Chapter 1: Prologue

There once lived a little albino girl. She had a father, a mother, 2 maids and an adopted brother, though her father was rarely around.

Her father wanted to be a hero as a child, so naturally as her father's child, she wanted to be a hero too, a heroine or rather a magical girl to be specific. One day, she was forced into the role against her will.

By night, she would hunt down magical cards, malicious fragments of heroic spirits with her Kaleidostick named Ruby, not unlike a heroine in one of those animes she so adored.

She would meet another magical girl with black hair and golden eyes. According to the cliché, of course this girl was a transfer student. This girl had every right to hate the main heroine, for she had everything she did not. In fact, the albino girl had things which the other girl should have rightfully owned by birth.

Yet, that girl did not. The albino girl was her first friend, the only friend she believed would ever need. As such magical friendships are, they cherished one another.

They would go on many adventures, meet many interesting people, rediscover a forgotten past, face down fragments of oneself given physical form by a fragment of an unknown yet known hero, hop through dimensions and many more.

They would not hesitate risking a world for each other.

That was but one tale one could see from the kaleidoscope, but unfortunately, this is not that tale.

In another world, there lived the same albino girl, but her life was anything but the same.

She was thrown into the wilderness with nothing but her clothes, a few fragments of the Greater Grail and an old Beretta 92FS that once belonged to her father.

She had originally planned to use the gun to murder her father's adopted son who had stolen him away from her.

Unfortunately, the gun had no bullets. Her family abhorred the use of modern non-magical convenience and of course they wouldn't restock the supplies that once belonged to a traitor nor would they give the traitor's daughter anything to defend herself during her task.

She was to locate the summoning circle marked by a large axe sword carved from a temple stabbed into the ground which would be used to summon the servant Heracles for the upcoming Holy Grail War.

The war that took her mother's life and would surely take her own, for like her mother before her, she was born to be a sacrificial lamb. She was a homunculus, an artificial human bearing a heart which contained a fragment of her predecessor which traced back to the Primeval Justeaze.

She was born to be a grail vessel. She would lose her functionality as a human, once a number of heroic spirits were gathered within her during the war.

Even if the war ended with no victor and her alive, she had no more than a year to live due to the augmentations made to her body for the upcoming ritual.

Unfortunately, she never made it to her intended destination.

Surrounded by wolves, it seemed her short life was even shorter than she had anticipated.

Her life was never her own, she was nothing more than a tool to fulfill the wishes of her family.

A literal cup made to deliver the wishes of others.

How ironic that the ritual was created from Justeaze's dream of reaching a utopia that could eliminate and cure all hatred and suffering.

Unbeknownst to her, her adopted brother was the same.

A sword forged in the Great Fuyuki fire to carry on a dead man's ideal.

It was an ideal of a dead foolish man by the name of Emiya Kiritsugu who dreamed of a utopia with no conflict.

Unbeknownst to him, he would one day wield a pair of married swords, one black and one white.

Cursed blades forged from the ashes of a blacksmith's wife and her husband's despair. Blades forged from a willing human sacrifice.

As the wolves approached, she was left with 2 options.

She had been stripped of any offensive mystic codes and reagents she could use to defend herself, so of course, one option was to die.

The other option was summon her servant.

If she was anyone else, she would have died.

The summoning ceremony doesn't require an elaborate evocation; the grail is what does the actual summoning.

Though it was 2 months away from the Holy Grail War, she was this wars lesser grail and along with a few fragments of the greater grail, summoning a servant early was possible.

As the alpha wolf began biting into her left arm, she managed to hold on.

She bore the pain and carefully drew the summoning circle in her own blood that gushed out from the wound as the other wolves circled around her, cutting of her escape, biding time for the perfect moment to strike.

Yet for a whole minute, the wolves had waited. Their instincts told them to be wary as those red resolute eyes stared down on them. They backed up and simply watched as the albino girl struggled with their leader.

As they waited the circle was drawn and the girl was nearing her last breath.

"Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill).
Repeat every five times.
Simply, shatter once filled.
――――I announce. "

Her circuits were beginning to feel as if they were on fire, and she could feel as her body lost strength from all the blood she lost, but she grit her teeth and marched through the pain as she smacked the alpha wolf away with the pistol in her hand.

