"Leave the defense to us," Medea said, watching the colossal hand. "It possesses only brute strength. Without the corrupting influence of the Black Mud, any Heroic Spirit here—except Hassan—could easily subdue it. But All the World's Evils forbids close combat. Only those with high mobility or mastery of ranged or area-of-effect attacks stand a chance."
"Don't worry," Archer replied, his voice brimming with resolve. "I won't let that thing get anywhere near here until Shirou Emiya becomes the Lesser Grail!"
"Why not just destroy that hole directly?" Medusa asked. She didn't think it looked particularly sturdy and was confident she could obliterate it with a full-power blast from her Noble Phantasm.
"That won't work," Rin Tohsaka retorted. "It'll just reappear after Shirou Emiya's surgery. To be precise, the hole won't disappear until the magical power contained within the Lesser Grail, derived from the souls of the Servants, is completely depleted. Don't waste your energy here."
Rin insisted that the proper course of action was to wait until Shirou became the vessel, then defeat Angra Mainyu in a Duel.
"Hurry!" Medea urged. "My barrier won't hold much longer. Mount Enzou is extremely high; if All the World's Evils escapes the barrier, it will spread rapidly down the mountainside. The evacuated civilians won't have time to escape."
As she spoke, Medea brutally sliced open Shinji Matou's chest with a knife and ripped out his heart.
The crude brutality of her action shocked everyone present.
"What are you looking at?!" Medea snapped, utterly exhausted. "I'm maintaining a healing spell here! You—yes, you, whatever your name is... never mind, Archer's Master. Come lend a hand."
Among the Masters present, only Rin Tohsaka possessed sufficient magical aptitude. Letting anyone else assist would send Shinji straight to his grave.
"I'm Jason's Master."
Rin Tohsaka hadn't forgotten that Medea had stolen her original Servant. Otherwise, she wouldn't be stuck as the Master of this red-clad traitor.
Medea pulled Rin closer, placed her hand over Rin's, and guided her in channeling magical power. She had no patience for arguing about Jason's affairs. "Can you feel it? Maintain this flow of magical power. Until Emiya inherits this heart, his life depends on you."
"Tohsaka-san, please!" Shirou Emiya gave her an encouraging glance.
"Easy for you to say!" Rin thought, feeling like Shinji Matou, his chest cavity exposed, resembled a split-open dried fish.
"Ready, Shirou?" Medea approached him, holding the still-beating heart.
"This will hurt. Endure it."
Shirou nodded, already prepared. He removed his shirt and was about to lie down when he saw Medea thrust the heart toward his chest.
Medea's method, though abrupt, was a form of kindness. Like a chiropractor chatting to distract you and subconsciously relax your muscles, it could subtly reduce the pain.
Even with her E-rank physical strength, Medea's finger-spear effortlessly pierced Shirou Emiya's chest, empowered by the magic of the Age of Gods. The pain was beyond Shirou's comprehension. In that instant, his heart was forcibly ripped out, the agony of his severed blood vessels forcing a scream from his throat.
Fortunately, Medea acted swiftly. The process was brief, and Shinji Matou's heart was successfully connected to Shirou's circulatory system, activating the Holy Grail's functions.
"Such a healthy heart—wasted on that brat," Medea remarked, comparing the two organs. Shirou's was noticeably fresher.
Casually tossing Shinji's heart into Shirou's chest cavity, she sealed the wound with healing magic.
"That's it? Don't you need to do more?" Rin Tohsaka asked, watching Medea's nonchalant methods in astonishment.
Medea confidently raised her chin. "That's the difference between Age of Gods Magecraft and Modern Magecraft. Prometheus's condition was far worse, and this level of restoration is child's play. Instead of worrying about this, you should be concerned about transplant rejection."
"A rejection reaction?"
Rin Tohsaka was stunned once again, never expecting to hear such modern terminology from a servant of the Age of Gods.
"Wait, can magic even cause that?!"
"Why else do you think Asclepius is called the God of Medicine?" Medea retorted.
She glanced toward the Flesh Tower. Under Medusa's cover, Archer relentlessly unleashed Broken Phantasms, inflicting devastating damage. Deprived of its core, the Flesh Tower no longer had the resources to regenerate and repair itself, and its vitality was slowly waning.
However, now that Shirou Emiya had become the Holy Grail, even more Black Mud gushed from the gaping hole in his chest.
"Ugh..."
Shirou felt the immense magical power within his heart affecting his normal movements. Like Irisviel during the Fourth Holy Grail War, he was gradually losing his human functions.
An unknown pattern began spreading from Shirou's heart, slowly creeping across his entire body.
Rin Tohsaka quickly pulled Shirou Emiya to his feet as the Black Mud surged even more violently. Within minutes, the area would be completely submerged, and without help, Shirou would surely drown.
For some reason, Shirou's body had become impossibly heavy, far beyond Rin's strength to lift.
Frustrated, Rin turned to Archer, the closest servant. He seemed amused by her struggle. "What are you waiting for? Help us now!" she snapped.
Meanwhile, Medea had levitated herself with magic, and Medusa had carried Sakura Matou away on Pegasus.
Archer couldn't abandon them both. He clamped both of them under his arms, intending to use a servant's superior jumping ability to reach higher ground.
But he failed. Archer stared in disbelief at Shirou. Without hesitation, he hurled Rin toward Medea.
"Archer, what are you doing?!" Rin shouted.
Caught off guard, Medea nearly dropped Rin into the Black Mud. She intensified her magical power output, barely managing to steady herself.
In the next instant, Jiang You saw a pair of bizarre weapons pierce Archer through and through.
"Hahaha! You naive fools never learn!" Shirou Emiya erupted in a maniacal laugh utterly unlike his usual self as the Black Mud surged towards him like a tangible mass, engulfing both him and Archer.
When Jiang You arrived, he saw a servant with strikingly dark skin, a buzz cut, and snow-white hair.
"Where did Father Pucci come from?"