Gray ran as fast as her legs would move as she carried mama on her back to get away from Mordred before he disappeared. It was vital that Irisviel and Mordred were as far away from each other as possible when the Saber Servant perished to lower the chances that Irisivel would absorb Mordred rather than going to a potentially closer Lesser Grail in the form of Illya or Chloe. The trees of the forest became a blur of green from the superhuman speeds Gray was moving at thanks to being essentially a Pseudo-Servant of a Divine Spirit. It was unfortunate that Gray could not control when Mordred died, but she could at least control her own actions.

Why didn't Mordred's death bother Gray more? The answer was obvious at this point. Her emotions were all but entirely gone thanks to her fusion with the Divine Spirit. At their rate, it was only a matter of time until Gray was completely gone and the entity inside her supplanted her existence. Gray would have been panicking over this fact if it weren't for the fact that the very entity Gray feared was the same one taking that fear away, along with all else that made her who she was. The transformation was replacing Gray's concerns and personal desires with a sense of clarity that let her view everything with a degree of genuine objectivity in terms of the greater good of humanity as a species. She was able to evaluate her situation as to what actions she should take to make sure the greater good is achieved and that analysis led to a single conclusion that Gray was struggling to find a counterargument for.

Gray should just kill mama.

That thought was interrupted by a sudden pain and an acknowledgement that Gray was under attack. A burning sensation that tried to consume and dissolve Gray's entire being as she felt herself be covered in a viscous substance like napalm. The mud of the Grail was covering Gray and its source was the passenger on Gray's back who quietly laughed.

Without a second thought, Gray summoned a Noble Phantasm of the Divine Spirit she was becoming. Invisible Air became an intangible aura surrounding Gray that whipped up into a localized tornado and blew away all the mud on the girl's body as well as her mama. Despite having just been covered in curses, Gray only had some burns due to not possessing a body made of magical energy that can be easily dissolved by the mud, and because she had divine power coursing through her that rejected the Grail's impurity.

Mama landed on the ground limply like a fresh corpse and yet her smile didn't fade. Mud formed around her body and pushed her onto her feet while draping around her form like clothing. The power of alchemy boosted by the Greater Grail allowed the mud to be transmuted into a gothic black dress that radiated a sense of danger around mama as she continued softly chuckling. All her wounds had closed up completely despite her having been impaled multiple times earlier. The Greater Grail's power had boosted mama's ability to heal to being below only that of Avalon.

"Fuck! God fucking damn it!" Add swore. "We were too Goddamn slow! Irisviel, come on, don't tell me you're really gone! You're still in there! Fight!"

Mama didn't respond. She was too lost in her own little world.

"Mama, are you gone?" Gray turned Add into his halberd form that imitated Rhongomyniad and got into a low stance. She already knew the answer to her question. She only said it because of the little piece of Gray's emotions that still persisted inside herself despite everything.

"So now you care about other people." Mama's head tilted to the side while her arms dangled like a doll's. "You sure you have enough time in your schedule to be worrying about others? You're usually so busy pitying yourself and making other people feel bad about your face." The vindictiveness in mama's words made it clear that she wasn't mama anymore. She was the vessel of the Greater Grail now, the Black Grail.

"Listen, Irisviel! You aren't beating Gray in a fight so just back down! One hit from Rhongomyniad and you're gone! You know Gray's willing to do it with how she is now!"

"Oh, Add, I forgot you existed. You're so forgettable."

"Even now, people've got to get their jabs in at me." Add was getting sick of the mockery.

"Mama, I really will kill you for the greater good of humanity." Gray's voice turned completely emotionless and the whirlwind around her body surged.

"I wonder if you'd still be saying that if the Divine Spirit wasn't influencing you. Would you really have the guts to kill your own mother? Probably. You only care about yourself in the end."

"I do love you, mama. I love you, mom, Illya, Mordred."

"Talk all you want, I know the truth. You and the rest of humanity are cruel and selfish monsters who are like a plague. You're all full of arrogance and selfishness, thinking you know best and failing to see beyond yourselves."

