"Declaration—"
"Your body shall serve under me, and my fate shall be with your sword."
"Answer the summons of the Holy Grail. If you are willing to heed this will and reason, then answer."
"I hereby swear—"
"I shall accomplish all good in this world. I shall eradicate all evil in this world."
"Yet you shall blind your eyes with chaos and serve me."
"You are one imprisoned behind the gates of madness; I am the one who holds the chains."
"You, clad in the Threefold Words, come forth from the Wheel of Restraint, guardian of the scales—"
In his hazy state, Ailin seemed to hear such an incantation beside his ear.
Then, Ailin felt as if he had crossed time and space, dragged downward by a powerful force...
"Whew—"
Ailin abruptly sat up in bed, his gaze tightening at once.
After seeing the familiar surroundings, Ailin let out a breath of relief.
By now, Ailin more or less understood why he had dreamed of such a scene.
Not long ago, Ailin had used Inaba Kagerōza's Zanpakuto, "Raikū," to duplicate a "past self" from an earlier point in time.
Because it was his past self, everything that version of himself experienced would eventually surface in Ailin's mind as time converged, as though Ailin himself had lived through it.
That earlier dream had clearly been from the "self" who had torn through the Bleach World. After leaving the Bleach World, he had been caught by Alaya of the Fate World, drawn into the world of Fate, and made to participate in one of the Holy Grail Wars.
And from that familiar incantation—an incantation that imposed Madness Enhancement—even though Ailin's timeline had yet to converge and everything his "past" self had experienced had not yet appeared in his memories, Ailin knew that