Chapter 74: The Dream Continues
As the Reality Marble shattered like glass, Waver found himself standing once again before the steel bridge. With the defeat of Iskandar, the thousands of warriors of Ionioi Hetairoi dissipated, turning into specks of light that surged into the night sky, adorning the vast sea of stars.
At this moment, under the absolute silence of the night, Waver stood alone with his shadow. Though the boisterous noise was gone, and the Waver of old should have been used to solitude, he found himself utterly unable to adjust to it now. The winter chill, mingled with an unprecedented loneliness, gradually closed in around him.
However, he did not feel cold. Inside, a fire was burning.
Sand and wind will eventually bury everything. The world will quiet the hot-blooded heart. All things return to silence. But some things can never be extinguished.
At the end of the Endless Sea, there will surely be the King's footprints. In every corner of the world, the King's poems will surely be sung. At the end of the golden kingly road, there will surely be that flaming red cloak—snapping and fluttering vividly against the shouts of the people and the sea breeze.
The dream continues. Now, it is his turn.
Waver closed his eyes slightly, feeling the surge and throb in his heart like crashing waves. Then, a voice reached his ears.
"Aren't you going to run?" Shirou asked.
Hearing the voice, Waver looked up at the red-haired youth. The other appeared to be about his age, yet in terms of power and presence, Shirou completely overwhelmed him. But Waver did not shrink back; he lifted his face and stared straight into those brown eyes.
"I am his subject," he said decisively.
Hearing this, Shirou's brow twitched slightly.
'This pair really had a bond to be reckoned with...'
Shirou let out a soft breath, then turned around, speaking without looking back.
"Go. Rider has been defeated, so you are no longer a threat. Besides, killing you serves no purpose for me."
Waver was not an evil person like Ryuunosuke Uryuu, so after Rider's defeat, Shirou no longer viewed him as an opponent.
"Let's go, Saber."
At Shirou's call, the blonde girl nodded and quickly caught up with his pace. Standing where he was, Waver watched the two figures gradually recede. He knew in his heart that those two were not evil; they were only opponents because of their differing positions.
Because of this, Waver's heart felt conflicted and full of mixed emotions. But if he were without feeling, how could he call himself a subject? Waver clenched his fists.
He understood perfectly that the magus ahead of him was a master of a Great Magecraft—a Reality Marble—whose strength was already on par with a Heroic Spirit.
Or rather... could this person even be called a magus? Still a child, yet possessing a Reality Marble and strength comparable to a Servant. What kind of change such a person would bring to the world in the future was entirely unknown.
His current self—no, even his future self—would likely never be able to defeat him, no matter how hard he worked. But if he gave up now, he would be unworthy of being that man's subject. With this thought, he cast a deep, lingering look at the retreating youth's silhouette, then turned and walked away with a look of resolve.
Waver did not yet know that upon his return to the Clock Tower, he would be swept into a different kind of storm.
.
.
.
At this moment, Shirou felt the biting wind raging around him and looked up toward Mount Enzou. In the sky above the mountain, a black sun had appeared.
"Seeing you for the second time, All the World's Evil," Shirou said, his gaze resolute as he stared at the black solar disc hanging in the sky.
In reality, that black sun was a "hole." It was a spatial tunnel connected to the Greater Grail's magic circle, hidden beneath the ritual altar and Mount Enzou. Having absorbed the energy of the leylines for sixty years and now filled with the souls of six Heroic Spirits, the interior of the Greater Grail was filled to the brim, turning into a massive whirlpool of magical energy. This was the true form of the black "hole."
The "vessel" taken from the Einzbern homunculus was merely the key to open that hole and the control device to keep it stable.
Shirou narrowed his eyes at the sight. They were not far from Ryuudou Temple; a short walk would take them there.
"There are no other enemies left... which means the Holy Grail is finally about to manifest."
Hearing Shirou's voice, Saber's eyes lit up. At the thought of her wish finally being granted, her heart was filled with excitement mixed with a hint of nervousness. Whether the Grail, the so-
called "omnipotent wish-granting machine," could truly grant her wish would soon be revealed.
"Then let us go there now!" Saber said with some agitation.
Seeing the girl so excited, Shirou's mouth opened and closed slightly, but he eventually nodded.
