Under Artoria's conflicted, apologetic gaze, Lancelot took his leave along with Ymi and the others. In turn, Lancelot felt an even greater shame toward her.
"Are you sure this is okay? You really do still want to follow King Arthur, don't you, Mr. Lancelot? From our standpoint, we have no right to dictate your choices."
Ritsuka, biting into the last piece of dark chocolate, sat on her horse and called over to Lancelot, who was riding a motorcycle alongside her and Ymi.
The kitten lay quietly cradled against her.
Congratulations to the host on unlocking achievement [Ghost Rider], reward: 5% portal energy.
So many days had passed in this world, and only two achievements had been unlocked. That deserved a public reprimand.
Lancelot closed his eyes. "If my king is unwilling to deliver judgment here, then for the sake of the Grail we will inevitably cross blades again. But putting my king in a difficult position in front of other sovereigns—that would be petulance on my part."
"Don't close your eyes while you're driving a motorcycle!"
"..."
Whatever he might say, what he really wanted was for her to chastise him in earnest.
The Greater Grail, the core of this Holy Grail War, had been hidden underground beneath Fuyuki the entire time, drawing on the land's mana. It wasn't really a physical object—it was a ritual that the original Three Founding Families had constructed together, forming what was now the Holy Grail War system.
The most critical component, the Lesser Grail—which was used to absorb mana from defeated Servants and ultimately bridge to the other side of the world—had been contaminated in the Third Holy Grail War when it absorbed All the World's Evil.
The one currently bearing it was Irisviel, who had just spent half the evening cuddling Ymi. In other words: as long as this Holy Grail War reached a conclusion, Irisviel was destined to die in order to become the Lesser Grail.
"If we can dismantle the Greater Grail, then at least Fuyuki's contaminated Holy Grail Wars wouldn't exist after this one. If we sort that out, this world's Counter Force could probably get you, Ritsuka, sent home." Restoring the Holy Grail system would be more than a little difficult.
"That said, even with me on site, sneaking up on the Greater Grail without the Three Founding Families noticing isn't realistic."
"So is what you're saying about the Grail being contaminated actually true?" Lancelot bowed his head and fell into thought.
"Don't assume I'm lying just because I can't appear in front of you... like the current Ruler, the Einzbern family violated the rules in the Third Holy Grail War to summon an Extra Class, Avenger. His individual combat power may have been less than this round's Assassin's, but he carried All the World's Evil on his back."
"You mean to say, the wish-granting machine we were summoned here to seek was, all along, this kind of fraud..." Lancelot's expression turned considerably darker.
To imagine how despairing his noble king would be if she ever learned this.
The air went quiet for a while, until Ymi extended a paw and tried to swipe the chocolate from Ritsuka's mouth. Ritsuka quickly polished it off.
"Come to think of it, why has it been Professor Kongming doing all the talking? It's been a while since I've heard the Doctor's voice."
"I'm still here..." Roman's faint voice.
"It's because the signal hasn't been good lately. To make the most efficient use of the time we can talk, I'll just monopolize the call for now. Dr. Roman can't really offer you much in the way of magecraft advice anyway."
"Fair enough."
...
"Here we are. The Greater Grail."
A high-grade mana furnace, with no trace of human construction—it looked like nothing more than a natural outcropping of small stones, and gave off a distinctly eerie atmosphere.
"It looks the same as I remember it. In my memories, I came here to dismantle it together with Tohsaka, but that was about twenty years past your current point in time."
"Twenty years... Mr. Lancelot, please keep watch on our surroundings. Ymi, can you find anything?" Ritsuka's amateur eyes couldn't make out the structure of the Greater Grail's ritual at all.
Ymi, of course, had no magecraft knowledge either. The only thing she had ever systematically learned, from beginning to end, was Haki.
But every skill she possessed related to Divinity was almost entirely contained within Miracle, and that included the function of Revelation.
The principles of the ritual, which could only be fully read with the Lesser Grail in place, were clear to her at a glance. It wasn't that she was directly handed the schematics like a computer printout—it was that the purpose of the Greater Grail unfolded itself in front of her.
Although half the people who had come this far still believed the Holy Grail to be a wish-granting machine, that didn't change the fact that its true purpose was to enable Magic—to reach the Root.
The Third Magic, also known as Materialization of the Soul, made infinite mana possible, and on that foundation, even granting certain wishes in this world wouldn't be much of a stretch.
In Ritsuka's field of vision, the ears on top of the kitten's head suddenly drooped.
A cat had just lost her dream.
"What is it? You look so down all of a sudden. Even if it can't be done, it isn't your fault, Ymi."
Ymi tugged at Ritsuka's sleeve. "Master, let's go back."
This world had no quest, didn't help the kitten get home, and didn't even have many achievements to unlock. Better to spend that time using a Command Spell to make the man in the stiff armor (Lancelot) hunt for the grass that smelled wonderful.
"Even Ruler can't manage it? With such an extraordinary background?" Lord El-Melloi was getting anxious too. "All we need is to destroy this. Even that is impossible?"
"Destroy? I'm afraid I cannot pretend not to have heard that."
The hollow voice echoed through the space, and along with it appeared a multitude of figures—naturally, the Assassin they had not yet seen this Holy Grail War.
Hassan of the Hundred Personas. As a Servant, his parameters were genuinely substandard. The Noble Phantasm he possessed only allowed him to split into multiple bodies, which was useful enough against a magus Master—but going head-to-head with any of the other Servants in this war would not end well for him.
"Ymi?" Ritsuka looked down at the small girl.
She'd started getting all gloomy at such a young age.
"Mr. Lancelot, I'll leave them to you."
"Understood. Arondight Overload!"
The Sword of the Lake, blackened to a cursed-blade shade by his Berserker class and his own self-loathing, recovered its true color and emanated a terrifying blue glow.
Hassan: "...?"
Wasn't a battle between Servants supposed to begin with feeling out the opponent—running through their moves once before unleashing a Noble Phantasm?
The point-blank release of an Anti-Army Noble Phantasm flattened a stretch of land outright, even shaving a section off the nearby slope.
A disturbance like that next to the Greater Grail—as long as the other Servants and magi weren't fools, they couldn't possibly miss it.
No—rather, the moment they had appeared here, the Three Founding Families... at least Tokiomi Tohsaka, as the host, had certainly known.
"As I thought..." Lancelot looked at the long sword in his hand.
It wasn't his imagination. He'd just released a Noble Phantasm of that magnitude, and even after a single use, he didn't feel the slightest mana drain.