Tia followed Alexander the Great into a hidden cave that led to a massive underground hollow, and then through a maze of tunnels to its center.
There stood a gigantic stone pillar. At the top of the pillar seemed to be something, but when you looked closely, there appeared to be nothing at all.
As soon as Tia arrived, she was hit by a strong, sickening presence that made her almost want to throw up.
"Tia, you felt it too, right? The stench of evil in this world. When I first came in, I almost threw up my breakfast," Waver patted Tia on the shoulder.
Tia used magic to force her body to adjust as quickly as possible, then took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. Only then did she have time to notice the area ahead, which seemed to be the center of the Greater Holy Grail. Several people were standing there, staring at the stone pillar in the sky, focused on a faint, hard-to-define presence.
During this time, Irisviel stayed close to King Arthur the whole way.
The others all kept their eyes fixed on their own things.
Among them, Tia especially noticed Kotomine Kirei and Gilgamesh, who had come along as well.
Tia didn't know whether Gilgamesh had given Kirei his usual lectures or not, but the fact that Gilgamesh would actually follow everyone here really surprised her.
He wasn't enjoying himself at all? Just letting everyone here discuss how to dismantle the Greater Holy Grail?
Right now, Tia was very suspicious of Gilgamesh's intentions.
When Tia followed Alexander the Great and Waver over, King Arthur was the first to step forward.
"Tia, since the Conqueror King asked you to come here, does that mean you know something? Do you know how to destroy the Greater Holy Grail?" King Arthur asked seriously.
"To dismantle the Greater Holy Grail, you'd probably need to undo the formation," Tia didn't bother with politeness and spoke up right away. "The formation on the ground—did you see it?" she asked as she looked down at the ground.
On the ground, Tia could barely make out the blurry traces of a formation. If she was right, this should be the one used when the Greater Holy Grail was built.
"Oh? You really do know the secret of the Greater Holy Grail. Looks like getting the Command Seals and having the God-Slayer descend wasn't just luck after all," Kotomine Risei suddenly spoke up, as if he had never really cared about Tia, thinking all along that she was just lucky.
Tia didn't want to say much, because the air here made her feel awful. She really wanted to leave right away.
"A formation, huh," Irisviel looked down. "I saw it long ago, but I didn't expect it to actually be real."
"You tricked me again, Tokiomi," Gilgamesh suddenly said coldly to Tohsaka Tokiomi.
"My king, I deeply apologize. No matter how you choose to punish me, I will have no complaints," Tokiomi replied with a voice that sounded filled with guilt.
Tia froze for a moment when she heard Tokiomi's words.
Could it be that Gilgamesh still thought of Tokiomi as his subject? Was he really fooled by just a few words?
"Tohsaka Tokiomi! Since you knew, why didn't you say so earlier!" Waver shouted at him.
"I'm sorry. The Greater Holy Grail is already filled with the evil of this world. If we dismantle it, that evil will spill out into reality. That's why I couldn't do it," Tokiomi explained.
Tia frowned. She wasn't sure whether he was telling the truth or not.
But then Emiya Kiritsugu suddenly said, "If what we heard earlier is right, once the Greater Holy Grail is dismantled, we Servants who were summoned through it will lose our magical support. Without the Command Seals, we'll all disappear. That means Angra Mainyu shouldn't exist either. Head of the Tohsaka family, are you sure you're telling the truth?"
"This… there are some things I really don't fully understand…" Tokiomi replied, still calm and unhurried.
Gilgamesh kept staring at Tokiomi, his eyes flashing with a strange light, as if he was judging whether Tokiomi's words were true.
"Hmph!" Gilgamesh snorted coldly but didn't press him further.
Tia raised her eyebrows.
Just like that he let him off? Was it true then? Did he really not know?
"But maybe I can return home and look through my family's library. My ancestors' writings should include the formation," Tokiomi spoke again.
But to Tia, it seemed like he was only using this as an excuse to run away.
Tia shook her head.
No, Tokiomi wouldn't run. Could it be that he really meant to dismantle the Greater Holy Grail?
"In that case, I'll go with you to fetch it!" Gilgamesh said to him before vanishing into spirit form.
Tokiomi also took his leave and went back.
Watching him leave, Tia couldn't help but think they were acting very strange.
Gilgamesh wasn't causing trouble—he was actually serious about dismantling the Greater Holy Grail.
Tokiomi too suddenly spoke seriously about the writings to undo the Grail.
Were they really that serious? This didn't match what Tia knew about them at all.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and simply waited patiently for Tokiomi to return with the book.
No one knew how long it took, but eventually Tokiomi came back. Gilgamesh, however, was nowhere to be seen.
Bringing a book with him, Tokiomi said right away, "This book records my Tohsaka ancestors' description of the Greater Holy Grail's creation, and it also explains how to dismantle it with the formation."
"That's great! Let's activate the formation right away and dismantle the Greater Holy Grail together!" Waver said at once.
Tohsaka Tokiomi nodded.
Tia kept feeling something was wrong. Everything was moving too fast, too smoothly. She didn't think these people should be the type to act like this, to all agree so easily on dismantling the Great Holy Grail.
From the moment in the morning when Waver said Kotomine Risei had decided to get rid of the Great Holy Grail and gathered them all together, Tia felt the story was rushing ahead unnaturally. It was so fast that even the fact this book existed felt strange to her.
As Tohsaka Tokiomi began to carry out what the book instructed about dismantling the Great Holy Grail, the underground cavern started to shake, and the stone pillar trembled.
At the top of the stone pillar—
A pitch-black hole suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and at the same time, Irisviel fainted completely.
Tia froze, then realized this might be the final struggle of All the World's Evil, trying to use just three Servants' souls to open the hollow.
But the black hole was small, so the amount of black mud flowing out of it was limited. Even so, the sight of it made everyone's faces change.
The aura of the mud felt even more terrifying.
Tia's face also changed like the others, but not because of the mud. It was because she saw a white branch sticking out from that tiny hole.
On that short piece of white branch, she could even make out fine black cracks, and inside those cracks, something like a starry sky.
"Boom!"
It was as if a nuclear bomb had exploded in Tia's head, making her mind buzz all at once.
Why would that thing appear here!!!
(End of The Chapter)
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