Morpheus didn't interfere with Sakura Matou's choices. He knew Medea was assisting her and found it fitting... with Medea's support, Zouken Matou stood no chance of turning the tables.
In both strength and mastery of magecraft, Zouken was outmatched by Sakura and Medea.
Sensing the old man's death, Morpheus knew this Holy Grail War was nearing its end.
The Matou family would cease to be a magus lineage. Shinji Matou lacked magical talent, and the family's Magic Crest was passed to Sakura, who had no intention of perpetuating such vile practices. The Matou magecraft would die out.
Without the magus identity, Shinji was merely a distasteful but restrained human, aware of what actions would land him in trouble with the law. Morpheus understood this shift.
The magus identity had been the foundation for Shinji's arrogance, like claiming "I don't eat beef." Without it, he reverted to a mostly harmless ordinary person.
This world likely followed the standard timeline of the Fourth and Fifth Holy Grail Wars, but Morpheus's intervention had drastically altered its course. Per Nasuverse's rules, his interference birthed a unique parallel world, developing its own distinct future.
For now, Morpheus's focus wasn't on this but on the answers provided by the Holy Grail before him.
Dense streams of knowledge flooded his mind, answers to the questions in his notebook. Only four were addressed, but even one would have been a monumental gain.
The safest way to use the Grail was pure information exchange, avoiding requests for power. By framing questions within a familiar, safe scope, the risk of dangerous wish outcomes was minimized.
Even the Black Grail, tainted by All the World's Evil, couldn't twist wishes under such constraints, designed to thwart entities like demons.
Demons were the masters of twisting words.
Reviewing the Grail's answers, Morpheus nodded.
The information was vast and uncanny, as expected. Magic defied common sense, which wasn't truth but merely human experience summarized.
Truth required verification, and magic... operating as a glitch in the world... was like poison to human minds. Unfiltered, it could shatter one's sanity.
Among this toxic knowledge, the original texts were the most dangerous. The Grail's answers, filtered through its descriptions, were diluted versions of such texts.
Some distortion was inevitable, but this was safer than directly accessing the original, which might require sewing his eyes shut and months in a magic circle to purge the toxins.
"But Gilgamesh's stone sword is actually at the ocean's bottom? And it's just a stele, no blade…" Morpheus muttered, surprised. This question, perhaps the least valuable, was among the four answered.
The location was precise, down to a few meters.
The other three questions included two related ones: "Are all goddesses encompassed within the Mother Goddess concept?" and "Are all gods encompassed within the Father God concept?"
The Grail's answers were verbose, spanning thousands of words with dense theories. But through the lens of Morpheus's tradition... Kabbalah... the answer was singular.
All goddesses are contained within the Mother Goddess, and all gods within the Father God.
Thus, all goddesses reside in the supreme feminine, and all gods in the supreme masculine.
These correspond to the 8=3 and 9=2 positions, with the absolute, pure Monad at 10=1 above them.
Perhaps due to the Root's nature, the Grail could provide this answer, but higher truths were beyond even the Greater Grail.
This was enough for Morpheus, giving him greater confidence in his path.
The final question was: "The technique God used to create humans from clay, focusing solely on the body, not the soul... what is the closest technique or magical knowledge within your scope?"
With ample restrictions, the Grail's answer surprised him. It included alchemical method, which wasn't unexpected, but another method ranked higher, closer to divine creation.
Cloning technology!
By using magic to lock the brain, preventing consciousness, cloning could produce a body nearly identical to God's creation.
But this was the hardest step. Using magic or magecraft to prevent a soul's formation was immensely difficult and prone to failure.
"Your wish is fulfilled. Only a few of your questions were answered, but per your terms, it's complete," Angra Mainyu said, glancing at the Grail's void. "The path to the Root is open, awaiting the victor. Will you enter?"
"I've tried contacting the Root long ago, but it repels me. No need to try again," Morpheus said, shaking his head with a smile. Touching the Grail, connected to the Greater Grail, he pondered the system.
Gods linked to the Root to gain Authority, and the Grail did too, albeit like a hacker's exploit. Yet, its capabilities surpassed those of gods.
