"Finally here." Add said. The Lion King had arrived at Fuyuki Church. In order to avoid drawing attention, the goddess had summoned her armor and was now wearing the too-small remnants of Gray's hoodie and jeans. Mordred, meanwhile, was in position at the center of Shinto which was currently inundated with commuting people. He would start causing chaos if he got the signal from his king.
It had only been a couple hours since the Lion King had taken over Gray's body and the goddess felt off. On the way to the church, the goddess had glanced at a window and saw her reflection in it. The sight made her uncomfortable. At first she thought she was just feeling guilty over having stolen Gray's body, but she realized her dislike was something more instinctual, a reflexive response. It was a leftover instinct from Gray's loathing of her appearance.
The Lion King assumed it was a leftover instinct, but she wasn't actually confident in that assumption. The deity imagined watching the cartoons Gray enjoyed watching, and she felt good. It was the same when the king pondered cooking the fudge Gray knew how to make. The fact that the Lion King wondered if she should make fudge in the first place implied that Gray's interests had persisted within the monarch. Some part of Gray's personality was still alive within the king's psyche.
The question was whether anything else of Gray remained or could be salvaged.
The Lion King opened the church doors and entered the building. There was nobody among the pews or at the front so the goddess called out and it only took a minute for a man to arrive. He had long brown hair and wore a priest's cassock.
"Greetings to Fuyuki Church. I-" the priest stopped and stared silently at the king upon seeing her.
"Are you the overseer?"
"Indeed I am. My name is Kirei Kotomine. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you appear to be the Saber class Servant of the Fourth War. I didn't know you survived. Well you definitely appear to be older than the Saber I remember so you may not be the same Servant."
"I am another version of her summoned as a Pseudo-Servant. I am not the same as the Servant you know."
"Fascinating." The overseer rubbed his chin. "Either way, Servants aren't allowed to enter this church. It is neutral ground."
"Apologies, but there is an urgent matter we must discuss." The Lion King didn't move from where she stood.
"In that case, I will give you a chance to speak. But you must leave afterward." The priest walked to the front of the room.
"You are aware of the allegations that the Greater Grail has been corrupted. That corruption was caused by an Avenger class Servant that was summoned in the Third Holy Grail War instead of a Berserker by the Einzberns. They used their knowledge of the Grail to summon a Servant that wasn't one of the normal classes, only for it to turn the Grail into a tool of destruction upon the Servant's defeat and absorption into the wish granter."
"Lofty claims. I did some research into past Holy Grail Wars and there is evidence of some unusual occurrences during the third." Kirei paced around the room's perimeter. "I didn't find anything concrete so I can't trust you with complete confidence. Do you have any proof of your claims?" The overseer seemed receptive.
"None that's definitive. You already have the word of Irisviel and Illyasviel von Einzbern that the Grail's corruption is real, but Chloe von Einzbern would also corroborate that fact. Sadly, we don't have time to bring her here. Time is of the essence."
"And why is that?"
"Because Irisviel von Einzbern has been possessed by the Greater Grail. When the Greater Grail has absorbed enough magical energy from Servants being defeated, Avenger will incarnate in Irisviel's body and flood the world with curses to kill all life."
"Once again I must ask, do you have any proof?"
"None beyond my word that can be produced with sufficient speed."
Kirei sighed.
"You've put me in a difficult position. On the off chance that what you're saying is true, it would be irresponsible not to investigate. The problem is that the best way to do so would be to visit the Greater Grail's physical location, but doing so means giving away where it is hidden. You or someone else could circumvent the rules of the Holy Grail War and steal the Greater Grail. No matter what choice I make, there will be risks."
"In that case, I must make the choice for you." The king spoke sharply and the overseer stopped his pacing right as he was next to the church's exit. "I won't be physically forcing you."
"Then what do you mean?"
"It is simple. I have a Servant stationed in the most crowded area of Shinto. If I give the signal, they will begin making large displays of their powers. They won't hurt anyone, but Mystics will be presented in the open for hundreds of normal people to see. I know you don't want that."