"Listen, Irisviel." Add said. "I know that you're being messed up by the Grail right now and that this isn't your fault. That said, you definitely have some actual grievances and stuff that the Grail is just making more intense. Irisviel, you aren't wrong to be pissed about most of the things you're pissed about, you're totally valid. I know I'm probably wasting my time, but if there's some tiny part of you that'll still listen to reason, know that we'll address whatever problems you have and work to fix things."

Irisviel rolled her eyes and didn't bother giving a response.

"Mom, your mud will be outmatched against Rhongomyniad's light. Just surrender yourself." Gray spoke as if she wasn't planning to still kill the Black Grail. She just wanted her to lower her guard enough to make the kill quick and easy.

"You underestimate what I can do when I have a functionally endless supply of magical energy and Grail mud to enhance my alchemy." The Black Grail pulled out a wire for her magecraft, the kind she usually used to create homunculi for combat. The thread weaved into a humanoid shape and Grail mud covered that shape and filled it up to create a sort of mud man. It was an unimpressive sight by all accounts and would be easily splattered with a single thrust of Add. "Now to do a little soul transferring, or rather Saint Graph transferring." Transferring Saint Graphs? The Black Grail must have been using the Grail to amplify her limited ability as an Einzbern homunculus to control souls. She was going to move one of the Heroic Spirits inside herself into that mud doll. Gray knew what the Black Grail was doing and immediately thrust Add at the humanoid mass of curses before it could be completed.

Gray was too slow once more.

Mud turned to silver and blue full body armor that was smooth and elegantly slim. A royal blue cape fluttered behind the newly summoned Servant. In their hand was a very special holy sword that was half-corrupt, yet half-pure. The weapon was split down the middle, one side a gold and blue Divine Construct with a blade emitting splendid light, the other side black with red marking befitting a tainted armament. The sword was Excalibur, there were no two ways about it. This Servant had to be some mutated version of either Mordred or Rider, but then why did they have Excalibur? And even more confusingly, looking at this knight made Gray feel like they were King Arthur. They weren't King Arthur, Gray knew her mom too well to be fooled by any imposter, but something about the being before her made the thought that they were King Arthur be implanted into her subconscious. It had to have been some kind of skill or Noble Phantasm.

"What is this?"

"Consider it a science experiment. I made a zombie."

The knight clenched a fist before gripping their blade with two hands and saying only one word.

"Imposter."

The altered Servant charged their blade with lightning of light and lightning of darkness. The two Mana Bursts mingled while never melding and the sword whipped through the air with practiced exactness to create a dual colored crescent in the air. Gray's reaction was just as masterful as she parried the slash towards the sky which didn't manage to stop the attack's magical energy from blowing Gray away and melting the whole area from the sheer heat given off. The land became a mess of melted dirt, burning trees, and clouds of ash. Invisible Air protected Gray from the wildfire and even then, the heat of the initial slash left the Pseudo-Servant further burned and actually cauterized her stump. Lucky for her.

Another Mana Burst flowed through the sword of purity and corruption which was swung again. The new Servant was getting magical energy directly from the Greater Grail which meant he could just use his Mana Burst as much as he wanted without worry. He kept attacking without restraint or pause while Gray used the spearmanship skill of the Divine Spirit inside her to redirect each slash while still getting hit with the heat of the attacks. The imposter King Arthur wielded their blade with two hands, imitating the real Artoria Pendragon's style in a way that was imperfect, but arguably no less effective in terms of sheer technique.

A trail of burning chaos was made through the forest as the two fighters kept on the move with Gray trying to escape while the alter Servant refused to relent in their pursuit. Endless Mana Bursts wore away at Gray who was breathing heavily. The lack of an arm was hampering her ability to fight back or even fully redirect the oncoming blows. Gold and black lightning grazed Gray whose body was getting scorched further and whose technique was getting sloppy. The previous fight against Assassin had left her weak and in desperate need of rest.

Add shifted to his scythe form which was the best at absorbing magical energy. As Gray continued parrying Mana Bursts, she now began to suck up some of the energy of the slashes to begin rejuvenating herself. To make up for the strength she lacked from having one arm, Gray began performing many twirls and took advantage of the uneven weight of the scythe to build momentum. Each uninterrupted rotation built up more kinetic energy which made each hit harder as Gray switched to the offensive to meet the imposter King Arthur's attacks head on. There was no way she could match them in her condition, but she could power through the damage as she absorbed as much of each Mana Burst as possible.

