How About You Find Another Savior

Using the ice Xi Jianxi had created as a foundation, she shattered it into countless ice blades and sent them stabbing toward him.

But after Artoria and Iskandar dispersed that wave of attacks from both sides, their two swords slashed at Justeza's body together, severing her arm along with her shoulder.

As if she felt no pain, Justeza retreated. The ice shattered, and countless deathly pale arms emerged from the opening, reaching for Iskandar and Artoria, forcing the two Servants to hurriedly roll across the ice and evade the attack's range.

Justeza, whose arm was regenerating for the second time, raised her head and looked directly upward. Morgan's spell had already been prepared and shot straight toward its target.

A violent explosion sent waves more than ten meters high crashing across the lake. Even the Greater Holy Grail's base, resembling a mound of rotten flesh, was nearly half destroyed.

Under the cover of the mist, Xi Jianxi, who had relaxed slightly, suddenly noticed something.

Kirei wasn't here? Had he been reduced to nothing but bones and ash?

Unfortunately, the current situation gave Xi Jianxi no chance to ask Morgan or the Emiya couple, who had been present earlier. Within the gradually dispersing smoke from the explosion was Justeza, slowly rising toward the "hole" opening in the sky.

"Offerings, keep struggling. That way, I can devour every last one of you even more deliciously."

As she spoke, a golden cup surfaced from her body, then vanished.

The magical energy within the "hole" rapidly expanded.

"Is that... a Noble Phantasm?" Artoria asked in shock.

A grand spell Xi Jianxi had already been preparing.

"Most likely an offensive method similar to a Noble Phantasm. Combined with its absolute advantage over Servants, if it touches you, you're probably finished."

"Don't stand there spacing out, Artoria. Prepare to use your Noble Phantasm." Morgan had also arrived beside them.

The second Command Spell Xi Jianxi had given her vanished in an instant, and immense magical energy began to gather.

"Saber, the magical energy from my Command Spells! I entrust it to you!" Seeing this, Irisviel immediately used her Command Spells as well, supplying the magical energy Artoria needed to activate her Noble Phantasm.

"Understood!"

The King of Knights and the witch, their magical energy swelled in an instant.

Though Iskandar lacked a similar method of attack, he still raised his sword high and summoned lightning to descend in support.

The clash of trump cards was imminent.

"'Black Holy Grail, chant!' (Song of Grail)"

Following Justeza's declaration, the Servants also released the true names of their Noble Phantasms.

"'Excalibur!'"

"'Roadless Camelot!'"

The Holy Grail's black magical energy collided with the radiance of the Heroic Spirits.

"Life Wall!"

Yet those curses could not erode the Servants' radiance. Xi Jianxi used his own magecraft to block every last curse.

"Damn... it!"

The moment before she was swallowed by the light, Justeza roared in unwilling fury.

The Final Task

"This is... the underground cavern where the Greater Holy Grail is located."

In more than two years in Fuyuki, this was the first time Xi Jianxi had truly arrived at the Greater Holy Grail's location.

Besides Morgan, the allies who had just fought alongside him were with him as well.

The boundless sky overhead and the barren earth almost made one forget that this was an enormous underground cavern.

By estimation, this area had a diameter of roughly three kilometers. At the end of the path the group was walking stood wall-like rock, and upon that rock was the altar of the Greater Holy Grail.

The Black Grail had been defeated, and the mountain of flesh on the lake behind Ryuudou Temple had been eliminated along with it.

Tokiomi Tohsaka, who had been used as the core, had been retrieved from the lake after Kiritsugu Emiya personally stepped forward. Though he had lost an arm, he still clung to life.

Yet what surprised Xi Jianxi even more was that Kiritsugu Emiya, who seemed so cold-blooded and tearless, had taken the initiative to save someone.

Whether Xi Jianxi had misjudged him or the man had changed, he did not know.

But when they came within less than a kilometer, everyone felt the barrier blocking their path.

It was both an obstruction and a safety measure.

Within the now-sealed Greater Holy Grail altar lay an amount of magical energy that any Magus could use freely without ever exhausting.

