Chapter 182
Back at the scene of carnage, a lone priest from a foreign religion surveyed the scene, his dull brown eyes taking in the fires, the blood and the mud splattered all over the place. Smoke rose in pillars from various points, the once tranquil surroundings transformed into a warzone that land had never seen before. Right at the start of the stairs, he could already see craters and gashes, with every step up the stairs bringing in new sights. Multiple instances of property destruction graced his eyes, gratuitous piles of broken rubble and tiles lying all over the place. Copious amounts of dust hung in the air, blurring the fires as a hazy orange glow hung over the place. Despite the winter air at night, the heat made it pleasantly breezy instead of bitingly cold, the stray glow of flames dotting the landscape. The scent of ash was acrid, but he was already long used to unpleasant smells.
Calmly stepping up to the top of the stairs, he had his hands folded behind him, his face a neutral mask of pure calm that completely disregarded the surroundings. Indeed, one could actually seem to notice the faint upturn at the corners of his lips, an expression few would ever make at this horrendous sight. Making his way through the lopsided torii gate, now missing a solid chunk in several places, he stepped over the large slabs of stone that had been flipped, picking his way through the uneven ground that threatened to trip anyone who dared to traverse the terrain with potholes and crates, rubble ranging from the size of fists to doors lying in wait to ambush an unwary foot.
He made it look like a stroll in the park as his legs smoothly moved from foothold to foothold, navigating without hesitation as he moved like a shadow sliding from surface to surface, unimpeded by any physical obstacles. He passed the front building, unrecognizable in it's ruined state, with only the four corners still intact while the center was caved in to an extraordinary extent. He could see evidence of an intense fight nearby, with several leftover unexploded ordnance from Assassin's barrage, and the numerous thin gashes left behind from the bladed weapons of the combatants. His eyes caught everything, reconstructing the sequence of combat in his mind as he caught every last detail available to him regarding the battles that had just been fought here, using the clues to piece together a picture of what had happened.
From there, he could extract a rough idea of who, or what, had been involved, and further obtain information regarding their capabilities. It was a given that Saber, Caster and their Masters had been involved, but who were the rest?
His questions were answered soon after as he came to the pit leading down into unknowable depths, the remains of foul dark mud clinging to the edges of the great pit. But all the smell reached him faster, and he realized what was going on here. Slowly, his lips curled as he gazed down into the smoky ravine, an artificial hole leading down into a place he already knew of.
Going around it, he went into the central courtyard of the temple that housed the living quarters, mess hall and dojo, which were still semi-intact, having seen less action than the front of the temple. There were still holes dotting the place, and unseemly gaps on the ground, but it was to a far lesser degree than what Kirei had just seen behind him. Going through each building one by one, he searched through them meticulously, entering every single room as he inspected them for signs of damage or survivors. The beds were empty, with ruffled covers and pillows still bearing shallow depressions from heads resting on them. The kitchen had a counter smashed to pieces, but the tables and cushions were mostly intact. The dojo was virtually untouched inside, save for the debris that had fallen from the openings in the roof, allowing moonlight to enter the dark interior.
It didn't seem like there was anyone here though, which made him wonder where the priests had gone. Had the Masters staying here taken preemptive measures to evacuate the place, or simply made the priests disappear for convenience? There was a high possibility that they had been relocated elsewhere after the battle had started, for their own safety as well as mainly to prevent any witnesses to the Servants fighting. Ryuudou Temple was remote enough that nobody would actually witness a fight there except for its inhabitants, and even if there were some flashy explosions in the air, the barrier erected around the mountain also served to divert attention as well as dampen sounds and diffuse light, making it difficult to notice things occurring within, as well as making it an ideal place to meditate since it was effectively, a world cut off from the outside. The mountain was already quiet, prompting the temple to be founded there as a place to meditate, and the Bounded Field only enhanced it's isolated nature.
Perhaps a second meteor shower would be acceptable as an explanation. He would just have to procure some rocks to make it seem legitimate, perhaps with a hypnotized expert or two. Then inspiration as he realized he could combine it with a gas leak. The meteors fell and coincidentally struck a gas pipe, causing it to rupture and explode. Nodding to himself, he settled with this as part his mind started preparing for the cleanup operation he'd have to oversee afterwards. As for the monks, hopefully he'd be able to find their bodies later. It would be less of a hassle to deal with than having them vanish into thin air, since he could alter corpses to make them look like they died in the 'gas explosion', or if they were alive, then he could simply hypnotize them.