"Your self is under me, my fate is in your sword.
In accordance with the resort of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer."

As the alpha wolf backed away, another approached her, but she slapped it away much the same. Despite her small stature, and limited life span, the physical abilities of a homunculus were superior those of a regular human of the same size.

"I hereby swear. I will become all the good of the eternal world, I will be the disposer of evil in the eternal world."

As she stressed those words, the wolves became more wary. Something within them screamed that this creature before them wasn't what she appeared to be.

"But let chaos cloud thine eyes.
Thou, bound in the cage of madness and I who doth hold thy chains."

Yet, it did not matter what the white haired creature before them was, they came to realize that there would be no future for them if they let her live much longer.

She was standing defiantly with haggard breath, strength left the little girl's right hand and the pistol was dropped onto the circle.

"You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance ―――!"

In a blinding flash, the wolves were blinded and the girl fell face first onto the snow covered ground. Even though she completed the ritual, a hero did not come to her aid.

Instead a small purple egg-shaped gem appeared before her eyes. It seemed that the summoning failed. The Einzbern's had tempted fate in trying to summon her servant before the war had started. The Einzbern had a history of tempting fate with such decisions.

The entire pack of wolves started approaching her slowly, ready to divide up the dying girl.

The girl cursed at herself, with tears forming from an angry gaze, she grasped that gem tightly.

"Numquam vincar."

She heard an odd click and time seemed to stop and everything was dyed with greyish hue.

She had heard that time slowed down as you approached your death.

"Surgam identidem."

With an odd violet glow, her body was healed, her breath returned, without her conscious control, she got up, affixed to her left arm was an odd buckler with gears which was probably the source of the click she had heard earlier.

With such mechanical complexity, she doubted it was a mystic code, yet it had an otherworldly quality.

On the back of her left hand was a perfectly cut diamond shaped gem, the same colour as that egg had been. It exuded an otherworldly quality and she could feel a presence stem from it. She could do nothing but watched as her right hand reached into that buckler and pull out...

a Berretta 92FS.

In a flurry of movement, the gun had discharged several bullets, each one slowing down and stopping in mid air after flying a three quarters of a meter or so away from her.

As colour returned to the world, time resumed and all the wolves that were around her were dead, a bullet had pierced each of their skulls at the same time.

At this point, armed homunculi gathered around her, attracted by the noise of gunshots.

These homunculi were the failed grail vessels which she had to overcome to survive.

They were failures not unlike the 2 who served her as maids.

Ilya cursed at herself for only being able to save those two.

Though her life wasn't pleasant, she had to acknowledge that the others were much more misfortunate than her.

"Incubator," uttered a voice that hers but wasn't hers.

Without reservation, without hesitation and possibly a hint of glee, her body on its own murdered everything she could see with red eyes and white hair.

Everything around her died from a single bullet in the head or heart.

Her mind grimaced, horrified at the efficiency of what she was doing, but her body continued to work.

What horrified her were not the deaths she caused, but the manner in which she caused them. She had been raised to demonize her father's methods, but it was only today that she experienced firsthand the cold ruthlessness of it.

The presence that compelled her though silent exuded an angry presence.

Her opponents stood no chance, given no moment to prepare. This was no battle, it was simply slaughter, the same way a farmer would put down their cattle.

The world simply stopped and all she had to do to end lives was to point and pull the trigger. Such actions lacked pride, lacked honour and lacked sportsmanship.

Had she been in intense pain, she may have overlooked the gravity of her actions, but unfortunately, her mind was perfectly clear and she could perfectly observe what she had done.

The presence controlling her was slaughtering with reckless abandon, without remorse, regret and any notion of slowing down.

If she had been in pain, she could have accepted the deaths as there would have been effort on her part, but because she was in no pain, she was disgusted at the absolute ease in which the lives were ended.

She approached the Einzbern castle and the non-homunculi members of the Einzbern family met the same fate. They too were slaughtered like cattle. To be more precise, they were even easier to slaughter than cattle. Their mage craft was unsuited for combat and their small size compared to cattle made them more susceptible to bullets.

Was this the same power her father wielded or was it something more?

