It was a difficult task to help him, half out of his mind.
"What do you intend to do, witch?"
"…I must do my best. You ask the obvious."
"Tch. I trust that 'best' of yours doesn't mean scattering a person's mind with a hypnotic artifact."
Gilgamesh pointed to the ground with the tip of her chin.
A black dot, so small a normal person would struggle to follow it with their eyes. It was passing between the brightly shining streetlights.
His expression, seen through Clairvoyance, was that of a madman. The corners of his mouth were turned up, but his eyes were sunken, and while his gait was restrained, his arms couldn't stay still.
Had there been any passersby, they would have noticed his oddity, but they had long since been driven away by perception-inhibiting magecraft.
Morgan had created a section in the city, amidst the Holy Grail War, where only one person could roam. A display of magical artifice that had perfectly deceived the eyes of all other mages and Servants.
Gilgamesh dismissed it as a foolish play.
"This is the best I can do. I cannot burden Kyle any further."
"A witch's idea. Do you mean to say that I must play the clown because of your pathetic judgment?"
Gilgamesh, the dominator, was playing the part of the dominated. It was a natural act, considering the constraints of being a Servant, but Gilgamesh was not pleased.
If she was to be dominated at all, she preferred it in bed.
A night with a lover. Although the witch had beaten her to it, Gilgamesh had no intention of passing up an opportunity. There were, after all, various kinds of play between lovers.
But now, the situation was ambiguously in-between.
Continuing the act while he was broken was simply trivial and boring.
"Wasn't it your wish for me to kneel obediently? King of Heroes. You seemed to enjoy it quite a bit."
"Silence. The only reason I let you watch me is that you are the safest way to intervene with Marduk. If I could have replaced you with my treasures, I would have thrown you under the water's surface immediately."
"Yes. And since you cannot, you came to see me. What is it you want to say?"
"I will end it tonight."
Gilgamesh declared, looking down at the ground with her arms crossed.
Her interest in the Holy Grail War was gone. Therefore, she would bring the curtain down.
It was a violent declaration, to crush the will of all participants in the ritual with her power alone, but for Gilgamesh, it was possible.
Thus, Morgan did not question her words but instead calculated what would happen after the Holy Grail War was concluded….
"Not bad."
Not bad; in fact, it was good. She came to this conclusion. The two women's opinions were aligned.
However, the most crucial obstacle remained.
What comes after. They had to discuss the situation after the Holy Grail War ended. Who would take the Grail, and who would stand by his side.
"You take the Grail. I shall take Kyle."
"Puhaha. Beyond arrogant… what a vermin-like statement. The mere act of uttering it has incurred my wrath. If it is to be called impressive, I suppose I should praise you for it."
Gilgamesh sneered but did not laugh.
"Not a chance. Marduk is mine. I will hold both the Grail and Marduk in my arms."
"Can't you see that your arrogance has killed Kyle? You still haven't escaped the delusion that Kyle will choose you, King of Heroes."
"And you, witch. You are the one who hasn't escaped your own obsessions. Even if the current Marduk were to go to the land of fairies, what do you think would change? If you force him, he will take his own life, and even if you stop him, you will never be given a second chance."
Without yielding an inch, the two attacked each other, asserting their ownership of him. This was a king's political calculation.
What was needed was a justification. Naturally, both bore great responsibility for Marduk/Kyle going mad. They had betrayed his heart time and again and had never told him the truth.
Their feelings were something beyond love. He couldn't withstand the love of superhumans, rather than that of a mortal, which resulted in his madness. But his madness, in turn, made it even more impossible for them to back down.
They had to possess him. Now that he was free from the shackles of a beast. For the rest of his life as a human, they would heal him as a form of atonement. It was with this single-minded determination that they faced each other.
It wasn't about the logic of power, but about who could care for him better. Who had even a 1% greater chance by being at his side? Only the one with such a justification could sit beside him.
They race on. Slandering the opponent, elevating themselves. All to possess him.
"It is too late to go back anyway. For both you and I."
"…Kyle will understand me one day. If he sees my Fairy Kingdom, he will change his mind."
"How dreadful. You are as selfish as ever. I am different. My gold can perfectly support Marduk's game of playing doctor. Something impossible with your meager magical skills."
"While being dominated by your eternal chains, you mean."
"Is your Fairy Kingdom any different?"
The two continued their war of nerves, but they knew it was meaningless.
'Marduk/Kyle is mine.'
