Demon blood
Beneath Ryuudou Temple, Gild Ray was killed in a single blow. He possessed numerous defensive Magecraft, as all his abilities relied on the Prelati's Spellbook. However, all these defenses were easily shredded like paper.
Fran watched her friend's arrival and death. In an instant, a chill ran through her abdomen, and her upper body fell uncontrollably. The two of them collapsed into a pool of blood. Bai Mo snatched the Holy Grail from her hand. This Holy Grail was filled with strange magic.
The moment they made contact, a flood of emotions surged into Bai Mo's mind. In the darkness, he seemed to hear Irisviel's voice. "So painful, all ten fingers have been cut off, so hungry, I feel stomach acid digesting my flesh..."
The next moment, the Holy Grail released a massive amount of magical power, like a black sun, causing the entire hill where Ryuudou Temple was located to tremble.
Painful howls echoed in Bai Mo's mind, like the roars of demons from Hell.
At almost the same time, Illya, in her hotel room, sprang up as if electrocuted, drenched in sweat.
"What's wrong, Illya?" Sakura was startled by Illya's appearance. Illya glanced in the direction of Ryuudou Temple, and without even changing her shoes, went out in her pajamas.
"Illya?" Sella grabbed Illya's hand and asked, "Where are you going? It's dangerous outside."
"I... I just saw something... Mom... she's mixed in with a pile of flesh and blood... I have to go, I absolutely have to go!" As soon as she finished speaking, Magic Circuits appeared on Illya's body. Sella was horrified; the Magic Circuits within Illya's body were beginning to malfunction, and if this continued...
"Calm down first." He wanted to stop her, but Illya's body was getting hotter and hotter, so he had to let go. If he let her continue to struggle, the consequences would be unimaginable.
"Leyritt, protect Miss Illya!"
Illya ran frantically, then tripped and fell. Leyritt helped her up, and Illya pleaded, "Leyritt, take me there, please."
Leyritt was silent for a moment, then nodded, hoisted Illya onto her back, and ran off.
Beneath Ryuudou Temple, Bai Mo opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by complete darkness. What he saw almost made him nauseous: a gigantic mass of flesh composed of countless people, all bearing the same face as Irisviel. Their bodies were twisted and contorted in a grotesque manner, like the tangled roots of an old tree.
What terrified him even more was that he could sense Irisviel's unique, gentle warmth amidst the pile of flesh, though it was mixed with a horrible mess.
"Irisviel? Can you hear me?" Bai Mo hoped to glean some information about Irisviel, but aside from that faint feeling, there was nothing. The next moment, as if spotting prey, each of the white-haired beauties opened their scarlet eyes and roared at Bai Mo.
Trembling, Bai Mo's consciousness returned to reality; the twisted Holy Grail in his hand had vanished.
"Projection? I'm afraid the Holy Grail is even deeper down." Just as Bai Mo was about to dig downwards, he sensed an underground surge, immediately calculated the time, and then withdrew from the pit. Within seconds, he had taken Iskandar and Artoria away from the area.
He drew the blade from behind him and, like a high-speed train, traveled around Ryuudou Temple, leaving a deep ravine in his wake.
When a forest fire breaks out, firefighters create a safe isolation zone to separate the fire line. So what is Bai Mo doing now? Soon, Artoria, who was taken away, and the others who arrived understood that behind this line was almost half of Fuyuki.
The Black Mud, like an erupting volcano, flows out from Ryuudou Temple. Without this isolation zone, most of Fuyuki would be bathed in this Black Mud.
Kayneth had pulled out all the stops, but all he could do was build an earthen wall to stand on high ground. He roared, "What kind of madwoman is that? Damn it, I should have just left!"
Although he said that, his hands didn't stop working at all.
"Bai Mo, what happened in there?" Artoria asked.
"After I dealt with Caster over there, Fran took out a... eerie Holy Grail. The moment I touched it, I saw... many Irisviel, and then my intuition told me that disaster was about to strike."
Bai Mo's calm voice reassured everyone. Kiritsugu Emiya spoke into the walkie-talkie, "Ryuudou Temple is one of Fuyuki's spiritual veins. For it to have reached this scale, that woman has probably already seized control of Ryuudou Temple. At this rate, the Black Mud will likely get out of control in about ten minutes."
