Meanwhile, in a safehouse somewhere in Germany, Kiritsugu Emiya was on an encrypted line with his assistant, Maiya Hisau, assigning the search for Irisviel and Rei Ao.
"…Focus your sweep toward Fuyuki City. That's the last place the man mentioned.
Mobilize every—"
Suddenly his words cut off. A stabbing agony—like a piece of his soul being torn away—ripped through the back of his right hand.
"Ugh—!"
Kiritsugu grunted; the phone slipped from his grasp and clattered to the floor. He jerked up his right hand. The three Command Seals—the very marks that carried his hopes of entering the Holy Grail War—were fading like washed-out ink, their edges blurring before his eyes.
"No! That's impossible!"
For the first time, panic and disbelief broke across his usually impassive face. He tried to steady the marks with prana, but it was like trying to catch the moon with bare hands—utterly futile.
In mere seconds, the three Seals vanished completely under his desperate stare. The back of his hand was smooth again, as if they had never existed.
From the other end came Maiya's puzzled voice: "Kiritsugu? What happened?"
"…," Kiritsugu said nothing. He could only stare at the empty back of his hand, face drained of color, cold sweat soaking his spine.
The loss of the Command Seals meant the loss of his status as a Master—and of his ticket to the Holy Grail War. His path to the Grail, to world peace, had been severed before it even began.
That man. It had to be him.
He'd taken Irisviel—and now he'd stripped Kiritsugu of his Seals. He hadn't seen how, but he knew the culprit, and he knew the result.
A killing chill and a tidal fury, mixed with the despair of a plan in ruins, swallowed Kiritsugu whole.
…
In the quiet room, Irisviel—elated yet a little spent from her first successful summoning and her bond with the legendary King of Knights—had, at Rei Ao's urging, retired to rest.
Under the lamplight, only Rei Ao and the newly summoned King of Knights remained—Saber.
Saber stood silently in the garden, feeling the breath of this era—and the unfathomable aura emanating from the man before her, a force wholly unlike any system of power she knew. He wasn't a Master, and yet he seemed to hold sway even over the one who was.
"Sir, who are you?" Saber spoke first, emerald eyes keenly fixed on Rei Ao. As a battle-hardened king, her intuition was razor sharp. Though the summoning had furnished her with this world's knowledge, she still felt Rei Ao was out of joint with everything she knew.
Rei Ao wasn't surprised she perceived as much. He smiled slightly. "As expected of the King of Knights—keen intuition. The truth is, I'm not from this world."
Saber didn't bother to question the claim. "You seem…to know a great deal," she continued. She could see it in his gaze—that he already knew her identity, her past, and even…her wish.
"I know your wish, Artoria Pendragon," Rei Ao said, speaking her true name. "You want the Grail to change Britain's fate and deny your past as king."
Saber trembled, her eyes growing more solemn. "So you do know. Then tell me—do you think my wish is wrong? I can see that in your eyes."
"Wishes themselves aren't right or wrong," Rei Ao said, stepping to her side to look up at the stars with her. "But the Grail you're pinning your hopes on can no longer grant any pure wish."
He turned his head, regarding her fine-boned profile. "The Fuyuki Grail was tainted by the Evil of This World during the Third Holy Grail War. It's no longer an omnipotent wishing machine, but a source of calamity steeped in curses and malice. Whoever wins—whatever wish they make—it will be twisted, realized in the worst way, bringing greater ruin and despair.
"You wish to save Britain through it? The end result may well be Britain destroyed in a more tragic, more humiliating way—and the harm might even spread to the entire world."
"—!"
His words struck her heart like a hammer. Saber's green eyes widened, shock and doubt surging within. "The Grail…tainted? The Evil of This World?" To her, it was a bolt from the blue. The goal for which she had fought and sacrificed—false and dangerous from the very start?
"No…how could that be…" she murmured, fists clenching, body trembling. If the Grail couldn't grant wishes, what meaning did her summons hold? What had all her persistence been for?
Seeing how the blow had shaken her, Rei Ao gentled his tone. "I know it's hard to accept. But it's the truth, Artoria. I've no need to deceive you. Sometimes clinging to changing the past isn't true salvation. Facing it, accepting it, and making different choices in the future—that may be the real courage."
Saber fell into deep silence. Rei Ao's words upended convictions she'd held for so long, leaving her with an unfamiliar confusion—and vulnerability.
Just then—
Knock, knock.
A soft rapping broke the stillness. "Rei Ao-san, are you asleep?" Irisviel's voice—she seemed unable to sleep.
In an instant, Saber drew her exposed feelings back in, resuming her usual regal, untouchable poise. With a flicker, she turned to spirit form and vanished into the air. She wasn't yet used to revealing too much of herself before her Master.