Jesus: What do I think? I think I'll sit back and watch.
Of course, the above was merely Souya's imagination.
If you were to seriously ask whether Jesus truly existed in this world, Souya's answer would definitely be yes.
After all, the Stigma on the back of his neck was excellent proof.
As for whether it might just be a regular scar?
Souya would simply say you were being ridiculous. Since when did a random scar turn you into a superhuman? Let alone one that ached whenever you made dark jokes about Jesus, filling your heart with feelings of remorse and shame.
It was as if Jesus was saying:
I gave you My gaze and power, and not only do you disrespect Me, you make dark jokes about Me! How can you be so selfish!
Pfft! As if!
Regardless, from that day onward, Souya never dared to make jokes about his Lord again, terrified He might take the Stigma back in a fit of displeasure.
However, if you asked whether the Lord was constantly watching him and listening to his inner thoughts, Souya felt that was highly unlikely.
After all, as everyone knew, Jesus in the Type-Moon universe was basically a giant slacker. All He did was eat, sleep, and maybe go to the docks to score some fries.
At most, He might pay attention to what color underwear His Saintess was wearing today.
Anyway, Souya figured that even if he really managed to flirt with Joan of Arc, nothing major would happen.
If the Lord truly cared about such things, that bullshit Sieg wouldn't have been able to trick Joan into his arms so easily.
All in all, Souya accepted the fact that he was in the Fate/Apocrypha timeline quite rapidly.
After all, this wasn't a certain American Holy Grail War. No matter how fierce the fighting got, it was still just a battle between Servants and magi. It wouldn't end up like the beautiful US government directly deploying an army of "Fat Men" and "Little Boys" to give the entire Snowfield City a high-explosive baptism.
Furthermore, the current Souya was fairly confident in his own strength. Counting the Subcategory Holy Grail Wars he had overseen, he had clashed with Servants a fair number of times.
Although he wasn't strong enough to fight top-tier Servants like Karna, Achilles, or Siegfried, dealing with someone like Jack the Ripper was more than enough.
Thus, after learning from the Church that he was to head to Romania as a backup overseer alongside his older brother, Amakusa Shirou, Souya had packed his bags early.
Tonight was his final night before departing for Romania.
The thought that the characters and stories he had only ever seen in anime were about to unfold right before his eyes filled Souya's heart with anticipation.
Harboring that restless, beating heart, Souya slowly drifted to sleep, soothed by the rhythmic chirping of cicadas outside his window.
However, while his surface consciousness fell into slumber, his deeper mind was awakened.
Like a drowning man resurfacing, Souya's consciousness became active again after a brief period of hazy greyness.
But what appeared before him was no longer the dark brown, European-style wooden room of his inn. Instead, it was an expanse of boundless white, seemingly enveloped in thick fog.
And within that whiteness lay the nine white marble paths stretching out from beneath his feet into the distance.
If an ordinary person faced this scene, they would probably be horrified, wondering if they had been kidnapped or encountered some supernatural phenomenon. Souya, however, appeared extremely calm—practiced, even.
Without a shred of hesitation, he bent his legs, sat cross-legged on the ground, and began to meditate.
Clearly, this wasn't his first time here.
To be precise, ever since Souya crossed over into this world, he visited this place every single night. This was obviously his dreamscape.
At first, he thought he had transmigrated again. Then, he thought this was his cheat ability. But no matter how he explored it, he found absolutely nothing useful.
In this white world, there was nothing besides the nine marble paths beneath his feet.
Souya had tried to leave and explore this world, but no matter how he walked, it felt as if he was merely marching in place.
Visually, he felt he had walked very far, but the nine paths remained right in front of him, right beneath his feet.
Souya had also tried walking on these paths, but regardless of which one he chose, he couldn't take a single step forward. Over time, he gave up on exploring the area and simply sat in place to meditate, waiting for his consciousness to wake up in the real world.
He had persisted in this routine for exactly twenty years.
Time flowed like water, ticking by second by second. Sensing he was about to wake up, the meditating Souya opened his eyes.
He cast one last glance at the nine paths extending into the whiteness, leading to an unseen destination. His consciousness gradually blurred, returning to his physical body.
For some reason, Souya always had a premonition that one day, he would walk to the end of these nine paths.
These paths felt like a part of his body. Perhaps, only after reaching the end of all nine paths would he become truly complete.
Or perhaps, that would be the day he became a "Saint."
Waking up, Souya showed no intention of sleeping in. He quickly finished washing up, then grabbed his weapon case—issued by the Church to Executors and containing several Black Keys—and headed for Fiumicino Airport.
A direct flight to Romania awaited his arrival.
It was worth mentioning that, unlike the Mage's Association—which looked down on modern technology and maintained the ideology that Magecraft reigned supreme—the Holy Church was extremely tolerant of modern tech.
In their eyes, whether it was Magecraft or modern firearms, they were all simply tools to spread the Lord's will and dispose of heretics.
Take Souya, for instance. During his heretic purges, he would use magic bullets to destroy the enemy's life force, and he would also use a sniper rifle to take them out from afar.
Either way, it didn't stop him from sending them to hell while shouting Hallelujah.
