Chapter 89
Soft lips gently caressed the young man's ear, and a clear voice quietly came through, words as sweet and pleasant as the fragrance of Rose.
"I want to go with you too—ah!"
After saying that, Sajyou Manaka seemed to realize something, blushed instantly, and got up, rushing to take a shower without even looking at Novia's reaction.
Perhaps it was because the girl noticed the wetness of her left hand, and the liquid that had dripped down her skirt and onto Novia's chest when she threw herself on her.
In a City in the Far East.
In a room that was somewhat dimly lit, but whose walls were covered with dried flowers, hand-woven trinkets, and small ornaments.
If Novia were to see them, she would discover that these dried flowers, with their many different colors, were gifts she had given to Altrouge Brunestud before she went to the Millennium Castle.
As the air circulated, these things all emitted a faint, sweet fragrance. Even after a thousand years, they have been preserved to such an extent, which shows that a lot of effort was put into them.
"You mean, you saw him?"
Yes, very similar.
White Knight Brad nodded. Ever since returning from the Alcatraz Seventh Labyrinth, he had hurriedly reported the matter to his lord.
"This, cough cough, cough cough cough..."
"Lord Jijun..."
The White Knight instinctively tried to comfort Altrouge Brunestud, whose health had been failing since that day, but the Black-Haired Girl face was even paler than it had been a thousand years ago, waved her hand dismissively.
"It's alright, I'm used to it... The Holy Grail War, which one is the most recent one, Brad?"
As the Queen of Blood and Contracts, Black Princess forcibly transformed Avia's body into Dead Apostle, which inevitably caused her some degree of irreparable damage. This is why she has been sleeping for decades or even centuries for thousands of years.
"It's located in the United States... Lady Hime, would you perhaps like to go and take a look?"
"Hmm, I want to see if it really is."
The girl pushed open the magnificent Great Gate and whispered, "If it's not, and it's just something that's come to defile my lover's face, cough cough cough... I'll make him wish he were dead."
For Altrouge Brunestud, anyone who dared to defile anything of Avia was a mortal enemy who opposed her.
After all, he was the one she would love until the very end of her life.
170: The Purpose of the Snowfield Holy Grail
In the western part of the continental United States, there is City called Snowfield City.
Snowfield City is not a tourist destination during this season, because in terms of its surrounding geography, the City is an outlier and lacks any aesthetic appeal.
It has no farmland; to the north lies a vast Creek Valley comparable to the Grand Canyon, to the west a deep Forest, to the east a wide lake area, and to the south a vast desert.
But for some reason, as time went by, the number of people in the City increased over the past few months, and the sounds of many Magecraft flocking in were drowned out by the loudspeakers.
In the northwest of the city, there is Private Prison commonly found in the United States, called the Kozman Special Correctional Center.
In the basement of this prison, various surveillance videos, both public and private, were displayed in real time on countless screens throughout the town.
In addition, there are bird-shaped Familiar moving in the air transmitting visual information.
The master of the surveillance room and the Familiar is Faldeus, one of the masterminds behind the United States Holy Grail War.
He is Magecraft affiliated with a United States national agency. He studied at the Clock Tower. His clan modified the Leyline of Snowfield City, stole the Fuyuki Holy Grail fragments through "someone," and then summoned pseudo- Servant to replenish the Earth Veins, thus launching the True Holy Grail War.
"... What are you doing here?"
Faldeus's voice was perfectly calm, but a distinct displeasure was subtly implied.
"Huh? You seem really unresponsive. Can't you come over if there's nothing wrong?"
The owner of the voice peeked out from the shadows.
It was a girl who looked to be around fifteen years old, dressed in a Gothic Lolita-style outfit with a black and white color scheme, and holding an umbrella in her hand.
Her name is Francesca.
"It's not the right time for us to continue our contact yet."
"Oh, is that so? I didn't even think of that. Do you want me to kneel down and beg for forgiveness now? It's not impossible. Making a beautiful girl kneel down in public to show her submission is quite a conquest, isn't it?"
The girl twirled her umbrella while giggling.
"Speak your mind; there's no need to continue the conversation with unnecessary words."
Faldeus was extremely wary of Fran. Although she looked young, she was actually Magecraft had lived for countless years and was someone he wanted to keep a close eye on.
