With Saber Alter's sharp shout, the air in the great cavern sank under a crushing weight.
The Magical Energy pouring from her jet-black holy sword was ominous and overwhelming, like a mass of mud dredged up from the abyss.
"How dare you speak my husband's name so lightly!"
Shuten was the first to spring forward. Violet demonic energy exploded from her as she kicked off the ground, and the blade in her hand slammed into Saber's holy sword.
Kaaang!
A blast sharp enough to tear at the eardrums rang out. Even against the strength of a great hero, the might of a great yokai did not give way in the slightest. The shockwave from their clash made the entire cavern tremble.
"I'm going to rip that precious armor of yours to shreds, trash!"
While Shuten locked her down head-on, Baobhan Sith leaped into the air and drew her bowstring. Countless arrows of crimson Magical Energy rained down in a storm, aiming for Saber Alter's blind spots.
"Annoying."
Saber Alter clicked her tongue, violently swung her holy sword to shove Shuten back, then used the recoil to spin and knock away the rain of arrows.
And in that instant of opening—
Kojiro's blade slid low across the floor and shot up like a serpent through the wreckage of the explosions, aiming for Saber's lower body.
Kkang!
Saber dropped her sword on instinct and blocked it, but Kojiro's blade twisted its path as if he had expected that, slicing a thin line across the waist of her black armor.
"Kh...!"
"All right, ladies, fire support coming in!"
Next, Cu Chulainn slammed his staff against the ground. Dozens of rune characters were carved into the air, and a barrage of blazing fireballs poured toward Saber.
Her Magic Resistance was deflecting Cu Chulainn's flames, but the chain of explosions was more than enough to obscure her vision.
The coordinated assault of four Servants. Even she could not help being gradually pushed back under an all-out attack closing in from every direction.
But she did not break. If anything, a cruel smile spread across her lips.
"Excellent. But it is not enough to defeat me!"
Saber Alter gripped her holy sword in both hands and swept it horizontally in a violent slash. She had not even released its true name—this was merely a single stroke that discharged raw Magical Energy.
But even that alone sent a pillar of black light sweeping through the cavern toward us.
"I'll stop it!"
Mash rushed to the front line and drove her massive shield into the ground.
KWA-BOOOOM!
The black slash crashed into the shield. Mash's lips split open and blood ran down, but she endured without dropping to one knee.
In the opening she bought by blocking the attack, Cu Chulainn finished his chant.
"Burn them to death, [Wicker Man]!"
A gigantic giant of flaming branches rose with a roar, lunging to swallow Saber Alter whole. At the very moment that enormous blaze was about to consume her, Saber Alter's eyes turned cold.
"Disappear."
She swung her holy sword upward from below. A single slash.
A black flash split the flaming giant cleanly in half from the front.
But that was the blind spot we had led her into.
"Got you, girl."
In the gap of flame and shadow created as the giant split apart—
Shuten had already slipped completely behind Saber Alter's back, stretching out her hand with a grotesque smile that looked ready to tear itself apart.
[Bone Collector].
Shuten's thin white hand, dripping with demonic energy, passed straight through Saber's steel-like black armor as if by Magecraft.
"......!!"
Pudduk!
A sickening sound of bone and flesh rupturing.
Shuten's hand pierced through Saber's back, seized her spine whole, and ripped it out.
"Kuh, agh...!"
Black blood spilled from Saber Alter's mouth as her body lost strength and staggered.
Her jet-black holy sword fell to the ground with a metallic clang. With her spine torn out, it was a mortal wound that should have killed her instantly.
But the King of Knights' tenacious vitality and obsession kept her conscious for a fleeting moment, even as it forced her to her knees.
Shuten and Baobhan Sith raised their weapons to finish her off, but I lifted a hand and stopped them. Then I slowly walked over and stood before Saber Alter, who was kneeling there and dragging in ragged breaths.
She raised her head and looked up at me. Her golden eyes were dimming, but they were still proud, and still beautiful.
"......My defeat."
A faint smile touched her bloodstained lips.
"As I thought... the knights who guard your side are as fierce and strong as hounds. So much so that there was not even the slightest opening for me to enter."
"You fought well, King of Knights."
At my indifferent encouragement, she closed her eyes as if satisfied. Her body began to scatter into particles of light from the tips of her feet.
"Togabito Yaiba. My conqueror, and my victor. Even if the world abandons you... please, do not lose the steadfast path you wish to walk. May fortune in battle... be with you."
With those final words, the fallen shell of the King of Knights oxidized completely into the air along with her black Magical Energy and scattered away.
