"So this is the Lesser Grail? It looks… pretty ordinary. If we want to summon the Greater Grail, what are we supposed to do next?"
The Lesser Grail that had been embedded within Iriya's body was finally, successfully removed. At this very moment, Medea was holding the small, unassuming vessel in her hands, her eyes shining with anticipation as she turned to look at Ren Kuroda standing nearby.
Perhaps Medea herself hadn't even realized it yet—but somewhere along the way, she had subconsciously accepted the idea that Ren knew everything.
Originally, she was supposed to be the one in control. She was the Master, after all. And yet, without noticing when it happened, Medea had begun to rely on Ren more and more.
Now that the Holy Grail War was down to its final participants—only two Riders and a Saber remaining—victory was close. But if they could obtain the Grail without fighting to the death, who in their right mind would refuse such an option?
This Grail could grant two wishes.
Medea didn't know what Ren's wish was. But she herself was very clear about what she wanted.
A physical body.
To remain in the present world and continue living this life she had grown attached to.
In the past, Medea's wish had been to change her fate—to rewrite the cruel tragedy of her life. But after spending so much time thinking things through, she realized something unsettling.
Even if she returned to the past… there was nothing there worth returning to.
Endless betrayal. Memories steeped in pain.
Those scars were etched too deeply into her soul. Compared to going back to that hell, she would rather abandon it all and begin anew.
Here, in the present, she had people who cared about her—people who indulged her whims, who didn't recoil from her identity as a witch.
"Just find a place with a large concentration of magical energy," Ren said calmly. "But even if you summon the Greater Grail, it won't help."
"Because ever since the previous Holy Grail War, a violation committed by the Ainsubāren family has already corrupted the Grail."
"The current Grail has lost its ability to grant wishes entirely. What it's become instead… is a disaster waiting to happen."
"The Grail is now a container for All the Evils of This World. Sixty years' worth of malice, hatred, resentment, despair—every negative emotion humanity has produced—has been accumulating inside that broken cup."
"And once the Greater Grail is summoned, that 'Evil of This World' will overflow and spread across all of Fuyuki City."
"Forget about ordinary civilians—even Heroic Spirits would be unable to resist corruption in the face of that much accumulated evil. They'd fall. They'd be twisted beyond recognition."
Silence fell over the room.
Everyone present froze, stunned by Ren's words.
None of them thought he was lying.
Given everything Ren had demonstrated so far—his impossible foresight, his uncanny understanding of events—no one doubted him anymore.
And once the truth of the Grail was laid bare, the ones hit hardest were Emiya Kiritsugu and Medea.
For Kiritsugu, it wasn't just shock—it was denial.
Once upon a time, he truly believed that obtaining the Holy Grail would allow him to save the world.
And now he was being told that the Grail he had devoted his life to chasing… couldn't save anything at all.
Worse—it would destroy everything.
What made it even more bitterly absurd was that his wife and daughter had nearly been dragged into an inescapable, tragic fate—all because of that cursed cup.
As for Medea, the reason for her despair was simpler.
If the Grail couldn't grant wishes, then she couldn't obtain a physical body.
Which meant she couldn't remain in the present world.
Which meant she would be forced back into the past she despised.
At this moment, a twisted thought crept into her mind—she almost wished the Holy Grail War would never end.
As long as it continued, she could stay here.
"No," Kiritsugu said firmly. "If the Grail is truly this dangerous, then we must stop the Holy Grail War altogether."
"I'll have Shirō speak with the Tōsaka family's heir. And the Matō family has lived in Fuyuki for generations—they know better than anyone what it would mean if this city were destroyed."
Iriya had been saved.
And with his daughter safe, Kiritsugu's long-suppressed sense of justice surged back to the surface.
They didn't have the power—or the authority—to evacuate an entire city.
So if they wanted to protect its people, there was only one option left.
They had to forcibly bring the Holy Grail War to an end.
"You're being far too naïve," Ren replied flatly. "Do you really think that if the Servants just stop fighting—if there's no winner—everything will magically settle down?"
"Then let me ask you something: don't you find it strange?"
"The Holy Grail War is supposed to occur once every sixty years. So why did the Fourth and Fifth Wars happen only ten years apart?"