"You are correct, I don't." The overseer put his arms behind his back. "You are very dedicated to finding the Grail."
"Only to destroy it. Will you comply?"
"If I don't comply then I'll have to cancel the Holy Grail War and visit the Greater Grail anyway." Kirei closed his eyes. "You're very devious."
"I do what I must for the sake of mankind."
"You say that like it's your profession."
"It is in a way." The goddess clenched a fist. "Back to the topic at hand, will you comply?"
"I will take you to the Greater Grail."
The goddess extended a hand and Kirei shook it.
"I thank you for being so cooperative."
"Let us be swift." Kirei opened the door and led the way out of the church. "Let us also be covert so as to minimize the number of observers who track us."
"That will slow us down. We will need to meet up with the Servant I stationed in Shinto which will already delay us."
"Is it better that we are followed?" Kirei stopped and faced the king.
"I will simply destroy the Greater Grail with one blast so it is unlikely that any pursuers would have the chance to do anything. It is also unlikely that any such individuals would be able to best me in combat."
"Do not let pride cloud your judgment."
"You misunderstand. I am not a normal Servant." The king put a hand on her chest. "I am a Divine Spirit summoned into a body specifically made to house me and thus I can use close to my full power as divinity. A majority of even powerful Servants would not be able to harm me with anything other than their Noble Phantasms."
"How exactly were you summoned?' The priest grimaced. A bead of sweat traced down his face.
"It is a complex tale. I can tell you as we travel."
"Fine, but at least cede to my wish to move covertly."
"As you wish." The king and priest moved through dark alleys, the goddess explaining her story all the while. Except it wasn't her story, it was Gray's. "This body was owned by a girl named Gray who was born in a village in Europe that served as a cult to King Arthur. Her face turned into one that mirrored mine when I was young and that caused the people of the village to worship her. But they were also planning to use her as a vessel for my Mind and Soul. they wanted to bring about the return of their savior. This caused Gray to be isolated and depressed. She was destined to give up the entirety of her being and that would be traumatizing for anyone, let alone a child." It stopped being an explanation and turned into a dissertation on the story of the Pendragon family. "Irisviel would rant to Artoria about whatever was bothering her, with the understanding that Irisviel didn't truly believe the hateful things she said and was just letting out the Grail's hatred." Even after Mordred joined the group and they headed for Mt. Enzo, the Lion King just kept on talking about the intricate lives of Gray and her family. The goddess was unsure why she felt compelled to do this. It wasn't because Kirei was egging her on. The priest only provided occasional comments as he let the king tell him her tale as if they were in a confessional. Mordred didn't say anything as he kept his helmet on. "When Gray found out that she was being possessed by me, it was a breaking point for her. It was her worst nightmare made reality." For some reason the king felt a compulsion to keep on talking about Gray's life. It was as if Gray's life would be removed from history if the king didn't continually confirm that it happened. The Lion King was desperate to convince the priest that the girl named Gray was real. "In the end, I took over and Gray was erased with only her memories and a few other elements of herself remaining within me."
It was dusk when the group finally reached Mount Enzo. Thanks to Kirei's paranoia, they went through the most complex route possible to get to their destination. Traveling took hours thanks to that.
"This is the entrance." Kirei stepped up to what looked like a slope of rock. The king could feel the magecraft obscuring the entrance to the Greater Grail's resting place. Even without entering the chamber, magical energy was wafting so thickly it was sickening. There was no way the Greater Grail normally created such a strong magical signal. It would make finding it too easy. The Greater Grail was in some sort of altered state beyond being corrupted. It was preparing for its manifestation. It shouldn't have developed to this stage yet so the Black Grail was doing something nefarious to speed up the process.
"You feel this toxic magical energy, overseer?"
"I do." Kirei spoke solemnly.
"Do you need to see the Grail with your own eyes?"
"No. Just the touch of these magical vapors is all I need to know that the Grail must be destroyed." The priest was trembling, though the goddess could not place what emotion Kirei was trembling with.