Gray refused to pull back and let the momentum she was constantly building up with her rotations be lost. She kept moving forward, as did the knight. The two's weapons kept crashing into each other and causing the entire forest to jump. Blazing trees flew towards the sky as the land became a tremendous divot that glowed yellowish white. Gold and black lightning kept flowing into Add with every collision of weapons which made Gray feel revitalized. That didn't mean the knight was getting tired at all, they seemed as energized as ever as they kept meeting Gray head on.

Another shift in form changed Add from a scythe to a large hammer that began releasing flames made of magical energy out of the back of it. This was an imitation of Mana Burst, but Gray could also use a real Mana Burst thanks to the Divine Spirit inside her. Gray unleashed a Mana Burst to make the hammer's propulsion doubly powerful and allowed it to move so fast it was a blur to even Gray herself as it slammed into the knight who barely blocked in time. The alter Servant was launched away and the shockwave left in his body's wake destroyed everything he moved past and caused the burning dirt to launch into the air in an image resembling the parting of the Red Sea by Moses.

This wasn't the time to let up on the pressure so Gray ran after the knight while he was still airborne and transformed Add again. This time he became a grappling hook and Gray twirled him so fast he created a windstorm before throwing him at the knight. Add wrapped around the Servant's leg and Gray violently tugged on the line, yanking the knight back towards herself and hitting him with serious whiplash. Add released the Servant's leg and changed into a halberd again. Gray thrust Add forward and charged him with another Mana Burst.

The knight used a Mana Burst of his own, but instead of using it to attack, he struck at the ground which destroyed it and creamed a smokescreen of vaporized dirt while propelling himself up and out of the way of Gray's thrust.

Add changed to bow form this time and Gray began rapidly firing arrows of magical energy with her teeth that the Servant easily deflected. The diverted arrows flew in random directions and impacted with the ground, creating eruptions of displaced earth.

The bow became a boomerang and to give the next attack an extra layer to it, Gray cloaked the weapon in Invisible Air to make it invisible. While the knight touched down, Gray threw the translucent boomerang while the wind around it made it spin faster than normal to increase its cutting power.

It should have been difficult to figure out what angle Add would come from due to his invisibility, but the knight just stomped on the ground and created another fog of dust in the air. As Add entered the smokescreen, he displaced the airborne dirt around him which made it clear where he was.

The Servant swung his sword and powered it with a Mana Burst again. Excalibur met the boomerang which kept spinning like a buzzsaw before getting overwhelmed by the dual-colored lightning. As the weapon stopped its rotation and hung in the air for an instant, the knight reached out and grabbed Add to leave Gray disarmed.

"I'm taking this back. Rhongomyniad doesn't belong in the hands of an imposter like you." The knight said. The hypocrisy was staggering.

"Strike Air."

The wind around the boomerang sped up and spread out in all directions. The knight grunted as he threw the weapon away before he could take the full brunt of the wind blast. Like a bolt from the blue, Gray ran over and grabbed Add.

She was armed again, but she wasn't in a very good place at the moment. She was absolutely exhausted to the point that she likely wouldn't be able to even scratch the enemy Servant at all. Even if she could, the knight was getting a direct stream of magical energy from the Greater Grail that meant he could heal endlessly as long as he didn't take a lethal or near lethal blow. There was no way Gray could beat both this fake King Arthur and the Black Grail. Gray needed more magical energy, magical energy that Gray wasn't currently tapping into. If Gray accessed the full power of the Divine Spirit inside herself, she'd be able to use Rhongomyniad to defeat both her opponents.

But that meant giving up who she was. She would die, functionally speaking. Her identity would be erased.

Now was the time to decide what Gray cared about most.

It was obvious that Gray didn't want to lose her identity and especially didn't want to die. She spent her life desperate to attain her own appearance and figure out who she was as an individual. To always look like someone else and be expected to give your life for them was something that ate away at Gray and made her feel like she didn't matter. To die by being supplanted by an alternate version of her mom was the worst way to go in Gray's eyes.

