Iori also rose up and released his final Noble Phantasm: "[Boundary Sword: Ame-no-Murakumo no Tsurugi]!"
Thunder lit up the entire world.
The authority and power of the King of Gods turned into a physical embodiment of destruction.
Dazzling light overturned the heavens, like hundreds of lightning dragons twisting through the sky.
Violent winds and water vapor formed pitch-black storm clouds, manifesting a mythical superstorm.
It churned the boundless sea of flames, destroying both sky and earth together, turning everything into a scorched hell.
Thunder and fire twisted together like dragons and serpents. A blinding white aurora swallowed everything...
The world instantly dimmed.
Everything seemed to turn black and white. Then even the outlines of objects gradually blurred. Sound disappeared as well. In both sight and mind, only a dead silence remained…
Who knew how long passed before a faint cough reached his ears, making Ritsuka slowly try to open his eyes.
The young war god stood firm on the half-melted ground. His condition could not be called good.
There was hardly any intact skin left on his body. The large-scale burns made him look like a demon that had crawled out of hell.
But in comparison, Karna looked even more miserable…
After losing his golden armor, this Lancer's defense was nearly nonexistent. Just being swept by the aftershock had already left his body charred black, his flesh torn open... yet the smile on his face was unexpectedly gentle.
During the battle with Karna, Iori's Ame-no-Murakumo sword and the god-slaying spear collided. Both carried the attribute of the "Thunder of the King of Gods," which invisibly weakened the intensity of their clash.
Otherwise, at such close range, it would probably have been hard to even leave a complete corpse behind…
The energy released by the collision of Noble Phantasms completely destroyed this land. Even the raised edges of the crater had been melted again. Now it was truly on the verge of being flattened.
"Looks like we're both going down together…"
"This kind of ending… isn't so bad."
Karna smiled with relief and gentleness. His magical energy was completely exhausted, his spiritual core damaged.
He could no longer hold on. Calmly accepting death, his body turned into spiritual light and gradually dispersed.
Iori turned back and looked at Ritsuka with apology. "Sorry for causing you trouble, Master of Chaldea. Didn't expect it would end like this."
"Berserker, you…"
"Looks like the Holy Grail War ritual ultimately failed… Not surprising though. After all, too many existences appeared that went beyond the original framework. Besides, the Einzbern wish itself was somewhat absurd…"
"Are you saying you knew it would fail, and only did this for your own Master…" Ritsuka trailed off.
Iori smiled slightly and turned toward the now dim and lusterless Greater Grail.
At that very moment, a cherry-colored petal drifted down beside his ear…
Beep! Beep! Beep!!!
The communicator on Ritsuka's wrist suddenly rang wildly, and an anxious female voice came from inside.
"Ritsuka and Mash, can you hear me?!"
"Da Vinci-chan?" The orange-haired girl and the Demi-Servant naturally recognized the voice. It was Chaldea's technical specialist, Da Vinci.
The usually calm and composed profiteer now sounded extremely agitated. "Get ready. Spiritron transfer is about to begin!"
"Wha… spiritron transfer?" The two girls looked stunned. "What's going on? Wasn't this Singularity supposed to..."
"That Singularity has already been successfully repaired and is returning to a normal world... at least that's what our instruments show."
"[Chaldeas] and [Sheba] can't be wrong… You must come back immediately, or you'll be erased by the 'world's corrective force'!"
"This…"
Ritsuka hesitated for a moment, but still chose to trust Da Vinci, and in the end took one last deep look at Iori's back.
"Alright, begin the transfer!"
———
"The 'guests' have left?"
"Seems so… How does it feel?"
Iori entered the interior of the Greater Grail. Looking at the back of a woman wearing a gorgeous mage robe, he asked, "This body is quite convenient, isn't it? Sella."
With the corners of her lips lifting into a happy curve, Sella slowly turned around. Her gem-clear eyes were not lifeless like those of ordinary homunculi.