"In that case, I'll use my spear to destroy the Grail and the entire cave in a single blast from the outside. Add."
"Got it." Add's personality was suspended and he transformed to release Rhongomyniad.
"That is the holy spear of King Arthur. Its radiance reminds me of Excalibur."
"It is similar, yet different. Stand back. I will be hollowing out a large portion of this mountain." Kirei and Mordred both stepped a few paces back.
The tip of the holy spear charged with golden energy so bright that the priest averted his eyes. This blast would be a form of the goddess' Light of Judgment attack that could overpower most Noble Phantasms.
Right before the light was unleashed, the goddess' arm was yanked up and the wave of destruction soared towards the clouds. The area was lit up gold thanks to the Lion King's missed shot. She looked to see what had caused her to miss and saw that it was a chain that had wrapped around her arm that held her spear. It came out of golden ripples in the air above the goddess. More chains came from portals and fettered all of the goddess' limbs. She pulled against the chains and felt their toughness endure her casual strength.
"My how you've grown since I last saw you, my King of Knights. I thought you couldn't grow any more radiant, but apparently I made a rare miscalculation. I jest of course. I have already been informed about you. You aren't my Saber. You're a version of her who turned into a dullard deity. How disappointing." It was a voice that the Lion King didn't recognize, but Kirei did.
"Archer." Kirei uttered like the word was a blasphemy in and of itself.
"Kirei, I see you still cling to your boring morals. Yet another disappointment." A cross armed man in golden armor walked through the invisible wall that hid the cave. His eyes, hair, and attire all fit the descriptions Gray's mothers gave of the Archer Servant of the Fourth Holy Grail War. The way he spoke implied he wasn't a separate summoning of the golden man, but the same one from the last war who was revived.
Mordred, as soon as the golden Archer appeared, dashed with his sword emitting lightning to kill the enemy. More ripples appeared between the golden man and Mordred, a variety of weapons firing out. Dual colored lightning and a series of sword swings deflected all the Noble Phantasms, though Mordred only barely succeeded in doing so and was pushed back a dozen meters in the process.
"I have no interest in the King of Knights' bastard." The Archer didn't even look Mordred's way.
"How are you alive?" The goddess asked.
"I can answer that." Out from the cave came the Black Grail who was smirking. "Hello, sweetie."
"Answer my question."
"It's simple. Last war, I ejected all the Saint Graphs inside me thanks to Avalon. Those lumps of magical energy were absorbed into the Greater Grail which was why the Fifth War came so early. I can access those Saint Graphs and, using my alchemy and the Grail's mud, give them new life like I did Mordred."
The cool head of the Lion King began to heat up. If the Black Grail had resurrected all the Servants of the previous war, then even the goddess might have difficulty facing them if they attacked in tandem.
"Archer, you know what her plan is, don't you? She plans to destroy the world."
"Her desires align with mine. We both want to get rid of the vermin that have infested the planet. Whatever humans prove strong enough to survive will be worthy of being ruled by me."
"I see. The Grail's mud has maddened you as well."
"Maddened?" Gilgamesh looked down his nose at the goddess in chains. "As if some muck could taint my perfection. I am in full control of my faculties. I am simply thinking on a level far above the likes of mere gods."
"Then there's no reasoning with you." Instead of wasting time trying to break the chains, the goddess summoned her armor which pushed the chains outward slightly. The Lion King then desummoned her armor which created a gap between her body and the chains which let her slip her limbs free. Chains grabbed the holy spear, but controlling the weapon's immaterial form to make it slightly smaller allowed it to slip free. The goddess resummoned her armor and swiped with her spear. Both Archer and the Black Grail retreated into the cave to avoid the attack.
"Overseer. I'd like to tell you to run, but they probably have more revived Servants patrolling the area who would hunt you down." The king crouched. "Follow Mordred and I so we can protect you, but don't stay too close or you'll get in the way."
"Understood."
