It was like a monster with intelligence. It quickly devoured and absorbed the King of Conquerors' soul, and then rushed straight toward Gilgamesh.
Everything happened too fast, so fast that no one present had time to react.
Gilgamesh simply watched the scene coldly.
He showed no panic at all. Behind him, golden ripples lit up one after another, and weapons coated in a golden glow shot rapidly toward Sajyou Manaka's direction.
Whoosh!
It was so fast that even Alvin hadn't expected Gilgamesh to make the first move against Sajyou Manaka.
Clearly, he had realized at a glance that the one controlling the black mud was Sajyou Manaka.
The golden Noble Phantasm pierced straight through Sajyou Manaka's heart.
The girl dropped to her knees, her body going limp.
A cold smile appeared on Gilgamesh's face, "Trying to deal with me using something like that? Aren't you underestimating me a bit too much?"
He had every right to say that. In the Holy Grail War, he stood at the very peak among Servants.
And dealing with a mere magus didn't require him to go all out.
Just the Gate of Babylon alone was enough to kill her.
Seeing this, Tohsaka Tokiomi felt an inexplicable sense of relief, followed by lingering fear.
Who would have thought that in the Holy Grail War, a Master would dare take the initiative to attack a Servant?
And that surge of magical energy just now… it had already far exceeded the scope of ordinary magi.
'Is this girl still even 'human'?'
Just as Tohsaka Tokiomi thought this, a chill suddenly ran down his back.
He turned his head sharply, his pupils shrinking as he shouted urgently, "My King, watch behind you!"
"What—"
Gilgamesh whipped his head around, only to see a dagger shooting toward his throat from the darkness.
Assassin!
After being devoured by the black mud, he hadn't died. Instead, he had been transformed into a corrupted Assassin, now clearly reduced to Sajyou Manaka's slave.
Gilgamesh didn't have time to dodge. He stepped back half a pace, but his throat was still cut open.
He looked down in disbelief at the blood flowing along his neck. Then, as if sensing something, he instinctively looked up ahead.
She had clearly been killed by a Noble Phantasm from the Gate of Babylon just now… yet at this moment, Sajyou Manaka stood there again, perfectly alive.
At her feet, at some unknown point, countless streams of black mud were surging, forming into eerily shaped 'shadows'.
Alvin froze for a moment, thinking to himself that he had only asked her to purify the Greater Grail. How did she end up directly turning the black mud into something she could use?
Sajyou Manaka looked around at the people present, lightly pursing her soft lips. Soon, a pure and charming smile blossomed on her face.
"Berserker, Assassin, Rider, and Archer. And if we add Caster and her Master, that should be enough for the Greater Grail to complete its final descent ritual, right?"
In fact, under normal logic, the ultimate goal of the Holy Grail War is to eliminate all other Servants, become the final victor, and claim the Greater Grail, the all-powerful wish-granting machine.
So even if Sajyou Manaka wanted to eliminate all the Servants present, there wouldn't be any issue.
If there had to be a problem, it would probably be… she had made far too many enemies.
If it were just one Servant, that would be one thing. But right now, there were more than four Servants gathered here.
And she actually planned to eliminate all of them by herself and send them into the Greater Grail?
Had she gone mad?
When they saw Sajyou Manaka take the initiative to attack Gilgamesh, almost everyone present had the same thought flash through their minds.
No matter how strong a Master was, they still had a human body. Once they suffered a fatal injury, not even a Command Seal could save them.
That was how it should have been.
But Sajyou Manaka had clearly taken a hit from the Gate of Babylon just now. It had even pierced her heart, yet she was still perfectly fine.
And… she had even launched a sneak attack on Gilgamesh.
At this moment, the black mud beneath Sajyou Manaka's feet had already condensed into bizarre figures. They stood in the night, as grotesque as ghosts.
The golden king stared in disbelief at the blood at his throat, then looked toward Sajyou Manaka with astonishment.
The mighty King of Heroes, a Servant standing at the very peak of the Holy Grail War, had actually been injured by a mere girl?
His first reaction was blank shock, followed by a surge of fury rising from deep within.
Buzz!
In the air, the Gate of Babylon appeared again. Within the golden ripples, the ultimate Noble Phantasm, EA, slowly emerged.
He gripped EA in his right hand, his anger reaching an unprecedented level, "You mongrel, how dare you—"
Before he could finish, several 'shadows' formed from black mud beside Sajyou Manaka shot forward. Countless blood-red bandages pierced through Gilgamesh's body from all directions.
Then, the shadows dragged the King of Heroes into the black mud.
As if sensing an unprecedented level of magical energy, the black mud began to tremble violently, as though it had gained human consciousness and was reveling in excitement.
This sudden turn of events left not only Tohsaka Tokiomi, Gilgamesh's Master, stunned, but even Alvin momentarily froze.
He had always believed in Sajyou Manaka's magical talent. He had believed she would be able to purify the Greater Grail and completely separate the black mud from it.
But Alvin had never imagined that her way of purifying the Greater Grail would be to strip the black mud away and make it her own.
If the rules of the Greater Grail were tampered with, Ishtar, as the Ruler, would inevitably notice.
So from the very beginning, Sajyou Manaka had never planned to tamper with the Greater Grail itself.