After combing through the aftermath thoroughly without finding anything significant, he decided to go back to the fissure in the ground. Without any hesitation whatsoever, he jumped straight in.
Wind rushed past his face, the howling currents filling his ears as he tore past the barrier of smoke, the air quickly shifting from the smoke stained winter air to a damp, rotten stink that reminded him of spoiled food, a sour, acidic component mixed in that tickled his olfactory senses. It was familiar in an almost comforting manner, the memories of a past war that he still remembered, the closest thing to a memory he would cling to fondly.
Now wasn't the time for reminiscing though, his mind turning back to the current state of affairs as he left the hazy tunnel behind, the dull orange glow intensifying until he broke out of the tunnel and into the cavern that housed the core of the Holy Grail War. Beneath him, he could see an ocean of mud stretching in all directions, the ground all but disappeared under the great mass of liquid. Adjusting his position mid-air, a brief flash of reinforcement ensured he landed in one piece as a mighty splash of dark mud flying into the air, droplets of them landing on the priest's skin, but he showed no adverse reactions to it.
Raising his feet higher to compensate for the ankle high mud, he stepped through the morass to go to the center of the cavern, where the pillar sealing the grand capstone of the entire ritual was located, as of yet unstained by the mud seeping through places unknown into the cavern. Standing before the tall spire was a lone figure, divested of her armor with only plain fabric swathing her body, her exposed pale skin standing in direct contrast to the dark mud surrounding her on all sides. Just from looking at her back, one could already tell her appearance must be exquisite, a seemingly delicate yet regal beauty that would only bloom further as she matured, though that was currently out of the question.
Kirei's heart was unswayed as she turned around, showing him the face that was so much the same as another person he had seen before, accompanying the man he'd never be able to forget.
"You're late."
A cold voice with a surprisingly low-pitch that gave her a tomboy feel was what Kirei heard, which combined with the spiky hair that stood at odds with her beauty, lent her an attractive aura that was appealing to both men and women. She could pass herself off as a man if she tried hard enough.
Showing no change in expression to the accusing statement, Kirei simply smiled and calmly replied.
"I was tied up with other matters. In addition, it's surprising that you're out already."
Kneeling down, he slid his hand through the mud, lifting it up as the thick substance spilled from the gaps between his fingers.
"After all, before the final Heroic Spirits are slain, this shouldn't be possible."
The Holy Grail would only give birth to All the World's Evils after the seal was lifted by the victor making a wish. Whatever they wished for, it would become a conduit through which the black mud would spill through, allowing the release of 'salvation', at least to Kirei. However, he could plainly see with his own eyes that the container was already leaking, and Angra Mainyu, or at least some kind of representative for it, was already existing right in front of him.
Placing a hand on it's vessel's chest, it stared down at the slender hands and arms that it now moved as its own.
"If it weren't for the blonde girl, this wouldn't have been possible."
There were key moments in history where timelines diverged from each other, the crucial stage where quantum time locks were centered around to prune timelines at the right divergence point. This wasn't true for all timelines existing that were recorded in the Root, but it was a general rule for most. For Angra Mainyu to manifest a figment of itself that survived the Holy Grail being sealed by Kiritsugu, the wish uncompleted, there was someone else who had taken the victor's place as a wishmaker.
Saber.
With her dying breath, the curse made against her Master became a 'wish', being judged so by the Grail. A threat of mutual destruction that dragged herself down with the demon who had destroyed her opportunity to right her wrongs just when it had been within her grasp, on the verge of being touched by her fingertips. The madness induced by having her chance snatched away made her spit out words unfitting of the king, a wellspring of hate that flowed out like a bursting dam in the form of words that echoed in the air as her body disappeared into ether.
Having received a wish, the Grail acted on it. Unlike the wish of Kiritsugu that caused the Fuyuki fire, her's was granted in a less flashy manner, but it was unable to be completed. Her's was a wish of destruction, phrased in such a way that meant as she died, so would Kiritsugu die with her. But with Saber gone before the wish was actualized, it meant the wish was unfulfilled, and even as Kiritsugu died, succumbing to the curse of Angra Mainyu which was in reality partly fueled by Saber's remnants of vengeance, it was unable to attain the true end of her wish. To serve its function, the only way was to summon Saber again, but since the fragment was a half-baked split off of the original that barely possessed anything except a burning desire to kill Saber and Kiritsugu, the result was this cloning mess.