The Lion King, Mordred, and Kirei Kotomine all ran into the cave which was filled with even denser amounts of disgusting magical energy. There was so much that it made it impossible to sense how many Servants were present inside the mountain. Going deeper and deeper into the cavern in search of the enemies that had retreated deeper inside, the group found a large chamber and in that chamber stood one man. In one hand was a red blade and there was a red spear in the other. His pants were green and his shirt was nonexistent. His face was the most notable thing about him. His visage was one of supernatural beauty marred by his own hatred as his teeth were always gnashing. The whites of his eyes had turned red, his irises were dirty gold, and his pupils were slits. Tears of blood ran down his cheeks as he hunched forward with palpable bloodlust.
The group stopped running.
"Saber!" the enemy Servant's disturbing eyes fell on the Lion King. "Saber! You betrayed me and besmirched my honor! You don't deserve the title of King of Knights!" He was slobbering.
"I am not the King Arthur you know."
"Saber!"
"Can you not see this spear?" The goddess held out Rhongomyniad. "I am not the King Arthur who wields Excalibur."
"You are King Arthur! You are a despicable wretch who spits upon knightly honor!"
"A Berserker it seems." The Lion King got ready to fight, as did Mordred and Kirei.
"We must fight one-on-one! I will defeat you with honor! I'll kill you with the honor you shirked!" It looked like the Berserker was going to run forward, but then he stopped. "But I can't! I can't beat you! I know! I know! I know! The one I will face is your son!" He pointed his spear at Mordred. The Black Grail had informed her new Servants of much it seemed. "Face me, son of the scum king!"
"You dare call King Arthur scum?" Mordred stepped forward. "I will cut your jaw off so you never blaspheme again. My king, please go on ahead. I will deal with this lout. Priest, you can stay here with me. Be witness to justice."
"It is I who will be enacting justice!" The Berserker jumped high and came down towards Mordred who used a Mana Burst slash. The red spear clashed with the tainted Excalibur and as soon as they connected, the gold and black lightning was nullified. A spear with the power to nullify magecraft meant this Berserker was the Lancer of the last war, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne. The Berserker attacked with a constant sequence of slashes and stabs, his spear and sword perfectly synchronized to dominate both the close and mid ranges. The man crying blood was wild in his style without losing the cohesion necessary for his attacks to be effective. Mordred was forced to constantly defend as he couldn't utilize his Mana Burst to force a change in the fight's pace. One thrust of the red spear managed to get past Excalibur and it reached Mordred's thigh. The magecraft made armor was useless as the spear phased through it. A gash was made across the side of Mordred's leg. Mordred stepped forward despite the injury and used a rising slash that the Berserker blocked with his sword. The wild man was knocked up towards the ceiling and he maneuvered his legs so his feet would touch the ceiling before the rest of his body. As soon as his feet touched the stalactite riddled ceiling, the Berserker jumped with legs charged with magical energy. His body shot down like a missile and his two weapons were swung down at once. Mordred blocked and his lower half was pushed down into the ground that couldn't withstand the Berserker's power. The Knight of the Round Table punched up and belted the wild man square in the nose. The Berserker was hit upward again, but he did a backflip and landed back on the ground before rushing at his enemy again. Mordred stepped out of the ground as if climbing a stair and met the Berserker head on. The two began clashing up close again, but Mordred stomped on the ground occasionally to make it shake and break apart to mess with the Berserker's footing. The enemy Servant adapted rather easily by continually jumping around the walls and ceiling which allowed him to attack from more angles, but it made him unable to attack with the same rapidity he used before to pressure Mordred.
Trusting her son, the Lion King left Mordred and Kirei to deal with Diarmuid. She continued through the tunnels within the mountain as she went to where the accursed magical energy was coming from.
The Lion King arrived in a massive space with a raised platform of stone in it which was connected by a bridge to an ever higher plateau. On that higher protrusion of rock sat a giant womb. The thing inside the womb had four eyes and was surrounded by an impure light that made the goddess want to retch. The grotesquerie twitched and pulsed as it continued developing. The Black Grail had fed it the magical energy of the Servants of the last war to speed up the Beast's development. That said, the process would still take time to reach completion. A week would be needed before that Evil of Humanity could reach full maturity and be born into the World. Above the womb was a giant sphere of black, a gap which swallowed all light like a black hole, a wound in the universe which bled curses. That was the Greater Grail.