Was it the 5th true magic, the same power Miss Blue wielded?

The Einzbern could not escape her and their homunculi soldiers could not manage to hit her, even though some of them matched heroic spirits in terms of strength and speed.

Pulling the trigger seemed like nothing more than a formality to the red eyed berserker. Each shot was a guaranteed kill for a human of normal endurance and the killer was far from running out of weapons.

In a way, it seemed like they were facing Gae Bolg. Bullets seemed to pierce the heart before the trigger was pulled; the trigger pull was nothing more than a formality.

Littered across the floor along with the blood were countless guns and bullet casings.

Even the homunculi who could react faster than the bullets could travel and deflect them or those whose constitution allowed them to shrug off mundane shells were unable to deal with the over whelming fire power the red eyed killer possessed.

If pistol rounds were not enough to pierce the flesh, machine gun rounds would be used.

If machine gun rounds did not work, then anti-material rifle rounds, if those didn't work then rockets were used.

If one rocket did not work, the surviving homunculi were faced with dozens more striking them simultaneously.

Even if the faster of their siblings could get close to the red eyed killer, the killer would simply blink out of existence and they would receive a claymore mine point blank to the face.

Despite the great agility and strength some homunculi boasted, their endurance could barely match the weakest of heroic spirits and were susceptible to mundane weaponry.

As the Einzbern homunculi searched for this "Illya", they ran into fields of mines, traps and claymores that simply could not have existed within the castle.

The last thing they would ever see if they were lucky enough to get a glimpse their killer, was a black haired girl with glowing red eyes garbed in an outfit of toned down violets and grays.

At first, the Old Man Acht believed that the Magus Killer himself was here storming through the castle.

As Old Man Acht ventured through the halls, he found nothing but corpses.

There lacked a wall that did not possess a large hole caused by some mundane explosive.

Whoever did this certainly had no pride and no flair.

From the corpses, it was clear the victims were killed with mundane bullets. Mundane bullets fired with ruthless mechanical efficiency which never failed to miss a vital spot. If the body was not blown apart by an explosion, it was always a bullet to the head or the heart.

Magic defence was useless against mundane weaponry.

Any sort of magic defence was simply ignored.

This certainly had to be the work of the Magus Killer, yet it could not have been the Magus Killer. Even the Magus Killer with his reputation was simply a man, and regular men could not fight on equal footing with his homunculi which were on par with some heroic spirits in terms of statistics.

It was possible that the Magus Killer himself was summoned as a heroic spirit, empowered by his brutal legend now seeking vengeance for the man who took his daughter away, yet such an idea was completely absurd.

The reality of the matter was even more absurd.

"Incubator."

The old man discovered that his chest was bleeding and in front of him appearing out of nowhere was the daughter of the Magus Killer, his "granddaughter", yet it wasn't her.

She had the same face, the same red eyes, but her hair was black and her eyes glowed with the mad enhancement which eventually faded.

"Have you calmed down?"

The girl turned around to stare at an odd albino cat-like creature, with beady red eyes, hand like projections that sprouted from its ears.

With her palm placed against her for head she spoke once more "Incubator?"

From the girl's confused response, the creature had arrived at a conclusion.

"It seems you are suffering from memory loss. This simplifies matters."

The creature made little effort to hide its ulterior motive. The old man could only stare at the surreal scene before him.

The girl ponders for a bit and asks a question directed at the little creature, "you don't seem to have any ill-content, yet why? Why do I?"

"Why you possess an irrational hatred of red and white? Well, that anger is most likely directed at us, though I don't understand precisely the logic behind it."

"What are you?"

"I am Q-bey and you are a contractor of ours. In exchange for a wish you lent us your service."

Acht was hit with a revelation, "Magus Killer!?"

Ilya had suspicions about the presence which controlled her actions. In many ways the presence controlling her seemed to be everything her family described her father as. The mention of a "contract", "wish" and service simply reinforced her fears. What sort of magic had her father performed on her? How did he sabotage her summoning ritual? Considering he was the victor of the 4th Grail War, nothing seemed impossible.

The white creature responded to the old man's remark, "Magus Killer? Well, that is a very logical title according to our records before the universe's reordering."