'Black mud,' in essence, was already a part of the Greater Grail. It could even be said to be one of its rules.
Any Servant summoned in this Holy Grail War could not oppose the black mud.
Of course, with Gilgamesh's ability, if he got serious, he could still break free, since Sajyou Manaka hadn't fully mastered this power yet.
However, from the start, Gilgamesh had never taken Sajyou Manaka seriously.
In the eyes of that proud golden king, the only person in this Holy Grail War worthy of fighting him was Saber. Only Alvin was worth using his strongest Noble Phantasm, EA, against.
Who would have thought that before he even fought Alvin, the oldest King of Heroes would already become one of the eliminated?
Silence spread through the courtyard. Several gazes fell on Sajyou Manaka, but no one spoke.
Tohsaka Tokiomi seemed unable to recover from Archer's elimination, or perhaps he simply couldn't accept it. Weber's face was filled with fear, while Morgan's gaze toward Sajyou Manaka was icy cold.
Artoria remained expressionless from start to finish.
Alvin instinctively looked at Sajyou Manaka, his lips parting, "Manaka…"
"Saber, aren't I amazing?"
Sajyou Manaka looked at Alvin with a sweet smile and said softly, "Once we send all these people into the Greater Grail, the purified Greater Grail will descend… and the 'black mud' problem you were worried about will be solved."
"Oh, and of course, you can rest assured. While this thing corrodes others' sanity, I'm not affected."
"When the Greater Grail descends, I'll personally place it in your hands."
At the end, the girl lifted her head and looked at him with a bright smile, her expression full of anticipation, as if asking for praise.
Alvin finally snapped out of his daze. Even he hadn't expected that asking Sajyou Manaka to purify the Greater Grail would result in her directly controlling the black mud as her own.
If she wanted to, she really could end the Holy Grail War overnight, just by making proper use of the black mud.
However, just as Alvin was about to speak, a faint smile suddenly appeared on Morgan's face.
"Black mud… in the end, it's just something stripped from the Greater Grail. That's why it can restrict Servants."
"But trying to win by relying on something like this, isn't that a bit too naive, Miss Sajyou?"
Behind Morgan le Fay, a dark magical aura quietly emerged.
At first, it was just a small glimmer. Then in less than half a second, that black light expanded rapidly, almost instantly covering the entire courtyard.
The pitch-black radiance blotted out the sky like a black sun, eerily striking in the snowy night.
A few seconds later, an overwhelming surge of magical energy spread out from Morgan, isolating the power of the black mud.
Weber stared at Morgan in shock. For a moment, he even wondered if he was dreaming.
'Why would a Master have such outrageous magical power?'
If it were just Sajyou Manaka, that would be one thing. But now even Caster's Master was the same.
'What exactly is going on?'
"So you're finally getting serious?"
Sajyou Manaka didn't seem surprised. She simply smiled as she looked at the enchanting woman before her, "But aren't you afraid of being restrained by the Counter Force?"
Since Morgan had come to the modern world from the end of the Age of Gods, her power as a mage from that era was far too great, so the Counter Force would impose restrictions on her.
"Servants may be restricted by the black mud, but you still can't fully control this power, can you?"
Morgan saw through Sajyou Manaka at a glance.
The girl narrowed her eyes, saying nothing.
"With Caster, and the Ruler outside likely to notice this soon… you don't have any chance of winning."
"Not to mention, he's here as well."
At the end, Morgan looked at Alvin.
Sajyou Manaka said expressionlessly, "He's my Servant… do you think he'd side with you?"
"That's not necessarily the case."
Morgan looked at the restless 'shadows' and smiled beautifully, "After all, I'm his lover."
"As for you—"
She glanced at her condescendingly, "Miss Sajyou, forgive me for being blunt, but you're just an outsider."
Sajyou Manaka didn't respond. She simply lifted her head and looked at Alvin.
For some reason, there seemed to be a trace of unease in her eyes.
Although she had been confident all along, and her strength did support that confidence, she still felt uneasy.
The last time Morgan invited Alvin to become her Servant, he had decisively refused her and chose Sajyou Manaka instead.
But back then, in order to stay with Alvin forever, she had faked her death and even kept it from him… which led to a breakdown of trust and eventually their separation.
Even though she was omniscient and omnipotent, she still wasn't certain that Alvin would firmly choose her again.
Morgan also looked at Alvin with a faint smile, as if saying: choose between me and her.
At that moment, an interface quietly appeared in his field of vision.
[On one side is your former lover and even your wife. On the other is your Master who longs to pursue 'the real thing' and is deeply obsessed with you. Please choose one of them as your companion in this Holy Grail War.]
[Different CGs and endings will be generated based on your choice. Please decide carefully.]
———
The night was deep and silent. The sky was heavy with clouds, and cold winds howled.
In such harsh conditions, let alone on a mountain, even people in the city would rarely go out at night.
But for Heroic Spirits, they didn't feel the cold of winter.
At this moment, a woman was sitting atop a snow-covered mountain, overlooking the city below in the night.
The cold wind brushed past her black twin-tails. She had a tall figure, and her crimson eyes in the darkness looked like rubies submerged in water, enchanting and vivid.
The woman wasn't wearing shoes. Her pale, delicate feet swung gently in the air.
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