Lumbering around the space were a dozen large humanoids made of mud like the ones the Black Grail conjured earlier. The ground below the raised platforms was covered in monstrosities made of tentacles around toothy mouths. They were not made of mud, but instead of flesh and blood.
"False God! You have arrived into the Hell of our God's creation where you shall be punished! Let your cruel purity be painted black with dried blood and the mud of our divine cup!" The proselytizing came from a tall man in robes who stood on the taller of the plateaus. His eyes were bulging from his head and he was always gesticulating in one way or another. He held a grimoire in his hand that was bound with human flesh. This was Gilles de Rais based on the descriptions Gray had heard. He was the source of these tentacle monsters. How many humans had he gathered and sacrificed to make them? The fact that he did so in such a short amount of time was disheartening.
"Disgusting." The golden Archer refused to look at the squirming horrors littering the cavern's bottom. He stood on the same platform as Gilles, the two of them flanking the sides of the Black Grail who was looking at the goddess while giggling.
There was a fourth man on the highest platform who was next to the Archer. He was a man of tremendous size with a dark beard. He wore a purple cloak with a white and purple tunic and a black kausia on his head. The only Servant who was of such size in the last war was Iskandar. He stood with an impassive expression.
On the lower platform were two Servants. These two were the most bizarre. One was a giant even larger than Iskandar who had skin covered in dark scales and horns poking out from his long silver hair. He had a long tail and a blue-green marking on his chest. This was likely the Servant that had been taken out first in this war and was absorbed into Irisviel.
The other Servant was the one that made the Lion King pause. They wore black armor that covered all but their head. In their hand was a former Holy Sword that had turned into a demonic dragon slaying blade. It was Arondight. This was Lancelot, or at least that would be the logical reaction given their armament and the fact that Lancelot was summoned in the Fourth War. The issue was the Servant's head. Long brown hair so smooth it made one want to feel it against their skin. A face that was the ideal of the traditionally feminine which could hasten the heartbeat of even a chaste man. Glasses that made her emerald eyes glitter even more than they normally did.
"Guinevere?"
"Hello, my king." It was Gunivere's voice. She looked angry. It was a cold anger without fury.
"How are you here?"
"Your voice didn't even tremble. You really are the inevitable conclusion of King Arthur's ideals. You abandoned everything to become the ultimate ruler."
"At least she has good taste in women." The Black Grail put a hand to her cheek. "Oh, wait, no she doesn't. You were given Guinevere like an object and you never loved her. As for me, the other Artoria only loved me when she wasn't busy feeling sorry for herself."
"How easily replaced I was." The Servant with Guinevere's face said. "You learned how to love, but only after you had ruined my life and the lives of everyone in Camelot. Even then, you ruined your new family too. You really are astonishing."
"I would prefer it if you stopped insulting my-" The Lion King was going to say mother. The goddess was thinking of Gray's mom as her own. "counterpart."
"Was that a twinge of emotion?" The woman who looked like Guinevere said.
"It's a Christmas miracle." The Black Grail raised a hand. "Let's get to the point. Everyone, kill that goddess."
The giants of mud all ran at the Lion King and so did the tentacle demons. The woman who looked like Guinevere ran for the goddess with Arondight at the ready. The dragon man declared "Akafiloga All-Grið!" and he began to metamorphose into a dark dragon that exhaled blue-green flames that could destroy a country. The golden Archer unloaded a salvo of Noble Phantasms and Iskandar released lightning bolts from his hands.
The bombardment of attacks was met with a pillar of light from Rhongomyniad that shielded the Lion King.
The fight had begun and it was one that made even the Goddess Rhongomyniad unsure of her capability to win. Despite the odds, the Lion King had to fight. She had to destroy the Greater Grail in order to save the world.