Kiritsugu Emiya looked at the Command Spell in his hand, as if he had aged ten years, gazing at the Hell scene.
The only remaining option is to use Saber's Noble Phantasm to destroy that area directly, but that would also mean...
As Kiritsugu with his decision, Francesca reappeared in the Black Mud Volcano. She held up half of Gild Ray, her face expressionless, yet tinged with doubt. But when she looked down at the people below, her gaze froze, fixed on Bai Mo.
She smiled, her usual smile, and slowly closed Gild Ray's eyes, saying, "It's unbelievable. My dearest friend has died before my eyes once again, yet why don't I feel a trace of sadness? Was this friendship ultimately hypocritical?"
"Mr. Bai Mo, can you answer my question?" Fran tilted her head. If this woman weren't bathing in Black Mud, countless men would probably feel pity for her.
"I'm not a philosopher, much less a lunatic." Bai Mo tried to read the woman's mind again to find a way out, but strangely, his mind-reading power seemed to have entered a vortex.
This feeling... was like being eaten. Bai Mo withdrew his power and instead probed the flowing spiritual veins below, a total of twenty-five of which were connected to Ryuudou Temple.
In that brief moment, Kiritsugu Emiya had made his decision. Torn between his wife and the lives of most of Fuyuki's inhabitants, the scales had tipped. "Saber, use your Noble Phantasm to completely destroy this thing! Give the order with Command Spell!"
The holy sword immediately shone brightly, Artoria exclaimed in shock, "Kiritsugu? What do you mean? Irisviel is still inside!"
"Irisviel... she's probably beyond saving."
"What does that mean?" A childish voice rang out. Illya had been brought here by Leyritt and had heard everything Artoria had said.
Kiritsugu Emiya almost ground his teeth to powder. Despite having mentally prepared himself countless times, the excruciating pain still gripped his heart when it actually happened.
"Saber, make your move." Her fingers pierced her palm, and in the next instant, the Sword of Promised Victory was swung out, its soaring light aimed directly at Fran, drowning out Illya's cries. Vast magical power surged forth like a flood.
An unbelievable scene unfolded: the light was once again swallowed by the Black Mud, like a whale gulping down water. How could this be? The full-force brilliance of the holy sword was being devoured like this?
"What on earth is that thing?" Kayneth roared. This was far beyond his imagination. A magical attack of this magnitude could not possibly be absorbed so easily.
"That's power." A cold, hard male voice rang out, tinged with slight panting. Everyone turned around and saw a man in a suit, wearing a cross, standing behind them, breathing heavily.
"A member of the Church? Very well, you're the overseer of this Holy Grail War, aren't you? Such a huge mess has occurred, you bear unshirkable responsibility." Kayneth questioned, but Kirei Kotomine seemed not to hear the threat, only looking at the woman on the Black Mud volcano, and explained.
"The power possessed by Beelzebub, the prime minister of Hell and a demon, is the Authority of Gluttony. It is precisely because of this that he has the power to devour the radiance of the holy sword. That woman probably possesses Beelzebub's bloodline."
No sooner had Kirei Kotomine Waver protested, "What are you talking about? Even if he has demon blood, how could that kind of body possibly withstand that kind of magic?"
"Originally, this should have been impossible, but now she should have connected to most of Fuyuki's spiritual veins through the Lesser Grail, and those veins have now become her stomach."
Kirei Kotomine's words made everyone's faces turn pale. The next moment, a violent earthquake struck a school in Fuyuki. Magical energy surged from the ground, and the entire school was reduced to ashes. Now, the children would not be able to attend school for a long time.
What is that?
"It's probably just magic that's hard to digest. After all, it's the Sword in the Lake. So much magic poured in at once, and some of it probably leaked out," Kirei said calmly, but his words stunned everyone.
What does "the part that's hard to digest" mean? And what about the digested part?
The next moment, True Magic circle like a city wall opened up behind Francesca, and countless torrents of dark magic converged into a small beam of light, pointing directly at the people below, and the feeling of death rushed in.
Faced with the onslaught of Gale and rain, Bai Mo once again went against the current, his magic spreading out in all directions. Under his control, the scattered magic was distributed throughout the sky, turning it into a pitch-black ocean.