In the Third Holy Grail War in Fuyuki, the Assassin's Master was a puppeteer Familiar with ties to the Faldeus family. He left his memories of the events of the war in a puppet he used.
Later, Faldeus's grandfather joined forces with politicians and the Military of the United States to seize Snowfield City, whose Leyline quality rivaled that of Fuyuki City, from the natives, and carried out large-scale adjustments to its Leyline to make it Near East Fuyuki City.
When Inheritance to Faldeus's father, a portion of the Fuyuki Holy Grail was stolen through Francesca, who had connections to the government's secret service.
"Wow, that's amazing! You didn't even flinch in the face of my performance. You heartless jerk, I'm starting to admire you!"
The purple-haired girl chuckled at the indifferent-looking Faldeus.
"Miss Francesca is joking."
"Sigh, what a pointless reaction."
As if she hadn't seen the reaction she expected, the seemingly disappointed girl waved her hand lightly and continued speaking:
"In the world of Magecraft, there is said to be a great Labyrinth, created to hide oneself and Supreme Being treasures, a Labyrinth, Alcatra."
"... What?"
Faldeus knew about this Labyrinth; as far as he knew, it belonged to the Dead Apostle Ancestor, who had extremely close ties with the Church, and was said to be a strange place from which neither one could enter nor leave.
But why did this old monster suddenly bring this up?
The atmosphere surrounding Francesca's smile changed abruptly in the next instant.
"Supreme Being treasure, whether it's a record of everything in the world, a testament to the Love of the Lord the Church, or even a replica of the Universe —simply put, it's something extremely powerful."
Even though her smile remained innocent and naive, her gaze shifted to the cruel glint of someone suffering torture and yearning for Revenge.
"Hmm, I really, really want a treasure like that. While it's true that the idea of opening up to humanity is important, Labyrinth that's simply impossible to open should at least become a place that can be challenged. It should be opened by Ritual created by the world. Think about it, whether Human Order flourishes in the Universe or heads towards destruction, it's all caused by humanity itself."
Francesca then spoke in a sweet voice to the expressionless Faldeus, as if she were whispering words of love to the world itself.
"In this way, the locks on the great Labyrinth will be released, and then we can humiliate everything to our heart's content!"
As she finished speaking, her expression turned cold again, and she spoke in a calm tone:
"This must be an absolutely wonderful thing."
A villa located in the lake and marshland area in the eastern part of Snowfield City.
"Here we go again...?"
The summoned Assassin sensed an ominous aura approaching from the doorway and murmured to himself.
She was surrounded by the corpses of Magecraft. As Hassan, she did not condone such Heresy behavior, so she killed all the Magecraft who had summoned her.
"You are... Servant in this Holy Grail War?"
Normally, the Assassin should have ignored the newcomer and killed him without hesitation, since he was Dead Apostle.
She was extremely Faith about the Hassan Order, hostile to those who Faith other Deity Magecraft, and would not hesitate to eliminate them. She viewed the existence of the Dead Apostle as a defilement of the doctrine, and therefore loathed them.
Through the knowledge granted by the Holy Grail, the Assassin immediately knows his Fate.
But her expectation of the Holy Grail is to personally annihilate those who serve as proof of Heresy and return them to nothingness.
She also understood that several leaders throughout history had similarly sought the Holy Grail—
She felt only Sorrow, but did not hate the leaders, nor did she intend to despise them.
The object of their hatred is the entity that deceived them, the one called the 'Holy Grail War' itself, and its participants.
However, the Black-Haired Girl before him, though Dead Apostle, was someone the Assassin sensed 'that' about.
Her memories from her lifetime, her soul, her physique forged through countless trials, and her Faith now tainted by Heresy Ritual —all of them clearly understood what 'that' was.
The Assassin felt tears involuntarily streaming down his face.
This is what that great sage acknowledged; it is reaching the Holy Temple he himself never set foot in during his entire life...
Though they were Dead Apostle, they were filled with dazzling glory.
"I--"
Just as the Assassin was about to say something, Altrouge Brunestud waved her hand to indicate that he didn't need to speak yet. Then, staring at the corpse of a Magecraft at the Assassin's feet, she slowly said:
"Jester, oh no, your name when you were human was Dorothea, right? A human with great power who was expelled from the Mage's Association, and eventually taken in by Van Fim as Dead Apostle. As expected, you're too ugly."