But she'd happily meet that fate head on if it meant saving her family. Gray had already failed to protect Mordred and mama and she didn't want to lose anyone else. If she was going to save mom and Illya, Gray had to kill the two monsters in front of her and the only way to do that was with the power of Rhongomyniad. It was either unleash the Spear of the End or run away to live another day while the Black Grail and their Servant would hunt down all the other Servants, including mom.

Mom had saved Gray from the accursed village in which she was born and gave her all she wanted to make her feel better about her lack of her own appearance. She had made Gray's life a dream and so had Illya who was the best big sister she could ask for. Despite all the identity issues Gray had, she truly had a great life full of great people and she was thankful beyond belief for it. To run away now would be a betrayal of all of Gray's blessings.

And then there was the World and the rest of humanity. Gray had an obligation as a member of the human race to preserve her species, even at the cost of her individual life. The spear Rhongomyniad was a weapon that existed for the preservation of mankind and Gray was that spear's wielder. There was a World ending threat in Gray's presence and so she had a responsibility to use Rhongomyniad here and now. If not now, then when?

There were no doubts left in Gray's heart. Now was the time to sacrifice it all for the greater good.

Add returned to a cube and was lifted up above Gray.

"Gray, don't tell me…" Add said.

"I am."

"Wait, Gray, think about this! If you take the spear out, you'll go away! The god will take over!" Add spoke with desperation for his closest companion.

"I know."

"There's no way to convince you to stop?"

"No. I'm sorry."

"I see."

"I'll miss you, Add. You were always there for me when nobody else was. You're my best friend."

"You're my best friend, Gray. I'll miss you."

"Make sure the Divine Spirit doesn't do anything crazy, and tell mom and Illya I love them."

"I will."

Add was consumed by the color of gold as magical energy became like a vortex around Gray.

"Gray, Rave, Crave, Deprave. Grave me. Grave for you."

A pillar of light shot up towards the sky and the white hot dirt around Gray was blown away. The knight tried to attack and stop Gray, but the power of the light pushed him away and he was forced to merely watch as an axis of the World was unleashed. The light of the spear was power and perfection made manifest. Gray's mind started getting hazy as it shrunk away to give space for something else. It was hard to think or do anything as a new will took over her Body and Soul.

"Pseudo-personality suspended. Magical energy yield exceeds regulation. Second stage restraint rescinded." Add said as he lost his sense of self and became just a weapon.

The very Texture of the world shivered just a bit as a pillar that held the planet together was about to be unveiled. Gray's body grew to full maturity that superseded her true biological age while her eyes turned gold. Armor of silver mixed with blue cloth and a white cape, along with a helmet with a white mane covered Gray's entire body and made her look like a hero, a king. Gray became lost in the dazzling light of her own weapon and felt herself fading further into the background.

"Sacred lance, removing restraints." the Divine Spirit said.

Add gave way for the holy lance Rhongomyniad, a golden mass of energy in the shape of a lance that had swirls of light revolving around it. The armament from the World's end outshined the Sun and radiated power beyond what any proper Servant should have been capable of. This wasn't some normal Pseudo-Servant, but a Divine Spirit inhabiting a vessel designed to house them and so the goddess King Arthur was able to use close to their full power as a Divine Spirit. The only reason 100% couldn't be achieved was because the vessel was technically meant for a different version of King Arthur, and the Mind that was meant to inhabit the vessel was still absent. To compensate, Gray's mind was being rewritten to act as a substitute.

The light was getting brighter and it was drowning out Gray. Her existence was getting painted over and a goddess was being left in her wake. Gray's emotions were already gone except for a sense of peace that made her want to simply submit to the void of gold that she was being sucked into. It was getting brighter, quieter, warmer. It was like sleeping in a warm bed or being in the embrace of a loving parent. It was nice and Gray had no complaints about giving in as she was about to enter the dreamless sleep of nonexistence. Why had she rejected this conclusion for so long? It was so nice to just fade away and let another entity take control.

A bittersweet sting hit the remnants of Gray. She remembered all she was about to lose, the family she would never see again. Gray had one last thought before she disappeared: "I hope my family will be okay."