The road to the Great Cavern was treacherous.
It was as if Angra Mainyu had sensed us using whatever 'vision' an Evil of Humanity might possess. Monstrous beasts had been scattered in every direction long ago. I had to advance by personally striking them down alongside Gareth, who was an expert at slaying magical beasts from her days at the Round Table, and by utilizing my own ability to command such creatures.
Surprisingly, the person who provided the crucial help to break through this situation was none other than Kadoc Zemlupus, who had stepped up as part of the briefing team.
[That's a subspecies of the Mushussu. Since Chaldea's communications won't be heard by those who aren't connected anyway, it's best to retreat while suppressing your presence as much as possible. That species seems to carry a petrification curse near its tear ducts, so be careful not to look it in the eye.]
"Honestly... it's no wonder the Chimera Department requested your transfer, is it?"
Waver shrugged as if proud, and seeing that, I gave a thin smile as I quickly began the breakthrough. Ritsuka and Mash were now perfectly in sync, providing appropriate support for Gareth as she ran ahead. After a moment's hesitation, Gareth began to trust Mash's shield completely, repeating her wolf-like charges.
She tore through the magical beasts with her lance as if grinding them down, and used the shield—which was the size of her torso—in her other hand to blast the remaining monsters far away.
By the time dozens of beasts had been skewered like candied fruit, Ryuudou Temple on the burning Mt. Enzou and the Great Cavern, overflowing with the mud of the Holy Grail, came into view.
"...At this rate, we can't even get inside, can we...?"
"By ordinary means, perhaps."
The inversion of a pulling force is a pushing force.
The reversal of Shinra Tensei is, in the end, a single 'gravitational pull' toward the earth.
"Shinobi Art: Bansho Ten'in."
"Whoa! Is this an application of that ability too?"
"To be precise, I've forcibly crushed the mud deep into the ground... Though they really are coming at us without end."
Under the influence of the gravitational pull, the mud still tried to manifest from within the deep holes I carved. I found myself entering a war of attrition, just as I once had during the struggle for dominance with Chibaku Tensei.
It was then that Gareth stepped forward and spoke to Mash.
"Sir Mash, are you perhaps able to carry the Master on your back?"
"C-carrying Senpai... I can do that as much as needed..."
As she spoke with reddened cheeks, Gareth smiled and promptly threw the shield she was holding into the air.
The shield, which had been floating gently, rose into the void. Placing her feet on top of it, Gareth quickly kicked off to cross over to another patch of ground untouched by the mud. Mash, understanding the plan, picked up Ritsuka in a princess carry and quickly leapt across to the other side. I simply flew across using Shinra Tensei.
"Wait, couldn't we have just flown from the start?"
"Karma-san might be able to protect himself while flying, but I thought it might be difficult for him to protect the Master and Sir Mash simultaneously."
"True... I suppose there's nothing more difficult than fighting while suspended in mid-air."
[Regardless, I'm glad you all made it through safely...]
After taking a sip of the bottled water sent via Chaldea's supplies, I tossed a few hardtack crackers to Ritsuka and Mash. The two of them began to feed each other, dividing up which piece was whose.
Gareth, who was watching them with a warm smile as if looking at cute juniors, suddenly began to choke because Ritsuka had shoved a cracker into her own mouth too quickly. Ritsuka started giggling at the sight, only to receive a light flick on the forehead from Mash.
[Everyone, stop. I'm sensing an incredible magical energy reaction...]
"Of course you are. That is a first-class Magical Energy Reactor in its own right... the cavity containing the Greater Grail."
A vast amount of magical energy, enough to make one's whole body vibrate with chills, could be felt surging like waves.
Strangely, as we moved deeper into the Great Cavern, the power of the mud grew weaker. Conversely, the presence of a Heroic Spirit, as if refining that magical energy, grew stronger. I was certain that with this level of magical energy, Waver would have fainted in less than ten seconds.
"...What incredible magical energy. It feels far beyond the output of the holy sword of the sun my brother possessed... No, even several levels above that."