[Main Quest: Singularity F restoration complete. Dispensing rewards: 1 guaranteed summon ticket for an Evil-aligned Servant of 3-star or higher, 2 random Craft Essence summon tickets.]
As the system notification floated in the air, the dreadful taint that had been pressing down on the great cavern of Ryuudou Temple began to melt away like snow.
"Haa... so it's over."
Cu Chulainn approached with his staff resting over one shoulder, letting out a light sigh. His feet too were breaking apart into motes of light, just like Saber Alter's had.
With the Holy Grail War at an end, he too was naturally being dismissed.
"Short, but one hell of an acquaintance. If you ever call me again, make sure you summon me properly as a Lancer next time, not a Caster."
Cu Chulainn gave me a carefree grin and raised a thumbs-up.
"Hang in there. If it's you, that nasty curse won't swallow you whole."
He still did not come too close because of my constitution, but the smile on his face was sincere and unadorned.
"Yeah. Good work."
With that refreshing smile, Cu Chulainn's figure scattered completely into light.
In the great cavern, now free of every threat in the Singularity, Mash was leaning against her shield and breathing hard, while the director, who had been hiding in the rear, finally stepped forward with a sigh of relief.
"I-It’s finally over. We look like a mess, but... we need to return to Chaldea at once. Mash, establish communications. Tell them to prepare the Rayshift."
It was just as the director, having returned to her usual haughty self, was issuing orders.
Clap, clap, clap.
Slow applause echoed from deep inside the cave, from the pitch-black darkness.
Everyone's eyes turned that way.
A man in a green top hat, wearing a sickening smile. The mastermind behind everything—Lev Lainur Flauros.
"Splendid. Truly a splendid show, Marie."
The moment Lev appeared, the director's face lit up.
"Lev?! You're safe! Thank goodness. What happened in Chaldea? Hurry and call for support from Chaldea!"
"Ahh, poor Marie."
Twisting his mouth, Lev smiled cruelly.
"I'm the one who planted the bomb beneath the control room. Why would I rescue you? Besides, you don't even have a body to return to. Your body, standing at the center of the explosion, was burned to charcoal long ago. You're nothing more than a pitiful spirit form that was Rayshifted without even realizing you were already dead."
"What... ?"
Lev's bombshell froze the cavern solid. Mash's eyes widened in despair, and the director collapsed where she stood, trembling violently.
Her eyes twisted in terror as she looked down at her own hands.
After mocking her, Lev slowly turned his gaze to me.
What filled his eyes was not contempt for a human.
Surprisingly, it was sympathy and fellow feeling.
"Togabito Yaiba. Poor soul, abandoned by the world and loathed by Human Order."
Lev politely extended a hand toward me.
"I know how terrible the curse you bear is. Humanity will not save you. But we are different. Come with me. If you join us, I will let you pass judgment with your own hands upon that beast called humanity that torments you."
An invitation from a Demon God Pillar.
At that sweet and malicious whisper, Shuten and Baobhan Sith moved close to my sides and held their breath.
Even Kojiro took his hand off his sword hilt and waited for my decision. In the silence, everyone watched only my lips.
I let out a short, dry laugh.
"I refuse."
At my immediate, calm refusal, Lev's smile froze stiff.
"May I ask why? Even if you save humanity, they will still treat you as a terrorist and a fiend and throw stones at you. That road leads only to ruin, where all you will receive is endless hatred and solitude."
"I know."
With both hands still in my coat pockets, I gave him a small smile.
"But this is the road I chose. That's life, isn't it? It's always got a way of being unfair and never going how you want."
"......"
At my offhand but resolute answer, Lev shook his head as if he truly found it regrettable.
"What a pity. Still, you will always be welcome. In that case, those hateful scraps of Chaldea should receive fitting punishment."
As Lev stretched out his hand into the air, space warped, and the image of CHALDEAS appeared—a grotesque globe burning red. It was hell itself, a vortex of ultra-dense mass and heat.
"Now then, Marie. Your body is already dead, but your soul alone will suffer endless agony inside that CHALDEAS for eternity, unable even to die."
As Lev chanted his Magecraft, the director's body, which had been collapsed on the ground, began to rise into the air.
"N-No...! I don't want this, it's hot, save me! Save meeeeee!"
"Director!!"
Mash screamed and reached out, but because of the unstable gravity in the great cavern as it collapsed along with the restoration of the Singularity, she could not properly get close.
"Master. There is nothing to gain from watching this any longer."
"Yeah, husband. Forget that thing and let's just get ready to head back."
"She was the woman who looked at you like you were a bug from the start. She brought it on herself."
Kojiro, Shuten, and Baobhan Sith all tried to stop me with cold voices.