After all, neither had any intention of yielding.
A suitable building of justifications. After a few rounds of psychological warfare against each other, the two got to the main point.
The core of a pointless bargain. The predetermined outcome.
"After the Holy Grail War ends. We will let Kyle choose himself."
"Naturally, there will be two choices."
"There are no other options."
Reflected on both their faces was a sliver of guilt.
The desperation of being unable to possess him otherwise, and the fact that this was the worst possible betrayal they could commit against him who had always trusted them, tickled their inner consciences.
But in the end, they shook it off. The river of no return had been crossed long ago. The women confronting each other in the skies of Fuyuki were only the King of Heroes and the Queen.
Not women tormented by love, but kings more obsessed than anyone else, who had finished their transaction.
Without a signal, they both gave a small nod.
"…I will take care of Berserker and Saber. I leave Rider and Assassin to you."
"Are you expecting Ea? Hmph. A pathetic expectation. They are not even worthy of me drawing Ea."
Gilgamesh opened a golden ripple and then closed it again. In her hand was a bundle of chains.
"Take it."
"…The chains of your friend? You've offered something valuable."
"Marduk is worthy. Enkidu would have wished for it as well."
"I will deliver it."
Handing over the chains, Gilgamesh dematerialized and disappeared.
She had likely gone to eliminate Assassin immediately. Morgan could not afford to fall behind, so she took action at once.
Before that, for a very brief moment, she looked down at him wandering the streets.
Morgan watched him for a long time—the older brother she once relied on most, who had now closed his heart—
"Brother Kyle… I'm sorry."
Leaving those words behind, she departed as if fleeing.
***
As soon as Ritsuka returned from the Singularity, she lay down in the center of the control room and whined like a child.
"It's painful!!! So painful!!!"
"Calm down, Ritsuka. The next Singularity will be an easy one."
"That's a lie. The Doctor always tricks me. You're planning to throw me into smog-filled London again!"
"That's… unavoidable. It's what the King of Mages did…."
Having cleared Fuyuki City, France, Okeanos, and London, Fujimaru Ritsuka could now be considered a respectable Master.
Though this was an evaluation limited purely to the mental domain, not her magical capacity or skill as a Master….
In any case, she was the last Master. She had reached a point where she could bear the weight of that role and title with her own two hands.
Looking at her current behavior, one would never think so, but at least scientific data doesn't lie... Romani decided to believe that.
"This one won't be that difficult. Probably…."
"The end of that sentence is weird! Oh, but the Doctor was always weird."
"Ahem. It's a Singularity that occurred in modern-day Fuyuki. I think it won't be too difficult to handle."
"Is that for real?"
At Ritsuka's theatrical tone, Romani let out another dry cough. He couldn't help it. Every Singularity he had called "easy" had been a continuous path of hardship.
A prime example was not a regular Singularity, but a localized one. The incident in Rome. Ritsuka still couldn't sleep just thinking about it.
"I never want to meet a Beast again. To be honest, it's scary. I hate it. I want to go home."
Romani, having only observed through the control room monitor, couldn't fully empathize with Ritsuka, the field agent. But he nodded his head.
The Beast may have been hiding its power, but it could have easily folded the likes of Ritsuka and Mash.
They were only able to win because it had limited its output and hadn't fought earnestly, as if it half-wished to be defeated.
Romani worried that Ritsuka might break down recalling a memory akin to a dark past, but his worries were unfounded.
"Still, I did get something out of it. Drumroll, please…."
Ritsuka made a drumming sound, waiting for someone. Soon after, the control room door opened with a hiss.
"Summoned using the clothes we got back then, it's Johanna-chan!"
"…It's a pleasure to be with you all, everyone from Proper Human History. I was once an enemy, but I will do my utmost to help."
Unlike in the Singularity, where she had brown hair and an overall neat attire, Johanna, summoned as a Servant to Chaldea, had a completely different appearance.
Beautiful, lustrous gray hair with purple highlights.
A soft, blue-toned cassock befitting the name of a Pope.
At the end of her large staff was, naturally, a beautifully crafted iron cross.
What drew the eye most of all was her aura. Separate from her dignified and pious image, the atmosphere she actually exuded was endlessly kind and gentle.
Anyone could see she was a Pope. Anyone could see she was a cleric. Anyone could see….
"Johanna-mama! Comfort me!"
"Mmm… have you blown your nose properly into a tissue?"
"Yeah! Okay!"
She was a benevolent mama.