"You... you are... Lord Ji Jun, I—"
Just then, the Assassin noticed that the Magecraft's corpse he had killed was moving. It was clear that he had only been feigning death, but now, after being glanced at by Ji Jun, it had turned into smoke and ash.
As the ruler of blood and pacts, and the recognized leader of the Dead Apostle, even though he has been out of the public eye for many years due to serious injuries, he can completely destroy any Dead Apostle of lower rank with just a thought.
"Alright, the contract between this guy and you has completely dissolved. You can do whatever you want with him now."
Indeed, at this moment, the Assassin felt no more Od flowing into his body; his Master, who was originally Dead Apostle, was truly dead.
Originally, Altrouge Brunestud didn't really want to get involved in these things; she wasn't interested in the Holy Grail.
After all, her purpose in coming to Snowfield City was to see if she could meet the person Brad mentioned who looked exactly like Avia, but Jester was just too arrogant, constantly thinking about using the Holy Grail to destroy the world, which made her very unhappy, so that's how it ended.
Please wait a moment.
"Oh? Is there something you want to say to me?"
Just as Black Princess turned around, the Assassin called out to her.
"Please, sir, show me the way home."
171: The Unexpected Saber
As Twilight fell, Novia gazed out of her hotel window at the City about to witness the Holy Grail War.
However, on one hand, this is the Fate that this City was created for. Snowfield City was created to prepare for the Holy Grail War, which is why it began to flourish sixty years ago and has become City with a population of 800,000 today.
In fact, Novia had intended to summon Servant upon entering this place, but for some reason, no Od flowed to him...
To be precise, it seems that too much Od was required, so the first attempt failed.
At that moment, Novia understood that she could not summon anyone other than herself. If she were to perform the Holy Grail Summoning, it would only allow her to recover her power slightly faster within the current rules.
As for why the Sub-species Holy Grail War in the Alcatraz Seventh Labyrinth was successful, it was mainly because Novia managed to monopolize the magical Od that should have been supplied to the four Servant, which is why she barely succeeded.
After all, before the Human Order Incineration Incident occurred, the probability of summoning an extremely powerful being was not very high in this world.
Ultimately, the age of gods has passed, and the age of humans has arrived. Therefore, from now on, the human world will no longer need the immense power of the Age of Gods, except when it poses a threat to the stability and peace of humanity and the Planet.
In FSF, for example, if the enemy were to erase his mark 'Heracles' from the world in order to prevent the Sea of Vengeance from Revenge against the Gods of Greece, it would cause a world-class disaster. Therefore, the Human Order chose to let the Amazon queen Hippolyta appear in the world.
In other words, Hippolyta was destined to stop the Sea of Vengeance.
However, Novia actually understood why Heracles had gone mad.
That's because the difference in perspective between humans and gods gave rise to the seeds of madness.
As we know from the plot of The Second Great Adventure VII, the vision of gods is like the difference between three-dimensional and two-dimensional compared to that of humans. From the perspective of gods, they can see various timelines of the past and Future. In other words, when a person meets a god in the Age of Gods, it is like the god can choose a path in a game with countless routes to cooperate with that person and thus take the next step.
It was precisely this difference between gods and men that drove Heracles to madness, transforming him into Typhon, a being consumed by the Black Mud, seeking Revenge against the Gods of Greece.
Therefore, even though Alcides became the Avenger, the image of the noble and pure Heracles still existed in his heart, and he was still determined to take Revenge on the Gods of Greece had toyed with him, even knowing that his body was forcibly twisted in this Holy Grail War as the Avenger, he was still determined to do so.
Novia was well aware of Alcides's actions, and he was also aware of what the Gods of Greece had done. From his perspective, it was actually quite normal for Heracles to seek Revenge against the Gods of Greece.
Revenge is a perfectly normal emotion; just don't become too obsessed with Revenge, or even your Primordial desires will be distorted.
As for the fact that he had once obtained the Authority of the Roman Gods in the guise of the Gods of Greece, Novia felt that since he had received their help, he should also resolve the troubles they had caused in the past. Moreover, he had also obtained the Authority of Hercules at that time.
In Novia's view, both Heracles praised by all, and Alcides, who chose to seek Revenge at all costs, were merely manifestations of light and shadow.
"The monitoring of Familiar, huh?"