After agreeing to Tohsaka Rin's proposal, Souta began studying the composition of gemstones in this world.
His matter creation ability required a certain "impression" of an object to accurately create it.
And the gemstones in this world weren't ordinary—they could easily store the will of their owners and were excellent conduits for magic. Stones that had slumbered deep underground often formed natural spirits and elemental attributes, functioning as simplified magic crests.
For example, a gemstone imbued with a fire elemental spirit could unleash fire magic simply by channeling mana into it.
Souta, of course, couldn't create gemstones with elemental spirits unless he consumed vast amounts of divine power.
Even so, just the ordinary gemstones he created made Rin beam with joy.
What Souta didn't know was that ever since Rin discovered his matter creation ability, she had made up her mind—this guy was her friend for life.
"By the way, Rin, now that Sakura's safe, we need to talk about how to save everyone else."
At dinner, Souta conjured up a feast, calling Illya and little Sakura to join. Even Berserker sat at the table, silently eating under Illya's command.
If Kurumi were there, she'd probably sigh and say, "Souta, eating has no soul."
Souta sipped some cola and asked Rin,
"Simple," Rin replied casually, "All I need to do is take care of Kirei Kotomine. He killed my father—if he's gone, Dad should survive, right?"
"Naive!" Souta shook his head.
"Even if Kirei's out of the picture, the Holy Grail War continues. Given your father's personality, Emiya Kiritsugu will probably kill him—or Gilgamesh will take the chance to do it."
"..." Rin froze, unable to refute that.
Yeah... that was very possible.
"Plus," Souta continued, "Zouken's dead now, so Kariya Matou's future is already altered, and that affects Lancelot too. Everything's connected. We can't rely on the original plot; things are changing too fast. Acting based on it might cause us to miss something."
He wasn't even sure if Tokiomi would still get stabbed by Kirei in his own home—one change could unravel everything.
The butterfly effect—unpredictable and chaotic.
"True..." Rin frowned. "With so many changes, we can't count on the old timeline. Making a step-by-step rescue plan might be pointless."
She sipped her tea, then glanced at Souta.
"So, what's your plan?"
"We take the initiative—hunt down the other Servants and end the Holy Grail War ourselves."
Souta's proposal stunned the room.
"PFFT—!" Rin sprayed tea everywhere.
"Rin, that's rude!" Illya scolded with a frown.
"How is this my fault!? Souta just said something insane!" Rin stared at Souta, bewildered.
"Why would I joke about this?" Souta replied earnestly.
"But... we're not strong enough..."
Rin trailed off, then looked at Souta curiously.
"By the way, I forgot to ask—now that you're a god, how strong are you?"
"Me?" Souta thought for a second.
"My Divine Rank is 1, so I can't store much divine power yet. No Divine Domain either, so I'm not that strong."
"How strong, exactly?"
"Well... if I use all my divine power and channel it into my Half-Cold Half-Hot Quirk, I could probably evaporate all of Fuyuki City and the surrounding mountains in one blast. Maybe leave behind a crater seven or eight kilometers wide. But I'd be totally drained."
WHAT!? You call that "not that strong"!?
Rin nearly choked. That's way beyond any anti-city Noble Phantasm!
Souta noticed Rin's stunned expression and misread it.
"I know, I'm underwhelming. It's just a Rank 1 Divine Spark without a Divine Domain—limited power. But my defense is amazing. With my current divine power, breaking through my Divine Shield would take ten times that attack's force."
"Yeah. Divine Power is omnipotent. Even when I'm not using it, it automatically absorbs all damage—physical or magical. That's the Divine Shield. If you can't break it, you can't hurt a god. Only divine power can pierce it."
"That's totally cheating!" Rin exclaimed, envious.
"What about instant-death attacks?"
"Nope. Doesn't work. Cu Chulainn could spear me all day, and I wouldn't feel a thing."
"Plus, I've got a trump card—my matter creation. I could make antimatter if I really wanted to."
Though that was something best done in outer space.
He wasn't crazy enough to drop an antimatter bomb in Fuyuki and have the Counter Force send Heroic Spirits to kill him.
"If you're really that strong, then yeah, we can afford to change tactics and take the initiative."
"Exactly." Souta laid out his plan:
"Kariya's got magecraft, so he'll likely become Matou's Master. Lancelot joins our side. You inherit Kariya's Command Spells, provide mana, and keep him alive. Plus, we've got Heracles—that's two Servants already."
Rin forgot her food, eyes shining.
"Next, we confront Kiritsugu and Irisviel—help her fix the Lesser Grail. Once that's settled, we can freely deal with the other Servants—no need to kill them all, we can negotiate too. Once they're handled, we win. Your families are safe, and all that's left is to cleanse the Grail."
PS: Three Chapters today. Got a bit stuck.