Instead they were full of emotion. The way she looked at Iori carried an indescribable gentleness.
But when she saw how miserable he looked now, she couldn't help but feel heartache. With guilt, she said, "If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have…"
"This is a necessary price." Iori shook his head. "This battle had to happen no matter what. Don't think too much about it."
"Even if you say that… then let me make up for it a little."
Sella took a light step forward and came in front of Iori. She raised her hand, hesitated for a moment, then gathered her courage and gently touched the burn marks on his cheek.
"The physical body has limitless possibilities, but it also has fragile sides. But if it is given the nature of a spiritual body as well... what religion often calls 'the unity of body and soul'... then it would be perfect."
"Sella?"
"I said before, all my authority belongs to you. And that naturally includes the crystallization of miracles... [Third Magic: Heaven's Grail]!"
———
Iori told Ritsuka a small lie… perhaps more than one.
In the final decisive battle he had held back somewhat, but honestly speaking it was not easy either.
After severing his connection with the Greater Grail, his strength had indeed dropped in a straight line.
After all, when fighting Karna and the others, he had no additional mythological bonuses, and his Spirit Origin had already burned away by more than half just to channel divine power.
In addition, the Singularity had not been completely repaired. The data fluctuations detected by Chaldea made Da Vinci mistakenly believe spacetime was repairing itself, which led her to hurriedly transfer Ritsuka and Mash away…
This was the result of Iori communicating with Merlin and having "Dark Chaldea" interfere.
In reality, because the Greater Grail had not been completely destroyed, this Singularity would still exist for a short while longer.
Ritsuka would come again later. Only, from her perspective, it would just be clearing some "side quests."
Speaking of which, quite a few stages were left for her. For example, the two witches whose life or death was unknown, the possibly escaped Amakusa and the Empress, and Atalanta who possessed Independent Action and thus would not return to the Throne of Heroes for the time being.
Besides that, Sella had given up her role as the "Lesser Grail." When she made her wish to the Greater Grail, the Servant souls stored within her body escaped with their magical energy.
By now they had probably turned into Shadow Servants or Phantasmal Spirits somewhere in Romania…
It had to be said, as a "temporary worker," Iori was truly dedicated.
Not only did he thoughtfully help Ritsuka complete the main storyline, he even prepared so many little surprises for her. For quite some time in the future, she definitely wouldn't be lacking things to do.
Ahem! Back to the Greater Grail.
Originally, Sella was supposed to sacrifice herself to open the "hole" connecting to the outside of the world.
But she abandoned the Einzbern family's long-held wish and instead made a wish to the Greater Grail, using this vast magical power to redeem herself.
One must know that the core of the Greater Grail was originally the magic circuits of the Winter Saintess.
Its fundamental command was the "large-scale spread of the Third Magic," and the sublimation of individual souls was also included within that command. So fulfilling Sella's wish was just a trivial matter.
But during this process, the lingering consciousness of the Winter Saintess may have sensed something and made a request to Sella:
This Holy Grail War had already gone out of control beyond saving. The entire system would probably end because of this.
But even so, she still hoped the will of the "Third Magician" could be passed on, at least letting the world remember the existence of "Einzbern."
This could only be done if the last Einzbern homunculus... Sella... inherited her magic circuits.
Once, the Winter Saintess had been born as the vessel of the Third Magic. Yet because of her own constitution, she could not popularize or apply it, and so she was regarded as a failed product.
She could also have used the Third Magic to save herself, but in order to achieve greater efficiency, the Winter Saintess sacrificed herself and had her magic circuits made into the core of the Greater Grail.
From a fragile human form into a stable operating device... this was the necessary sacrifice made to "save all humanity."
More than two hundred years passed. The choice between life and death once again stood before the homunculus girl.
But this time, Sella did not become the "Holy Grail." Instead she made a choice completely opposite to that of the Winter Saintess...