Arriving at the airport and boarding the plane without a hitch, Souya couldn't hide his excitement. Following the attendant's guidance, he retrieved a black briefcase from the plane's safe.
The reason he had rushed to the airport immediately upon waking, skipping even a local Italian breakfast, was precisely because of this briefcase.
Or rather, the item inside it.
Let me ask you: if you were participating in a Holy Grail War, what should you prepare?
Aside from special circumstances, like needing a bulletproof vest for the Fourth War, the unquestionable answer was a catalyst.
The function of a catalyst need not be elaborated upon. As mentioned earlier, Souya's current department in the Holy Church was the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament, responsible for managing and collecting sacred relics. Consequently, he had recently applied for a batch of backup catalysts.
Their quality was naturally far superior to those used in the Subcategory Wars he had previously overseen.
And the catalyst within this black briefcase—carefully selected after meticulous consideration of various factors in the upcoming Great War in Romania—was undoubtedly the best choice.
It belonged to Morgan le Fay—the legendary enchantress, the witch of British Arthurian myth who, despite limited appearances, could never be ignored, and the ruler of the island who captivated the souls of countless Type-Moon fans.
Souya's reasoning for choosing Morgan was thoroughly justified.
Firstly, as Amakusa Shirou's little brother, he was naturally a Master of the Red Faction. Among the seven Red Servants, the Assassin class was already reserved for the Empress by Amakusa Shirou, leaving no room for contention.
Lancer Karna and Rider Achilles were overwhelmingly powerful fighters, meaning there was absolutely no reason to replace them.
As for the Archer class, Atalante, Souya admitted he had zero resistance against the cat-eared hunter. Given his obsession with maxing out the Bond levels of both her Archer and Berserker forms in FGO, he naturally gave her a pass.
That left the Saber, Caster, and Berserker classes.
Truth be told, his trip to Italy this time, aside from cleaning up heretics who dared to make moves under the Church's nose, had another objective: obtaining the catalyst for his intended Saber, Emperor Nero.
In the end, he did manage to acquire a piece of rubble from a statue said to be Nero's favorite in life. But after much deliberation, he gave up on summoning the "Umu" Emperor as a Saber, saving it for next time.
After all, Souya actually liked the original Saber, Mordred, both in terms of strength and personal preference. Coupled with the fact that her Master, Kairi Sisigou, was one of the few Masters in Fate/Apocrypha Souya genuinely respected, he decided to save Nero's catalyst for the future.
He hadn't even touched the giant rock yet anyway; it was better to keep it safely stored in Rome for now.
As for choosing Morgan, aside from the fact that as a witch she could be a Caster, and as an enchantress she had a chance of being a Berserker, the main reason was that the original Red Caster was completely useless.
Right, dear Shakespeare?
Setting aside the fact that almost all the duties he was supposed to handle as a Caster were done by the Assassin Empress, Shakespeare's combat strength as a Servant was just too low.
Writer Heroic Spirits were inherently limited in combat power. Their fighting style in a Holy Grail War mostly involved buffing their Master or familiars.
In this Great War, if Shakespeare had been in the Black Faction, he might have emulated Alexandre Dumas from the American war next door and buffed the Yggdmillennia homunculi to fight.
But he just had to be in the manpower-starved Red Faction. Thus, aside from occasionally harassing Joan with his Noble Phantasm, Shakespeare's role in the original story was mostly eating popcorn, recording the tale, and enjoying the show.
Souya planned to just replace the guy entirely. With the Empress and Morgan for crowd control, and Karna and Achilles for fighting, how could the Red Faction possibly lose?
The dragon is riding their faces, sir.
For now, since Souya had nothing to do on the flight anyway, he might as well inspect the goods.
Time for an unboxing!
Slowly opening the black briefcase, a piece of black, translucent silk veil caught his eye.
Staring at the veil, Souya could almost picture the enchantress, radiating both sex appeal and mystery, standing atop a castle. Her beautiful, spectral-blue eyes gazed through the veil at the land that haunted her soul, the land that should have been hers.
Sister...
Souya sighed softly. The quality of this veil was surprisingly high; he could even sense faint remnants of mystery clinging to it.
This was undoubtedly a top-tier catalyst. Using it would almost guarantee the summoning of the Heroic Spirit connected to it.
Not bad. As expected of the Holy Church: Church products are guaranteed to be top-notch.
Souya slowly reached out, unable to resist touching the veil.
Almost the instant his fingers brushed the fabric, an abrupt sound echoed through his mind.
"Ding!"
This annoying sound is...
[Crossing the long river of space and time, even if I exist in the distant beyond, I will eventually encounter you!]
[You've waited a long time, Host. Your loyal partner, your reliable cheat, the System that will guide you forward, has arrived!]
[Let us march toward the stars and the sea together! O Host of mine]
Souya's face was a mask of sheer astonishment. His consciousness shifted rapidly. The airplane cabin before his eyes quickly vanished, replaced by the nine paths that should have existed only in his dreams.
But at this very moment, the white fog obscuring the first path was gradually dissipating, revealing a visible marble road leading straight into the distance.
"Holy shit, I heard the echo of the System!"