Without the manifested Holy Grail as a medium, rashly coming into contact with such immense magical energy was extremely dangerous.

"This is far enough." Morgan was the first to stop.

That twisted thing that had appeared in the lake was merely the Greater Holy Grail's external terminal. Even if it had been destroyed along with the "hole," it would not damage the foundation itself. At most, it would merely close the opened gate again.

She turned and looked at Artoria and Iskandar, as well as their respective Masters.

"Once the purification ritual begins, the Holy Grail will no longer possess enough magical energy to activate, and the Servants will begin to fade away." Morgan asked calmly, "One final time: do you accept ending the Holy Grail War here?"

It seemed like an unnecessary question, but Morgan confirmed it once more.

She understood very well the allure that a wish-granting device held for Magi and Heroic Spirits alike.

However, having witnessed the truth of the Holy Grail with their own eyes, neither the Masters nor the Servants could accept the corrupted Holy Grail any longer.

Thus, everyone's response was surprisingly unanimous.

"Then let us begin the ritual to purify the Greater Holy Grail."

Morgan raised the Demon Spear she used as a staff. She gently thrust it into the air before her, yet it was as though she had touched some sort of switch. Massive magical circuits appeared across the ground.

If one were to fly into the sky and look down now, one would discover that the magical circuits resembled Justeza's previous form exactly.

It was precisely because Justeza, whose entire body was made of magical circuits, had turned her flesh and blood into the foundation of the Greater Holy Grail that one of the crucial conditions for establishing the Holy Grail War had been fulfilled.

The essence of the Greater Holy Grail's corruption was that the irregular Servant Class from the Third Holy Grail War had entered the Holy Grail and contaminated the magical energy here.

Ordinarily, purification was no longer a realistic option. It could only be dismantled.

Yet Morgan, who had analyzed the Fuyuki Holy Grail War system in such a short time, knew what had to be done. The price was merely consuming a portion of the magical energy that took sixty years to accumulate.

Thus, she could separate All the World's Evil slumbering within the Greater Holy Grail.

The Greater Holy Grail's purification ritual gradually began. Everyone realized that the time for farewell was approaching, and the Masters and their respective Servants walked away in different directions, speaking their goodbyes.

"What is it? Is there something you can't bear to part with?" Morgan asked.

After the Holy Grail's purification ritual began, she no longer needed to maintain it, unless Artoria or Iskandar suddenly changed their minds and came to interfere.

That was why she had the leisure to ask Xi Jianxi.

"No... I just feel like so much has happened these past few days." Xi Jianxi gave a bitter smile. "Pursuing an all-powerful wish-granting device really is exhausting."

"Because Magi created the Holy Grail not to escape all suffering, but to overcome all suffering." Morgan shook her head. "Whether it is reaching the Root or a wish so grand that it exceeds what the entire planet can bear..."

It was precisely this intense desire, powerful enough to change the world, that had brought about the world as it was today.

But it was also that desire that had led the Holy Grail War to this outcome.

"The Servants are beginning to fade."

Morgan's voice pulled Xi Jianxi back from his thoughts.

Artoria and Iskandar were waving farewell to the two of them in their own ways.

Although Irisviel seemed somewhat reluctant, she still wore a smile. Waver, on the other hand, was crying his eyes out, forcing the King of Conquerors to pat his shoulder and offer him some final comfort.

After seeing off the two Servants, Irisviel and Waver left the great cavern first, leaving Morgan and Xi Jianxi behind to bid each other farewell while waiting for the purification ritual to finish.

"The purification ritual will be over soon." Morgan phrased it tactfully.

Xi Jianxi looked at the witch standing beside him, and a powerful reluctance rose within his heart.

"Although the Holy Grail War did not accomplish anything for anyone else, your wishes have all come true." Xi Jianxi forced a smile and congratulated Morgan.

"I suppose so." Morgan smiled noncommittally.

The ritual was about to reach its end. The words in his heart lingered on his lips for a long time, but only when the light of departure began to shine around Morgan did he finally blurt them out.

"If... if I asked you to stay and form a contract with me again, would you accept?" Xi Jianxi took hold of the hand he could still hold.