There were also other reasons behind the fact that the Grail malfunctioned in such a manner, such as the summoning of Alter-Ego in previous wars, a Dead Apostle Ancestors machinations with the leylines unrelated to the Grail Wars, which all contributed to Angra Mainyu being released early, but Saber's wish was the primary catalyst that spurred the beast to manifest in such a manner.
Kirei was less concerned about how this had come about though, and was more focused on the possibilities that this would bring. Feeling his heart beat faster in his chest at the thought of the world receiving Angra Mainyu earlier than he had expected, he calmed himself with the iron discipline instilled at a young age, asking the question that he harboured within his heart ever since Avenger's appearance was confirmed by Ruler.
"You are still trapped within the Grail, aren't you?"
Instead of answering, Mordred/Avenger turned towards the pillar and placed a hand on it.
"The administrator sure is one hell of a lady. Snow White wouldn't let me go anywhere, but she probably didn't expect that one wish to go through and give me a crack to squeeze through."
The Holy Maiden of Winter, the original sole resident of the Holy Grail system, was the reason Avenger hadn't razed Fuyuki City to the ground the first time he died in the Third Holy Grail War. Suspended in a form of semi-immortality within the Grail to serve as an administrative function, she was a firewall within the system that blocked the virus called All the World's Evils from overriding the entire Greater Grail. Even though on the surface it looked like the mud was covering the entire cavern, within the system there was actually little that the fragment of Angra Mainyu could control, the ancient rituals safeguarded against it's tampering by a powerful guardian. At best, it could only nudge and modify some things, aided by the technicality that it was granting a wish that the Holy Grail was duty-bound to grant, lending its power in such cases where Angra was fulfilling its role as a wish-granting entity.
Thus, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that it was still trapped within the Grail, except now the fragment had finally obtained a puppet body that it could move around outside of the confines of the Greater Grail. It wasn't easy getting to this point, but with Ruler out of the way and the Saint Graph overwritten, it could finally enjoy the fruits of its labours, the freedom of to live with a body.
Turning back to Kirei, Avenger spoke to him.
"Nothing has changed. We continue picking off the Servants until the wish can be made."
Upon hearing it's answer, Kirei nodded.
Then Avenger frowned.
"What of the Golden King? Will he not be a problem?"
Despite only having the briefest of contact with the arrogant Archer, the rejection from the mud by Gilgamesh had left a strong impression, even with the fragment that had felt the resonation of him pushing back the mud. If there was a list of the greatest obstacles on the path to fully releasing the Grail, Avenger would place him at the top. There was no telling what he would do in pursuit of finding a worthy person for the Grail, which he considered his treasure, and he could easily derail their plans.
Kirei could easily detect the worry over Gilgamesh, which was warranted since he also understood what the king was capable of, but for now he knew that the Servant was unlikely to move, as long as no drastic actions against him occurred.
"I will keep an eye on him, but rest assured, he will stay his hand for the time being."
"I see."
Abruptly, Avenger's left arm fell off. It splashed into the mud noisily, cleanly disconnected from the shoulder, the cross-section of the bone, flesh, nerves and blood vessels clearly visible to Kirei as he stared at it mutely. Showing no signs of alarm, Avenger casually knelt down and picked it up as it floated on the surface, lightly placing the two halves back together as it reattached itself, black mud oozing from between as she kept it in place with the other arm.
"Berserker."
Kirei raised an eyebrow at the name Avenger uttered in a low voice, almost inaudible. So there was a Servant who could easily contend with it, despite having the powers of the mud and a massive energy source in the form of the Holy Grail. He mentally bumped up the priority of Berserker and her Master Illya on his lists of targets.
Then Avenger's head fell off.
Kirei's eyes gazed apathetically as Avenger's body knelt down, picked up the head by it's hair and placed it back on the stump of its neck.
"You saw nothing."
Kirei nodded, then turned away and dashed from the cavern to the real exit of the place that had been hidden by Avenger during the fight with Berserker, leaving Avenger behind in awkward silence.
Sighing, Angra Mainyu with Mordred's features gazed up at the sky through the fissure above it.
"Maybe I should buy some duct tape."