"Anti-Spiral?!" Medea asked, perplexed. "What's that?!"
"Spiral is an energy, leaning more toward a concept," Black explained, drinking wine. They were seated in a clearing within the courtyard, eying the maids working upon the Castle. "It takes its power from Evolution. From Life. From the Process of Progression.
"Anti-Spiral is to Spiral, as Anti-Matter is to Matter. Unlike Spiral, Anti-Spiral takes its power from the idea of Nothingness. From True Death. From the Process of Ultimate Stagnation. The last step of Entropy."
Medea fell into a contemplative mode, rolling the wine in her glass.
Meanwhile, Black ignored the System's notification of destruction of his existence if he even so uttered a word about The Primordial Tower to Medea.
"So… this attacker from last night…" Caster said after a while. "… is someone like you?!"
Black smiled, nodding at her conclusion.
Medea took a deep breath, realizing the seriousness of the situation.
Black had already told her that this was the Evil counterpart of the same man who had snatched a part of the Zouken Matou's Inheritance during the Matou Mansion incident. But only now she learned of that man's true nature.
Suddenly, Medea's eyes narrowed. "… I am sure you didn't know of this about our enemy before," she surmised. "At least not until he attacked us last night. Does it mean… you knew we were going to be attacked?!"
Black tapped the round table between them, drank a mouthful of wine, and — nodded.
"Don't get me wrong," he explained, seeing Medea's eyes popping out. "Between my learning of his eventual arrival and attacking us, there was a gap of a fraction of a second. Moreover, even if I knew that he would be attacking us beforehand, I don't have nearly enough measures to resist an attack on that scale."
Not at least without unleashing his Reality Marble.
That, Black left unsaid, though.
Still, he hadn't lied.
One just didn't reach the 12th floor of The Primordial Tower without having utterly ridiculous Skills, Abilities, or Titles of their own.
It was true for Chaos' Contestants.
It was true for Order's Contestants as well.
Starting from the Initiation Mission, and then continuing on every floor thereof, The Primordial Tower demanded one to go beyond one's limits in every Side Mission. One needed to be cunning, extraordinary, and a killer among killers — just to survive.
It was on top of the fact that all those who were resurrected in The Primordial Tower were the best of the best of their generation in their home worlds, to begin with.
To take even half a step forward, just to barely stand out among the geniuses, one needed to grow at an unthinkable rate — hoarding powers from unperceivable sources.
Despite having a high Luck and Worth from the very beginning, Kai considered his greed to reach the Peak of Absolute Power as the thing that made him stand out from the rest.
It was because of this greed that he had gone after TheTales of Beedle the Bard in his faux Initiation Mission, initiating a series of events that had led him to this place.
So, of course, it didn't come as a shock to Kai that Contestants on his level had their own ridiculous turn of lucky events that let them reach this level.
A 12th-floor Contestant from Order's Peak, daring to barge into the Fate Bubble to vie for an Inheritance, with the Anti-Spiral Blessing from a Deep One from the Gurren Lagann Bubble deserved Kai's utmost respect and attention.
Not to mention, the Ad Infinitum still believed that Anti-Spiral, though undeniably deadly, wasn't the true power of that Contestant.
It was the Video Camera on his shoulders that he refused to put away.
"Even before knowing that powers he possesses," Black explained, "I was looking for him."
Medea nodded. Her Master had asked her many times to keep her eyes open for sudden attacks and unexplainable events.
Not only that, but more than the Heroic Spirits and other Masters, Black and Berserker had been looking for this unknown enemy with a higher zeal, letting Medea guess that something was amiss in all this.
"When Berserker reached the location of that explosion and saw him coming out of the flames," Black said, tapping the table, "he immediately acted, attacking the man."
Medea pressed her brows. What's wrong with that?! She asked herself. Doesn't it make sense to…
Black smiled. "… Berserker attacked him… when I had specifically instructed it not to…"
Caster's pressed brows jumped, making her sit straight. That can't be…
Of course, Black lied just now.
However, Berserker was being actively controlled by Kai at that moment.
It wasn't in Kai's nature to let himself be taken away by emotions and attack an enemy without confirming his chances of victory.
That basically amounted to Black ordering Berserker not to attack that strange enemy, and then Berserker doing so anyway.
"… Tell me it isn't related to…" Medea asked, holding an empty glass. "… Assassin?!"
Black poured more wine for Caster before leaning back into his chair and taking a deep breath. "Luck… This was the prime reason for trapping Assassin, right? To study why he was known as the Holy Grail's beloved. I don't know when Assassin's Luck began planning for this moment… But, to force Berserker to act and inadvertently make the enemy attack us in retaliation, it basically confirms that Assassin's Luck is much higher than mine."
Medea was already having a hard time comprehending the Luck-mechanics her Master was so bent on figuring out. She emptied the cup and asked, "… So, it was all a waste?"
"Haha…" Black laughed, shaking his head. "No. We learned how to go against Assassin's Luck, my lady."
"We did?!" Medea narrowed her eyes. "How?"
Black emptied his wine as well. "By not going against it…"
Before Medea could ask for a better explanation, Black stood up. "Now, it's time to get an answer for the sudden appearance of the tenth Servant."
More than that, Black needed to figure out an answer for Zelretch's Offer, which began sounding even more tempting after learning of his enemy's Anti-Spiral Blessing.
"From where?" Medea asked.
Black looked up at the cloudy, cold sky. "… From a King."
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