The Altered Holy Grail War

"Don't… don't know?"

Even Luo Zhen was taken aback at this moment.

As a participant in the Fuyuki City Holy Grail War, this Rider-class Servant actually doesn't know the reason Fuyuki City has become like this?

"Are you trying to deliberately hide something from us?"

Olga Marie was equally surprised and flew into a rage.

Luo Zhen had said that there wasn't a single human left in the entirety of Fuyuki City, only the Servants from the Holy Grail War.

If that's the case, then these Servants are the only ones who know what's going on. How could they not know about the abnormalities occurring within Fuyuki City?

But Caster still said that.

"I really don't know."

Caster didn't change its story, remaining quite blunt.

"Indeed, until recently, Fuyuki City was normal. We were simply hidden in the shadows, fighting and advancing the Holy Grail War, challenging the other Masters and Servants, along with our own Masters."

Caster spoke, revealing the information it knew.

"But one day, the change just suddenly happened."

What kind of change?

A fire.

A fire capable of burning the entire Fuyuki City to ashes.

"The fire engulfed the entire Fuyuki City. The humans didn't even have time to scream before they were all burned to nothing, including the Masters who had formed contracts with the Servants, ultimately leaving only seven Servants."

Caster's gaze swept over Luo Zhen, Mashu, and Olga Marie in turn, and it spoke.

"Even though we lost our Masters, we Servants still remained. This is clearly an abnormal state. Even I was lost at that time, unsure of what to do."

And at that time…

"Saber appeared."

Here, Caster finally became a little serious.

"While the other Servants were still trying to figure out the situation, that guy actually restarted the Holy Grail War, finding the Servants one by one and fighting them."

This was the information Caster knew.

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

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

"Wait a minute!" Olga Marie immediately interrupted Caster's explanation, saying in astonishment, "According to you, all the Servants except you have lost in the Holy Grail War?"

If that's the case, then what were the Archer and Berserker who attacked us?

"As far as I know, in the Fuyuki City Holy Grail War, the seven Servants only have one life each. Once they lose, they disappear and are not re-summoned."

Luo Zhen also voiced his doubts.

It wasn't impossible for defeated Servants to reappear.

After all, Servants are merely existences degraded from the Heroic Spirits in the 〈Throne of Heroes〉 located outside the world. They are merely avatars, while their true bodies are still outside the world. Even if they are killed, it's not a true death, but merely a return to the 〈Throne〉.

That is to say, the re-summoning of Servants is not impossible.

However, the so-called 〈Heroic Spirit Summoning〉 is not such a flexible thing.

Whether it's Fuyuki City or Chaldea, its summoning system is highly random. If you want to summon a specific Servant, unless you prepare a relic related to that Servant's life in advance and use it as a catalyst, it's just nonsense.

In other words, if you want to re-summon the five Servants defeated by Saber, you need to prepare relics related to them.

This is just one condition.

There is also a very important condition.

———— Mana.

Summoning a Servant requires a considerable amount of mana.

Even Chaldea, although it has a system to convert electricity into mana to support the operation of the Heroic Spirit Summoning system, cannot summon Servants at will, otherwise it will fall into a double exhaustion of mana and electricity, causing Chaldea's operation to be completely paralyzed.

The Fuyuki City Holy Grail War draws the required mana from the ley lines, which takes sixty years to accumulate enough mana to perform the ritual, summon Servants, and form the 〈Holy Grail〉.

In that case, the defeated Servants, whether from the rules of the Holy Grail War or from the consumption, should not be allowed to be re-summoned.

"No, they were not re-summoned, but resurrected."

Caster dispelled everyone's doubts.

"Saber obtained the 〈Holy Grail〉 in advance and used the power of the 〈Holy Grail〉 to resurrect them, but it caused their minds to be corrupted, causing the five Servants to be blackened. Except for Berserker, who was already in a frenzy, the minds of the other four became abnormal, and they were exiled by Saber into Fuyuki City."

This is the origin of the black纹路 on Archer and Berserker.

Because they were corrupted by the power of the Holy Grail, those black markings appeared on the two Servants.

Those black纹路 prove that their minds are in disarray, and also prove that they have died once and are now merely resurrected.

"That's exactly why you were able to defeat that Berserker," Caster said with a somewhat helpless smile. "That Servant possesses a Noble Phantasm and combat prowess that even Saber would find troublesome. If it weren't for the magic power of the Holy Grail supporting her, whether Saber could defeat Berserker would still be unknown."

It seemed that Berserker's defeat caused that special Noble Phantasm to lose its effect.

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

From this, Luo Zhen deduced that Berserker must possess a Noble Phantasm that allows him to regroup even after being defeated.

The thought of this gave Luo Zhen a headache.

(That monster was already hard to deal with; if he can come back after being defeated, it's a nightmare.)

But precisely because that Noble Phantasm is so broken, it must have some kind of limitation, right?

(Is there a limit to the number of times it can be used?)

If that's the case, it's not hard to explain.

In the battle with Saber, Berserker must have exhausted the number of times he could use the Noble Phantasm and was ultimately defeated.

Luo Zhen had only encountered a Berserker who had exhausted the uses of his Noble Phantasm, greatly reducing his formidability.

"Thankfully..."

Luo Zhen felt somewhat fortunate.

"If it were a Berserker who could use his Noble Phantasm, we would be completely helpless."

Olga Marie seemed to understand this as well and couldn't help but feel relieved.

Caster, on the other hand, didn't seem to care much.

"A Noble Phantasm is originally a Servant's trump card, something sufficient to turn the tables. Its existence greatly affects the outcome of a battle. Losing it, the value of a Servant will naturally be greatly reduced."

Caster said these words.

This sentence resonated deeply with Luo Zhen and Olga Marie.

However, no one noticed that Mashu, who was beside them, lowered her head at this moment, a complex emotion flowing between her expressions.

"Well then, let's get back to the main topic."

Caster stood up and looked at Luo Zhen.

"Say, kid, how about making a contract with me?"