Shinji's mindset was thrown off balance; everything seemed too coincidental.
The Old Man Jewel's Second Magic can observe parallel worlds, and he had mentioned that the Holy Grail, an artifact created with the Third Magic, is extremely important. This meant he would never relax his monitoring of the Holy Grail War and would certainly be aware of Shirou's anomalies—transmigration inherently involves time and space, which fall under the scope of his Second Magic.
Yet, he hadn't said anything to Shinji, merely throwing him into the Holy Grail War without any prior knowledge, leading him to be successfully schemed against by another transmigrator. This approach naturally led to negative speculations.
For instance, perhaps he ultimately needed only one transmigrator, so he used a method akin to raising Gu (a poison derived from having multiple poisonous creatures fight until one survives) to determine the strongest among them. Or maybe Zelretch only needed Justeaze's soul to return to the untainted Greater Grail. Thinking deeper, the contract between himself and Justeaze might also have been orchestrated by Zelretch to utilize the unique nature of his soul to safely bring Justeaze into this world.
Of course, another possibility existed: Zelretch might have been careless, or Shirou hid too well for him to notice anything unusual at the start. But now that Shirou's true nature was exposed and he still hadn't appeared, it could be seen as a form of abandonment—an abandonment of this world line.
Shinji wasn't being pessimistic; Zelretch had done something similar before. In Fate/Strange fake, he abandoned a world line because of the premature awakening of a certain big spider.
Regardless of the scenario, it signaled that Shinji had hit a dead end. His only remaining hope lay with the Counter Force—the Counter Force of Gaia, which prevents planetary destruction, the Counter Force of Alaya, which prevents human extinction, and the Counter Force responsible for maintaining the Holy Grail War itself.
The representatives of the first two are the observer Artoria and the adjudicator Jeanne.
Jeanne was the first to act. She bit her lip, staring intently at the boy who appeared even younger than she did.
"I'll ask you again, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, were you being honest just now?"
"To be saying such things at this point, you're truly adorably naive, Saint Jeanne."
Shirou laughed as if he were very pleased.
"Alright, since you insist, I'll tell you that I was deceived. It was that woman, Semiramis; she seduced me, incited me, and pushed the pure-hearted me onto the path of world destruction."
Instead of getting angry, the named Semiramis chuckled softly.
"Master, you really are—"
Shakespeare also burst into laughter, even louder and more unrestrained than Semiramis.
"Hahaha, interesting, so interesting! Master, it's a pity you aren't a stage actor. Deception, seduction, incitement, and yet calling yourself pure-hearted. Hahaha, I can't take it, let me catch my breath and write this down. Yes, I must jot this down immediately; it's perfect material."
At this point, everyone knew Shirou wasn't telling the truth, even without the human lie detector Karna confirming it. Even if the Assyrian Empress was capable of such deeds, Shirou's words were false.
"Are you mocking me, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada?"
Jeanne's face showed a hint of anger.
"Yes, yes, I'm mocking you. If you're unhappy about it—"
Shirou gestured for Jeanne to come over, his exaggerated action and ridiculous expression making him look incredibly punchable.
"—Come hit me!"
Then there was a thud—don't misunderstand, Shirou wasn't knocked down by Jeanne, nor did Shirou knock down Jeanne. It was Shakespeare, laughing so hard he convulsed and fell down the stairs.
This minor interlude didn't affect Jeanne. Once she confirmed Shirou's true intentions, she had already made her decision.
"Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, you've violated the rules of the Holy Grail War. You are my enemy."
"So, what do you plan to do?"
Shirou remained calm.
With a clear voice, the Saint of France declared:
"I, Ruler Jeanne d'Arc, by the authority of my Command Spells, hereby order all Servants gathered here: defeat Amakusa Shirou Tokisada immediately!"
The Command Spells engraved on her back emitted a brilliant light.
Black Saber Siegfried, Black Archer Chiron, Black Lancer Artoria, Black Caster Avicebron, Black Assassin Matou Shinji, Red Archer Atalanta, Red Lancer Karna, Red Rider Achilles, Red Caster Shakespeare, and Red Assassin Semiramis were all bound by chains of restraint.
These chains enhanced the Servants' abilities when attacking Shirou but would slow their movements and significantly weaken their attacks if they tried to fight against the opposing camp.
Given this, it was clear whom they should fight. Moreover, most of those present were heroes, and fighting against a villain intending to destroy the world was their duty.
"I won't let you destroy the world!"
Atalanta swiftly drew her bow, her arrow imbued with a chilling hostility.
Her intent was pure—she wished for a world where all children could be happy. Someone trying to destroy that world was something she could not tolerate!
Achilles was equally quick to act, already suspecting that this priest was up to no good, and now he had finally shown his true colors.
The two fastest Servants in this battle pointed their weapons at Shirou's vitals almost simultaneously. However, before they could launch their attacks, both suddenly bent their knees with pained expressions and stopped.
"Ugh... What... is this...!?"
"Is it the Master...!?"
It wasn't just them; Semiramis, Shakespeare, and Karna were also affected.
In other words, all the Red faction's Servants had become extremely weakened at the same time.
"What have you done?"
Jeanne's face was filled with uncertainty, and the Black faction's Servants halted their attacks due to the unusual situation.
The questioned youth chuckled, then unbuttoned a few buttons on his clerical robe. Everyone gasped as they saw his exposed collarbone.
Red Archer, Red Rider, Red Berserker, Red Caster, Red Assassin—excluding the one used earlier to restore a katana, there were a total of seventeen Command Spells, neatly arranged.
"Amakusa Shirou Tokisada... what have you done to our Masters!?"
Despite her weakened state, Atalanta's gaze remained as sharp as a beast's, as if she could tear out his throat with a bite.
"You mean former Masters, don't you?"
"Who knows? You might still find some remnants in the dragon-wing soldiers' nest."
"You!!!"