"Yeah, let's go."
As they walked toward Ryuudou Temple, Saber's gaze remained fixed forward, paying attention to nothing else.
"Saber, there is something I want to tell you."
"What is it?" Saber looked at Shirou with confusion.
"The Grail as it is now... is no longer pure."
Shirou tilted his head, prompting Saber to look up at the "hole" in the sky.
"The Grail was indeed an almost omnipotent wish-granting machine originally, using massive mana to realize desires. But all of that changed drastically starting with the Third Holy Grail War..."
During the Third War, the Einzbern family, unskilled in combat magecraft, used a foreign scripture as a catalyst to summon a nameless anti-hero as an Avenger: Angra Mainyu.
The Servant of the eighth class, "Avenger," whose true name was Angra Mainyu, is Absolute Evil—the sum of all the malice in the human world. When this Servant was defeated, his soul was absorbed by the Grail. Normally, a defeated Heroic Spirit loses their personality and is absorbed as pure energy, but since Angra Mainyu was a collective wish himself, his entry into the Grail was equivalent to a wish being made.
The Grail, which then possessed the true power to grant wishes, accepted him as a wish and activated its function. As a result, Angra Mainyu, as "All the World's Evil," was granted a fleshly body within the Grail—becoming a successful instance of the Third Magic, Heaven's Feel. However, this body was not a completion of Heaven's Feel, but merely a restoration of his original attribute: "to kill everything in the world."
Because he was absorbed, and because his soul was Absolute Evil, the colorless power of the Grail was contaminated. Since then, the Fuyuki Grail has been a whirlpool of malignant power.
"While the Grail's function of granting the winner's wish hasn't changed, because of 'All the World's Evil,' no matter what wish is made, it will be infused with 'endless malice.' It often manifests in a way that brings only destruction and disaster.
Therefore, once the current Grail is released, 'All the World's Evil' (Angra Mainyu) will flow out, spreading endless malice until all of humanity is destroyed."
After hearing Shirou's explanation, Saber felt her footing grow unsteady. "..."
Her grip on her sword tightened. She looked toward the mountaintop with a complicated gaze. Even after hearing this from Shirou, she still wanted to see the Grail with her own eyes. Even if she knew it was impossible, a sliver of hope remained.
Sensing the girl's state of mind, Shirou sighed softly.
"In any case, let's extract Irisviel's soul first."
"Yes... you're right. Irisviel is still waiting for us." Saber nodded, her brow furrowed, as she gripped her sword even tighter.
"Let's go."
Soon, they reached Ryuudou Temple via the mountain path. Saber, walking in front, reached out with a trembling hand to push open the gates. Upon seeing the scene inside, her eyes widened.
"That is... Irisviel..."
Shirou hurried in behind her and saw the body of the silver-haired woman lying on a platform at the top of the stairs deep within the temple. No—that body was already turning cold. Irisviel, as the "Lesser Grail," had lost all signs of life. After absorbing the souls of six Servants, her internal organs had long since reverted to the form of the Grail's vessel.
The sealing spells had vanished. Due to the convergence of massive magical energy, the aftershocks brought a searing heat to the surroundings. The beautiful homunculus's remains were incinerated in an instant, turning to ash.
And it didn't stop there. The golden cup, upon contact with the outside air, scorched the floor and curtains. Raging flames swept across the empty stage. On the burning stage, the golden cup floated in mid-air as if held by invisible hands.
The descent ceremony of the Holy Grail—the dream of the Founding Three Houses—had begun quietly, even without a priest. Then, from that golden cup, an seemingly endless black, viscous substance began to pour out. It looked very much like "mud"—black, purely black, a mud-like "object."
The black mud, infused with endless evil, instantly turned into waves and overflowed from the cup, eroding everything it touched like lava. Neither the floor nor steel could withstand the mud; they melted the moment they were touched.
Seeing this black sludge, Saber's face twisted in disgust at the thought that the thing she pursued was overflowing with such filth.
"Is this 'All the World's Evil'?"
"Yeah. Irisviel's soul should be inside that cup right now. I hope it's not too late."
At this moment, Shirou ignored the encroaching black mud, walked up the steps, and reached his hand out toward the Holy Grail.
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