You call this a projection?

Julian stared blankly at Emiya Shirou. He looked at the palm that Emiya Shirou had extended toward him.

”This...”

Could someone like him really accept this invitation from Emiya Shirou? Could the future that Emiya Shirou depicted, where everyone could be saved, truly be realized?

”Of course it can.” Emiya Shirou, having seen through Julian’s thoughts, did not say anything more, only nodding with a smile: ”Rather, if we don’t even dare to fantasize about such a thing, how could we possibly work hard for this fantasy?

Just like you, Julian. If it weren’t for you harboring the idea of saving both Pandora and humanity, the first thing you would have thought of when you saw the Greater Grail wouldn’t have been that you could use the Greater Grail and Miyu to save both simultaneously.

Instead, you would have thought about using the Greater Grail as a replacement for Miyu to continue your plan, right?

Besides, after seeing that the humans of this parallel world are themselves working hard to save humanity, do you think there is anything worse than this?”

Having said that, Emiya Shirou looked at Julian. Julian also looked at Emiya Shirou.

After a long while, he finally said: ”...Yeah, there is nothing worse than this.”

No, it should be said that there is nothing left to worry about. As someone who had already become a loser, what qualification did he have to question Emiya Shirou?

Slap!

Julian grabbed Emiya Shirou’s extended hand, and he was the first to ask: ”Is there anything I can do?”

At the same time. In a special space, different from Earth and devoid of the concept of time. A blurred figure, who had previously kept his eyes closed, now opened them in confusion and looked at his own hands, murmuring: ”Strange, it actually failed?

Was it that attack I just encountered?”

An attack that nullified his displacement magecraft in one blow. Was it a Noble Phantasm of a Caster?

Thanks to the Fifth Holy Grail War in Satsuki Miyu’s world, the Servants displaced out of it were basically the same as the Servants summoned in the Fifth Holy Grail War of the world where Emiya Shirou and the others were. Therefore, Darius, who had completed the displacement with Julian at the time, could not possibly have felt unfamiliar with Caster and

her [Rule Breaker]. He could also guess that the reason he was stripped away from Julian was the effect of the [Rule Breaker] Noble Phantasm.

But for something like this, he just needed to perform the displacement again.

In this chaotic space, Darius, who had long ago stored his [Death] within it through displacement magecraft—stored it in this world of [Pandora’s Box]—would not care about a mere failure or two. After all, as long as his [Death] was preserved within [Pandora’s Box], he would be like Pandora: a monster that would never die. He could remain in this space forever, using displacement magecraft to continuously displace into and resurrect within the bodies of his descendants.

Of course, Darius, who was not a god, nor a god-created human created by gods based on themselves like Pandora was, would find that every one of his displacements and resurrections would, like Matou Zouken in Fate/stay night, make him forget his ideals, forget his purpose of pursuing immortality, leaving only a goal twisted by time. But this side effect would not affect Darius’s displacement magecraft. As long as he wanted to, he could perform a displacement with Julian again at any time.

It should have been like that. But now, his displacement seemed to have encountered some kind of obstruction. It made him completely unable to locate Julian’s position!?

”Is it because my magical energy is not enough?

Because I was attacked by Caster’s Noble Phantasm, and after that Noble Phantasm broke my displacement magecraft, it incidentally caused damage to my Magic Circuits as well.

Is that why I am unable to refine enough magical energy to use displacement magecraft in a short period of time?”

Darius began to find reasons for himself. And the reason he gave himself sounded quite reasonable. As a mage, he was no stranger to magical energy backlash. It was just that none of his previous backlashes had been as severe as this one. Of course, he had never before been attacked by a mystery of the level of a Noble Phantasm.

”Then I will wait for a while longer.

In any case, for me, the one thing I don’t lack is time.”

Having convinced himself... no, it should be said that Darius, who did not dare to think about a certain worst-case scenario, thus gradually fell silent in this self-consolation, waiting for the time when his magical energy would recover.

But what if the reason Darius was unable to perform displacement magecraft—or rather, the reason he could not perform a displacement with Julian—was not because of this magical energy backlash?

”By the way, Emiya, is it really okay for you to tell me your plan just like that?”

In Fuyuki City within Satsuki Miyu’s world. In this empty city, Emiya Shirou and the others, having skipped the steps of evacuating ordinary people and preventing the exposure of mystery, quickly started the plan that Emiya Shirou claimed could save everyone, with the help of Julian, a local.

Of course, before this, Emiya Shirou of this parallel world (hereafter referred to as Emiya-MW, MW for Miyu’s world), who had been imprisoned by Julian in the Ainsworth family’s magic workshop, was also released by Julian during this process. He was reunited with Satsuki Miyu.

Looking at Emiya-MW hugging Satsuki Miyu. He also saw Erika (Pandora) in the Ainsworth family’s magic workshop, who was pouting, probably trying to endure her tears to prove that she wouldn’t be lonely even if she were home alone. At this moment, however, it was not like that at all; she was looking at him, completely unable to control her tears as they dripped down.

Julian seemed to understand a little bit why Emiya-MW had chosen to save Satsuki Miyu even at the cost of sacrificing humanity... No, he had actually understood this long ago. It was just that he didn’t have firm convictions like Emiya-MW, and even this initial thought had been forgotten by him without him noticing.

Now that he remembered it again, Julian seemed to have thought of something and asked Emiya Shirou anxiously: ”I, will Darius not do anything about this plan?”