Betray fate, and fulfill herself.
Sella did not refuse the Winter Saintess's request. Perhaps she still held some special feelings toward "Einzbern."
Even if she had only been created as a tool, that mage family was undoubtedly the starting point of her life.
The reason that golden pillar of light existed for so long was not only to fulfill Sella's wish, but also to transfer the core magic circuits into her body.
Now, she had not only successfully completed the materialization of her soul, she had even gained control of the [Heaven's Grail].
However, her Third Magic was just like that of the Winter Saintess... extremely "expensive." It required either several years of time or an enormous amount of magical power to complete a single use.
Also, she could only activate the Third Magic, while all the steps were autonomously operated by the magic circuits. As for the specific principles… they were not very clear.
Of course, these problems could be solved later. The most important thing was that Sella had become the second-generation Saintess, and the remnants of the Greater Grail just happened to contain a massive amount of magical power.
Buzz!!!
A brilliant pillar of light shot straight into the sky. But this time it was not blinding gold, but pure white like a stairway to heaven.
Even the drifting spiritrons gathered into shapes like feathers. A faint pale green swirled inside, and ice-blue magic circuits rapidly unfolded in the void...
Within the radiance, bathed in the washing force of immense magical power, Iori, with his eyes tightly closed, suddenly felt his mind drift. It was as if his soul had been pulled out.
At the same time he seemed to possess two perspectives. Two humanoid figures with similar outlines faced each other.
One was flesh and blood, the other seemed formed from pale blue-white flames, its face impossible to see clearly.
As time passed, the flickering flames gradually solidified, turning into the same appearance as the physical body.
Buzz!!!
Another wave of dizziness. An irresistible torrent of magical power swallowed both soul and body at once. Within an infinite spiral they were drawn into a deep and dark domain of ignorance…
At that moment, there was no distinction between body or soul. Only a pure consciousness remained. At an unimaginably distant boundary, it saw a celestial body like a black hole.
For no clear reason, just looking at it felt like understanding everything. But if he tried to think about it seriously, he could not remember anything at all. Even his very sense of self felt like it might collapse.
'...Hah!'
Iori suddenly opened his eyes. Instinctively he raised his hand as if trying to touch something, but after grasping nothing but air he froze in place.
After coming back to himself, a look of faint loss appeared on his face.
Sella looked at him with both amazement and lingering fear. "What just happened to you? I could feel that just now your soul left the foundation of the [Heaven's Grail] for a moment. I almost thought something had happened to you…"
"Mm… maybe my constitution is special and caused a problem in the ritual. It was pretty dangerous."
Still somewhat dazed, Iori rubbed his palm and gave a casual reply, not intending to tell Sella what he had seen.
But he was not lying either. If his guess was correct, that thing was probably the "Root Vortex" in the Type-Moon worldview. It really was extremely dangerous…
All he could say was it was fortunate he hadn't directly touched it and had only glimpsed it from afar. Otherwise… whether he could have come back would really have depended on luck.
As for why his consciousness had reached such a dangerous place… who knew. Probably just bad luck.
After all, this was the Type-Moon world. There were simply too many unreasonable things.
"Is your body alright?"
Seeing Iori silent for so long, Sella asked with concern, "Did the ritual succeed?"
"…Yeah, it should have succeeded. How this body performs will need slow testing. But as for my direct feeling…"
Iori looked at the death god robes on his body, now completely renewed. The injuries accumulated during battle had completely vanished.
With a slight clench of his fist he could feel the unique firmness of a physical body. In addition there was the magical power within him, so full it had reached the extreme. The corners of his lips lifted slightly.
"An ageless body, an undying soul… and the power of a Shinigami!"
"Sure enough, whether spiritual body or physical body, both have limitations. Only the unity of body and soul is most suitable!"
'Right now I'm seriously hyped...' Iori's mouth twitched as he tried hard not to say that out loud.