The Holy Grail War That Was Changed

"W...what?"

At this moment, even Luo Zhen was somewhat stunned.

As a participant in Fuyuki City's Holy Grail War, how could this Servant not know why Fuyuki City had become like this?

"You're planning to deliberately hide it from us, aren't you?"

Olga Marie was equally astonished, and quickly became furious.

Luo Zhen had said that there was no human left in all of Fuyuki City, only the Servants participating in the Holy Grail War.

If that was the case, then these Servants were the only people who knew the truth. How could they possibly not know about the abnormal events occurring in Fuyuki City?

Yet Caster still said this.

"I really don't know."

Caster did not change her statement, answering quite decisively.

"Indeed, not long ago, Fuyuki City was still normal. We were merely hiding in the shadows, fighting and advancing the Holy Grail War while challenging the other Masters and Servants alongside our own Masters."

Caster spoke as she revealed the information she knew.

"But then, one day, an anomaly suddenly occurred."

What kind of anomaly was it?

A great fire.

A fire powerful enough to burn all of Fuyuki City to the ground.

"The flames engulfed the entire city. The humans were all burned to ashes before they even had time to scream, including the Masters who had formed contracts with Servants. In the end, only the seven Servants remained."

Caster's gaze swept across Luo Zhen, Mashu, and Olga Marie in turn as she spoke.

"Even after losing our Masters, we Servants continued to exist. It was clearly an abnormal state. Even I fell into confusion at the time and didn't know what to do for a while."

And at that time...

"Saber appeared."

Only after saying this did Caster finally become somewhat serious.

"Before the other Servants had figured out what was happening, that person actually restarted the Holy Grail War, finding the Servants one by one and fighting them."

This was the information Caster knew.

According to Caster, after restarting the Holy Grail War, Saber fought Archer, Lancer, Rider, Assassin, and even Berserker one after another, defeating all of them.

In other words, aside from Caster, all the other Servants had been killed by Saber, leaving only two Servants in the Holy Grail War.

"Wait!" Olga Marie immediately interrupted Caster, asking in astonishment, "According to what you're saying, all the Servants except you lost the Holy Grail War?"

If that was true, then what exactly were Archer and Berserker, who had attacked them?

"As far as I know, each of the seven Servants in Fuyuki City's Holy Grail War has only one life. Once defeated, they disappear and cannot be summoned again."

Luo Zhen likewise voiced the doubt in his heart.

It wasn't impossible for defeated Servants to appear again.

After all, Servants were merely beings formed by downgrading Heroic Spirits from the Throne of Heroes outside the world. They were only incarnations, while their true bodies remained outside the world. Even if they were killed, it wasn't true death; they merely returned to the Throne.

In other words, resummoning a Servant was not impossible.

However, Heroic Spirit Summoning was not that flexible.

Whether in Fuyuki City or Chaldea, the summoning systems were highly random. To summon a specific Servant, one had to prepare a Holy Relic associated with that Servant's life and use it as a catalyst. Otherwise, it was simply impossible.

In other words, if they wanted to resummon the five Servants defeated by Saber, they would need to prepare Holy Relics related to them.

That was only one condition.

There was another extremely important condition.

—Magical energy.

Summoning a Servant required an astonishing amount of magical energy.

Even Chaldea, despite having a system that converted electricity into magical energy to support the operation of the Heroic Spirit Summoning System, could not summon Servants at will. Otherwise, it would suffer a simultaneous depletion of magical energy and electricity, bringing Chaldea's operations to a complete standstill.

As for Fuyuki City's Holy Grail War, it drew the required magical energy from the land's spiritual veins. It took sixty years to gather enough magical energy to perform the ritual, summon Servants, and form the Holy Grail.

If that was the case, then the defeated Servants should not have been allowed to be summoned again, whether according to the rules of the Holy Grail War or in terms of the energy consumed.

"No, they weren't resummoned. They were revived."

Caster cleared up everyone's confusion.

"Saber obtained the Holy Grail ahead of time and used its power to revive them. However, this also caused their minds to become corrupted, turning those five Servants evil. Aside from Berserker, who had already fallen into a frenzy, the minds of the other four also became abnormal, and Saber banished them to Fuyuki City."

That was the origin of the black patterns on Archer and Berserker.

Because they had been contaminated by the power of the Holy Grail, those two Servants had developed those black patterns on their bodies.

Those black patterns proved that their minds had fallen into chaos. They also proved that they had already died once and had merely been revived.

"That's why you were able to defeat Berserker." Caster smiled helplessly. "That Servant possessed a Noble Phantasm and combat ability that even Saber found troublesome. If not for the Holy Grail's magical energy supporting her, it would still be unknown whether Saber could have defeated Berserker."

It seemed that after Berserker was defeated, that special Noble Phantasm had lost its effect.

So that's why he said we only defeated him once?

From this, Luo Zhen deduced that Berserker probably possessed a Noble Phantasm that allowed him to regroup even after being defeated.

The thought gave Luo Zhen a headache.

That monster was already difficult enough to deal with. If he could come back after being defeated, it would be a nightmare.

But since that Noble Phantasm was so unreasonable, it must have some kind of limitation, right?

Is there a limit to how many times it can be used?

If so, it was easy to explain.

During his battle with Saber, Berserker must have exhausted the number of times he could use his Noble Phantasm and was ultimately cut down.

The Berserker Luo Zhen had encountered was merely Berserker after exhausting the uses of his Noble Phantasm, with his threat greatly reduced.

"Thank goodness..."

Luo Zhen felt relieved.

"If Berserker had been able to use his Noble Phantasm, we would have been completely helpless."

Olga Marie seemed to understand this as well and could not help feeling immensely relieved.

Caster herself, however, seemed rather unconcerned.

"A Noble Phantasm is a Servant's trump card, something powerful enough to turn defeat into victory. Whether one has it or not greatly affects the outcome of a battle. After losing it, of course a Servant's value would be greatly diminished."

Caster said this calmly.

Luo Zhen and Olga Marie deeply agreed with her words.

However, none of them noticed that Mashu had lowered her head at that moment, a complicated emotion showing on her face.

"Now, back to the matter at hand."

Caster stood up and looked at Luo Zhen.

"Hey, kid, do you want to form a contract with me?"