Chapter 17: Chapter 17

As he whispered the name in his mind, Shirou ignited the magic hidden within the swords.

"Craaack,"

The swords, projected from his being, gradually broke apart in the sea of bugs. Then with a loud "Boom," the explosion was like thunder, the sparks as beautiful as fireworks blooming in the summer sky.

"Foolish, foolish, foolish," Matou Zouken called out as he stood in the midst of a sea of bugs that protected him from the explosion and flames. "How could magic like this hurt this old man?"

But the seventeen projected swords ignited by the explosive magic were like the centers of seventeen fireworks, their flames and explosion doing little to harm Matou Zouken. The intense flash of the explosion, however, was another matter. It was difficult for anyone to open their eyes, but for Matou Zouken, who had lived for hundreds of years and whose body had reached its limits, making him extremely sensitive to light, the flash was especially dazzling.

"When this light fades," he thought, "I will definitely kill you!"

But when the strong light faded, the person Matou Zouken had expected to take advantage of the light and attack him was not there. The field was empty.

"Did he run away?" Matou Zouken wondered. "Then what was the point of releasing the strong light?"

Feeling confused, he reminded himself that the entire Matou family was within his control. As long as the person was still in the family, the bugs spread throughout the mansion would reveal his location. There was no way he could escape.

...

Shirou knew that the key to victory was not brute strength, but achieving his goal. He wasn't fighting Matou Zouken to see if he could use the strength of the servant to defeat him.

So he used the most disgraceful tactics in modern warfare. The intense light and noise created by the explosion of seventeen projected swords briefly blind and deafen Matou Zouken, causing him to lose his sense of balance and direction. As a result, Matou Zouken, whose vision and hearing was sealed by "Broken Phantasm," could only use magic to explore and locate his position.

(p.s. Broken Phantasm - If a Noble Phantasm is packed with magical energy, it can be made to explode after striking its target. It is nearly impossible to repair a destroyed Noble Phantasm, and since they are the trump cards of Heroic Spirits, they are unlikely to take such measures. Emiya is an exception, as he can reproduce as many copies of Noble Phantasms as his magical energy will allow due to Tracing, allowing him to also counterbalance the fact that all of his projections are lowered by one rank.)

Therefore, Shirou used his own magic to create dozens of swords filled with as much magic as he could currently muster and scattered them around. Using these dozens of swords as a net to confuse Matou Zouken, he rushed into the Matou mansion like an arrow.

If Emiya Kiritsugu was a magician killer specialized in modern weapons, then Shirou was a demi-servant who applied modern warfare concepts to battle.

The only concern was whether Matou Zouken had a means of detecting him directly, without relying on vision. Shirou didn't know the mysteries of magi, which he couldn't understand. All he could do was do his best.

Breaking into the Matou mansion, Shirou rushed around, opening doors and searching for Sakura's whereabouts, but he found nothing. However, he did find the young Matou Shinji in a room.