If someone perfected this technology and applied it to a human... not like Illya's flawed vessel but a refined structure... it might create a Mystic Code allowing direct Root connection and Authority acquisition.
Not like Shiki Ryougi's mode, but closer to the gods of the Age of Gods, perhaps freer.
A Mystic Code where anyone could become a god!
But, realizing such gods would still be bound by the Root, Morpheus shook his head, dismissing the idea.
The ceiling was too low, akin to the Third Magic's effect... not worth pursuing.
"Your sister's there." Angra Mainyu pointed nearby. As the black sludge receded, a female figure emerged... Bazett, missing one arm.
"Thanks for saving her. She's too naive, easily deceived," Morpheus said, bowing courteously to Angra Mainyu.
"Having someone to talk to kept me from being too lonely, though she was unconscious most of the time and didn't chat much," Angra Mainyu said, shaking its head. It looked skyward, its form fading, drifting toward the void.
"This summoning is complete. The Grail's ritual is fully realized, so I'll finally disappear." As it spoke, a light... or a light orb... floated from the void.
The orb descended slowly toward Morpheus.
Seeing its sudden appearance with a clear target, Angra Mainyu paused, then laughed. "Something's come for you... from outside this world."
"It's an alarm clock, or a coordinate," Morpheus said, watching the orb land in his hand and vanish, feeling its energy. It was a guide, as if saying, "You can stay a few more days, then it's time to leave."
"Do you know who sent it?" Angra Mainyu asked, nearly gone but eager for the answer, knowing it'd haunt it on the Throne otherwise.
"Maybe my future self, or Alaya, or perhaps the Human Order," Morpheus listed, then added, "Or possibly Yog-Sothoth."
"So many possibilities, especially the last. If it's Him, you've been marked."
With that, Angra Mainyu vanished completely. Another light orb fell from its departure point, landing in Morpheus's hand.
Unlike the prior orb, this was a unique magecraft, crafted via the Grail's power, containing Irisviel's memories... not Angra Mainyu's.
With Irisviel's memories secured, Morpheus channeled his mana, using Sariel's power to capture her soul within the Grail.
This was the simplest step. As the Grail disintegrated, Irisviel's soul, unbound, was easily seized.
But others were affected too.
"I knew it. He completed the Grail's ritual, which is why we're in this state," Medea's voice rang out. Watching Morpheus capture the soul, she smiled. "The contract's over. Staying means draining our Masters' mana. Anyone leaving?"
Cú Chulainn, surprised, approached the woman on the ground, helping her up and setting her aside. "She's still alive!"
"Can't you say something else to your descendant?" Morpheus teased, then added, "You can leave later when mana runs out, but now's the most comfortable time to go. Anyone leaving?"
"I'm out. Nothing left to do here," Cú Chulainn said, tossing his hair. "I feel we'll meet again. Let's fight next time!"
"If we get the chance," Morpheus replied, watching Cú Chulainn leap, turning into light particles and vanishing into the void.
Artoria hesitated, then stepped forward.
"You've made your choice?" Morpheus asked.
"I've had new thoughts... or maybe I've come to terms," Artoria said. "But I have one question you might answer."
"Ask."
"If I went back and changed my fate, would I alter the original history?"
"No. You'd create a new timeline, a new development. The original outcome you know would persist, coexisting as two worlds... parallel worlds."
Artoria sighed, then smiled faintly. "If so, there's no need to change anything. Besides, even without that, there's no need… This world's pretty good."
Creating a new timeline wouldn't save her fallen kingdom... it would remain destroyed. A new, unruined timeline felt like self-deception. But truly altering the past to affect the future would erase this world's people, replacing them with a different future.
A future Artoria might once have pursued without hesitation. But the longer she stayed in this era, the more she wavered.
Unless she were a madwoman willing to erase billions of unrelated lives.
Thankfully, she wasn't.
Morpheus smiled, watching her depart.
***
If you enjoyed this story, don't forget to drop 5 stars and your power stone. And if you want to read more than 70 chapters in advance, feel free to visit: pat reon . com / KangTL