to her.

Eventually, Irisviel would perish, her body transforming into the Holy Grail, completing the final step of the ritual.

"Berserker, you're not thinking of..."

Having read the entire report with him, Rin glanced at Zuke, seemingly sensing what he intended to do.

To be continued…

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