"Ten years ago, there was no victor. But the Greater Grail still manifested."
"And the 'Evil of This World' nearly wiped out half of Fuyuki City."
"The only reason the catastrophe stopped was because you, in this timeline, used a Command Spell to order Saber to destroy the Grail."
"In other words—"
"We can't stop the Grail from appearing."
"'The Evil of This World' will still emerge."
"And if we simply destroy the Grail's projection again, the Sixth Holy Grail War will likely begin even sooner."
Kiritsugu fell silent.
After everything that had happened with Iriya, he had already planned to withdraw from the war entirely.
But now that he understood the scale of the threat, he couldn't bring himself to look away.
"As long as the problem of 'The Evil of This World' remains unsolved," Ren continued, "the Holy Grail War will repeat endlessly."
"And every time, more evil accumulates inside the Grail."
"This world produces no shortage of negative emotions. Even a single extra day adds an enormous amount when you consider the entire planet as the baseline."
"The more 'Evil of This World' that builds up, the greater the destruction each Grail's manifestation will cause."
"Human malice is infinite."
"This time, it might only be Fuyuki City."
"But after a few more cycles… it might be an entire nation that gets erased."
Ren wasn't exaggerating.
Given the nature of 'The Evil of This World,' such an outcome was entirely possible.
"Then… is there really no other way?" Kiritsugu asked hoarsely. "No way to deal with this 'Evil of This World'?"
"Assassin… you know so much. There has to be something, right?"
He looked like a drowning man grasping desperately for the last piece of driftwood in sight.
Ren sighed.
"You're giving me too much credit."
"'The Evil of This World' is the sum total of humanity's negativity—and it's been accumulating for decades."
"There are methods to deal with it."
"But none that any ordinary being could accomplish."
"There are only two solutions I can think of."
"First—purification."
"Since it's made entirely of negative energy, you could theoretically neutralize it with pure, positive power."
"But something that contains the evil of the entire world?"
"Even a saint wouldn't be able to purify that."
Not one.
Not ten.
No amount of sanctity could withstand that scale of corruption.
Kiritsugu knew it was unrealistic, so he said nothing and waited for Ren to continue.
"The second option is to find a new container to replace the Grail."
"A vessel capable of holding all of the current 'Evil of This World'."
"That vessel could be a person… or an exceptionally powerful relic."
"But understand this—any holy object that becomes such a container risks turning into a second Grail."
"And if the vessel is a human…"
"Then no matter how kind or righteous they were before, exposure to that amount of evil could transform them into an absolute demon king."
"This is the negativity of the entire world."
"Even Heroic Spirits can fall if their will isn't strong enough."
Kiritsugu fell silent once more.
He couldn't deny it.
Neither option was something a normal human could ever accomplish.
The Grail itself was a miracle created by the three founding families of Fuyuki, built with unimaginable resources. Finding a replacement artifact was practically impossible.
And using a human as the vessel?
Even if someone willingly offered their life… what kind of monstrous existence would they become afterward?
Kiritsugu didn't even want to imagine it.
"Then… is there really no other way?" he asked quietly.
"You said the Grail was corrupted because of the Ainsubāren family, didn't you?"
"Then don't they have a way to fix it?"
His gaze shifted toward the person standing closest to the source of the problem.
"Staring at me won't help," Medea snapped coolly. "The last Holy Grail War happened decades ago."
"Even if the fault does lie with the Ainsubāren family, it certainly isn't mine."
"If you want someone to blame, go dig up their previous head. Or the one before that."
The Ainsubāren family wasn't calm about this situation either.
After all, the Grail was their creation—one of the three families' greatest legacies.
And as Ren had already said, every manifestation of 'The Evil of This World' only grew more destructive.
Even if their main estate was far from Fuyuki, who could guarantee they wouldn't be affected someday?
As for Ren himself…
He truly had no other solutions.
All they could do now was destroy the Grail as quickly as possible once it appeared, forcing it back into its original dimension.
Yes, that would cause the Sixth Holy Grail War to arrive sooner.
But for now, it was the only option left.
And besides—
Even if Ren could solve the problem…
He wasn't a savior.
'The Evil of This World' was humanity's burden.
He had no obligation to stake everything just to clean up someone else's sins.
..
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