They were right. She was already dead. There was no reason for me to risk my life and throw myself into those flames for her. I could just close my eyes and look away.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
But still. The end waiting for her inside CHALDEAS. The eternal agony she would have to endure.
Knowing that horrifying truth and standing by anyway... that would be no different from those disgusting people in my childhood who walked past me after I had been beaten to the ground and chose to look away.
Was that really the road I wanted? To choose the exact same path they had?
"......Damn it."
I bit down so hard my lower lip split, and clenched both fists until blood came out. Then I shouted toward the Servants at my side in a desperate voice I had never used on anyone in my life.
"Please, all of you. Save the director! Please!"
At that earnest, desperate plea, Shuten and Baobhan Sith's faces filled with shock. They clearly hated the idea, but they could not turn away from the look their absolute master was making.
"Damn it, seriously! If you come at me like that, how am I supposed to say no?!"
"I hate this, I really hate this... but if it's what you want!"
Shuten kicked off the ground and shot into the air, charging Lev with savage speed.
At the same time, Baobhan Sith snapped her bowstring, and crimson threads of blood wrapped tightly around the director's waist as she was being pulled into CHALDEAS, yanking her hard back toward me.
Lev barely managed to avoid Shuten's sharp claw strike by retreating backward.
But the place he retreated to was a perfect blind spot.
Then three streaks of sword light from Kojiro, who had slipped in without anyone noticing, exploded from behind Lev's back.
Slash!
With a grotesque tearing sound, Lev's body was butchered apart and scattered. But there was no way a Demon God Pillar would die from that much.
As his form collapsed and withdrew beyond the red space, Lev gave a warning.
"Fool... You will regret this choice. I swear it."
His figure vanished, and the illusion of CHALDEAS closed with him.
"Haa, haa... hhk, waaahhh!"
The director tumbled down at my feet and began sobbing like a child, terrified by how close she had come to being dragged into CHALDEAS.
We had saved her. But the cruel reality had not changed.
She was already a dead ghost, and once the Singularity collapsed and the Rayshift began, her spirit body would be unable to return to the present world and would instead vanish in the gap.
Wooooong!
Blue Rayshift light wrapped around our bodies, heralding the collapse of the Singularity.
There was no time. A way to bring her back to Chaldea... From what I knew, even if I used a selection ticket to obtain the Craft Essence [Heaven's Feel], I could not be sure it would perfectly materialize her soul.
Then it hit me.
[Main Quest reward: Guaranteed summon ticket for an Evil-aligned Servant of 3-star or higher.]
The reward notification appeared in my vision, and in that instant a hypothesis flashed through my mind like lightning.
"System!"
I shouted urgently into the air. Everyone stared at me in surprise.
"Using this Olga Marie Animusphere's soul as a catalyst, can you summon a Heroic Spirit by turning her into a vessel for a Demi-Servant or a Pseudo-Servant?! Answer me!"
Silence followed. In that brief moment, one second felt like an hour.
[......Checking. Conditions matched. Using the guaranteed summon ticket obtained as a reward as the medium, it is possible to perform a Pseudo-Servant summoning using the relevant spirit body as the vessel.]
"Holy shit...!"
A curse of joy burst from between my lips.
"Do it. Right now!"
[Commencing Heroic Spirit summoning. Searching the bonds engraved upon your soul. Bond level with a specific Heroic Spirit has exceeded the limit. Bond Level 15 (Max) confirmed.]
The system's inorganic voice echoed through the great cavern.
[Descending the relevant Heroic Spirit in Pseudo-Servant form into the spirit body Olga Marie Animusphere.]
Fwaaaash!
A blinding pillar of white and gold light erupted from the director's body, where she had been crying at my feet, so brilliant I could barely keep my eyes open.
"H-Husband?! That woman is giving off an absurdly terrifying presence...!"
"What?!"
The pressure was so overwhelming that even Shuten and Baobhan Sith recoiled in shock.
And at the same time, the light of the Rayshift escaping the collapsing Singularity swallowed us whole.
When I opened my eyes, what I saw was not the dark ash-gray ceiling anymore, but the cold metal ceiling of Chaldea's control room.
"......We're back."
Holding my throbbing head, I slowly pushed myself up. Kojiro, Shuten, and Baobhan Sith were still beside me as well, fully summoned rather than in spirit form.
And then, at that moment—
"......Ow, my head. What in the world happened... huh?"
My gaze turned toward a corner of the control room.
The director, who had definitely been crying like a child on the floor of the great cavern just moments ago, was now sitting there in confusion, patting her own body all over.
But she did not look like the director I knew.
It was—
President of Earth U-Olga Marie.
"......You've got to be kidding me."
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