Acht could not believe the words as he had begun to wonder about the albino cat-like creature before him. It might have been a familiar of one of his ancestors made only to observe, yet why does it reveal its presence now?

Whether the scene before him was nothing more than possibly a jumbled hallucination did not matter as he soon could inquire no further. The man had died with eyes filled with nothing but malice directed at the little girl. As he died, her "granddaughter" had begun screaming at the realization of the events that unfolded before her as her hair faded to white.

In less than an hour, the threads of fate which bound her were severed and rebound together in a clumsy knot.

What was to become of her, what was she going to do?

She had always hated her "grandfather" and by extension most of her own family, but she could not imagine her world continuing without them, yet this paled in comparison to the realization that she was possessed by what she believed to be the vengeful soul of her father.

She had been raised to hate her father, but she realized she never stopped loving her father.

It seemed that that she didn't seek vengeance, she simply sought answers.

Despite losing so much, she had one thing that kept her going despite the danger and that was the truth.

"Emiya Kiritsugu, if you can hear me, why did you kill mama and abandon me 10 years ago?"

A voice in her mind much like her own yet not had answered.

[I don't recall that name, nor do I have any idea who you are.]

Those words had hurt yet Ilya still wanted answers.

Ilya stared upon her body and noticed she wore the same outfit she was booted out of the castle in. On her left hand was a ring which she had never seen before, but she could tell, it housed a soul and that very soul was guilty of taking her entire family away from her.

Pondering about the ring which housed the soul of her "father", she asked the cat-like creature before her.

"What is this ring?"

The white creature answered, "It's a soul gem, and it houses the soul of a contractor. It is created when the soul is extracted from the body as a part of the wish granting process. As long as the soul gem is intact, the contractor is more or less immortal. Regardless of the wounds inflicted to the body, full recovery is possible. Though in your case unfortunately, the soul gem is making use of your body and not a replaceable empty shell."

The creature made more questions than answers. Extracting a soul and putting it in another container is an application of the third magic, but the other parts of the description the creature gave only confused her as they didn't seem to be a part of the heaven's feel ritual. She could imagine her father employing the use of a soul gem to become a deadlier killer, yet if he had his wish granted, why would he continue to fight? It didn't make any sense.

From what was left of Justeaze's memories Ilya could recall, that her "original's" goal was to surpass the limits of the human body, reaching the soul while retaining human form in order to create a utopia with no death, hatred or suffering.

The more Ilya pondered, the more she was confused.

"Papa, what did you wish for?"

The soul didn't remember much of the past, but the soul was certainly no father. The soul identified herself as female, though why she did was lost upon her. Despite the lack of memories, there was one thing the soul knew to be true.

[I wished to protect someone, to be someone's hero, yet it seems my wish was left unfulfilled.]

"Preposterous!"

[To be honest, I cannot recall who or what I wanted to protect, but I know I wanted to protect something. I can guarantee at least that much to be true.]

Ilya didn't have much choice than to accept such an answer. Ilya was never good at discerning between truth and lies. From her perspective, she didn't understand the point of lying, but her father regularly lied as she recalled the walnut game in her earlier memories.

"If you wish for answers, would you like to make a contract? I'll grant you your wish and make you a magical girl!"

Ilya pondered for a moment, and then looked upon her "father's" pitiful state. Though Ilya was bad at detecting liars, the creature's proposition was beyond fishy. Even a parallel version of her with what she considered the "perfect" life would agree.

For the next hour, Ilya was packing up, preparing for a trip.

[Where are we going?]

Ilya pulled out a photo of a boy, her step-brother, the last "living relative" she had left.

"Well, with my family dead, I guess I'll have to go to Japan and live with my step-brother and help you uncover your lost memories," with a whimsical tone.

The soul within the ring pitied the empty girl before her. Though she had eyes and hair which reminded of her of that loathsome creature, it was clear she harboured emotions she could relate to...twisted as they were, yet the soul knew it was in no position to judge. The soul knew that they both suffered from abandonment issues.

Ilya didn't care for vengeance as much she cared for the "truth", so stepped out remained of the Einzbern castle on a quest to search for it, with a knapsack on her back, her "father" on her finger and the cat-like creature perched on her shoulder.