Morgan was slightly surprised, and there was a trace of delight in her eyes. "Without the Holy Grail War's ritual, providing the magical energy needed to sustain a Servant will be very difficult. Even for you."

"Even so, I want you to stay." Xi Jianxi lowered his eyes. "I still haven't gotten to know you at all."

It was unexpected, yet only natural. It suited Morgan's understanding of this person perfectly.

"Then there is no helping it. Since my husband has made such a plea, how could I refuse to listen?" Morgan turned her wrist and clasped Xi Jianxi's outstretched hand. "Though you do not want me to stay solely for your own sake, for now, I shall pretend not to notice and turn a blind eye."

"I didn't mean that—" Xi Jianxi felt misunderstood and wanted to explain.

But Morgan stopped him with a look. "Rather than wasting words on explanations, hurry and form the contract again."

"Right, then I..."

He was about to recite the incantation for the contract when his lips were sealed.

A cold yet soft sensation filled his nose.

Epilogue

Three months later.

Compared to the bitter winter when the Fourth Holy Grail War had taken place, Fuyuki's spring was exceptionally pleasant, perfect for going out and relaxing.

"So... even now, Kirei's body is still nowhere to be found?"

Inside a café, Irisviel von Einzbern sipped her coffee and questioned Xi Jianxi, who sat across from her.

Waver Velvet was seated with them as well.

"Yes. Neither the Holy Church nor the Mage's Association has found Kirei's body with the people they sent out." Xi Jianxi nodded slightly. "According to what you said, Kirei did indeed fall into the lake after the Black Grail pierced his heart."

Waver proposed a possibility. "Could the Greater Holy Grail have devoured him? That thing looked like it could swallow anything, after all."

"That possibility cannot be ruled out, but it still feels unsettling." Xi Jianxi took a sip of coffee. "I tried using objects connected to Kirei to perform tracking magecraft. Every result indicated that he was dead."

Irisviel sighed. "If that's the case..."

She had wanted to offer Xi Jianxi a few words of comfort, but in the end, she could not find anything appropriate to say.

Kirei, whom Kiritsugu had once been so wary of, had been so straightforwardly and inconspicuously killed by the Holy Grail he himself had helped awaken. It truly was not an ending that could put anyone at ease.

"Forget it, let's not talk about that." Xi Jianxi turned to look toward one side of the café.

Kiritsugu Emiya was leading a silver-haired little girl as they selected things in front of the display window.

Illyasviel von Einzbern.

Half a month after the Holy Grail War ended, Irisviel had personally come to his door and asked him to help her husband travel to Germany and bring their daughter back from the Einzbern family.

In truth, with Kiritsugu Emiya's abilities, taking his daughter away would not have been difficult. But to be safe, they had still spent a considerable sum to hire Xi Jianxi's assistance.

"Who is that boy?" Xi Jianxi asked.

Beside Kiritsugu stood a red-haired little boy as well.

"That child? His name is Shirou," Irisviel introduced. "His parents died in a car accident last month, and no other relatives could take him in. Since he happened to get along well with Kiritsugu, we adopted him and had him inherit the Emiya surname."

Xi Jianxi understood and did not ask further.

After all, he had adopted two children himself, so he had no reason to pry into someone else's family affairs.

Today's coffee outing was actually to exchange information about what had happened after the Holy Grail War ended.

As the Masters who had made it to the end of this unusual Holy Grail War, they could not help but care about many of the developments that followed.

"I heard the Tohsaka family's girl has recently begun going to your place to study?" Irisviel asked.

"It's more of a temporary remedy." Xi Jianxi shook his head.

Tokiomi Tohsaka had indeed barely survived.

But after being forcibly used as the core to activate the Holy Grail, his magical circuits had suffered severe damage. Though he could still use magecraft, he could no longer be considered a Magus and could only be regarded as a magecraft user.

Tokiomi, whose talent had already been inferior to that of his daughter Rin Tohsaka, was now completely unable to guide Rin in specific magecraft.

After much consideration, he decided to hire Xi Jianxi as a tutor to teach Rin some general magecraft knowledge, with lessons held roughly once a month.