"Gawain's sword, Galatine? You're saying it's at a higher stage than the sister-sword of Excalibur?"
"Well, if it were the Excalibur that slays the enemies of humanity, I wouldn't know... but in terms of pure output, that magical energy reactor seems far more powerful."
[That is only natural. For this is the accumulated malice and obsession of humans over hundreds of years.]
The cave began to rumble deeply.
It wasn't so much a voice as a vibration... Yes, a sensation like seismic waves or infrasound filled the cavern. Before long, I could see a certain 'King' with hair turned white and a heart blackened by inversion.
Her pressure was such that she would likely treat Francesca—who waged guerrilla war against the Clock Tower—or Trofim, the leader of the Dead Apostles, as 'mere trifles.' Save for the Crimson Moon I had seen before, she appeared to have no equal.
At the very peak of the Greater Grail, a woman stood watching us with her holy sword, stained with black light, thrust into the ground. She cast aside the visor that had been hiding her eyes and began to stare us down.
Gareth's hand trembled momentarily as she fully realized that this woman was the 'King of Knights,' but she soon finished her battle preparations by shrouding her lance in magical energy. Mash readied her shield; Ritsuka held out her hand etched with Command Spells and checked the Chaldea Mystic Code that served as her only shield; and I summoned the six Pain puppets, completing our battle formation.
After watching us for a moment, the woman shifted her rumbling tone to a normal voice and spoke with a faint smile.
"It has been a long time. While 'I' have never met you face-to-face, 'I' have met you... In a way, one could call this a quirk of fate."
"...Are you really the King of Knights?"
"What a foolish question. If I am not, what else could I possibly be?"
As the black-stained holy sword began to charge with magical energy, I quickly raised both arms and added:
"I take it back. You're 100% the King of Knights."
"...As it should be."
More importantly... she says she's met me?
'Impossible. When I met her during the Fourth Holy Grail War, 'Artoria Pendragon' was the Lion King from the Sixth Singularity, the Sacred Round Table Realm: Camelot. As long as the Lion King remains in the Sixth Singularity... the possibility of another Heroic Spirit with those memories being here is...'
"I see. You haven't heard the story yet."
The inverted King of Knights scrutinized us and then murmured quietly.
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"It is a tale you would understand. But you have yet to grasp the full situation... A pity, but it cannot be helped."
After speaking words I couldn't understand for a while, she emitted her kingly aura and asked us:
"So, of all the things in this massive Singularity, why have you come to strike me first?"
"...First, because those other guys won't be able to launch a major attack here."
"A natural reason. And the second?"
Actually, the second reason was simple yet vital.
We would seize the Greater Grail, convert all its magical energy into a cost, and use Chibaku Tensei to lift the leylines of Fuyuki City and all the annoying Servants into the sky. With overwhelming magical energy, such a circus act was entirely possible. If I just gave them a poke with the Gae Bolg afterward, they'd all be happy to die.
Of course, the mud would surely resist. Just as that crazy Angra Mainyu had done before, he would try to spit mud and swallow the Chibaku Tensei. But there was no denying that my 'options' would increase.
Conversely, it would be inefficient to target the Evil of Humanity first and then search for the Greater Grail.
There was no advantage to taking out the Evil of Humanity other than a brief respite; in fact, the King of Knights could jump out and stab us in the back at any moment.
Whether Artoria understood that without being told, she nodded and spoke.
"I see. You desire the Greater Grail?"
"...We technically belong to an organization that guarantees the Human Order. Of course, we have to clean up that damn Evil of Humanity, but that Greater Grail is the number one priority of this Singularity's problem. We'll be taking that item."
"I am aware of that much."
"This is going quickly. Long story short, we're either going to retrieve or destroy that Grail..."
At that moment, Gareth and Mash both entered a combat stance, and Ritsuka swallowed hard, visibly tense.
A silence so heavy it pressed down on the surroundings fell, and soon the cavern began to fill with the King of Knights' magical energy. While I was using Preta Path to absorb the magical energy and convert it into my own stamina, she drew her holy sword with a flourish.
Mash quickly moved to block Ritsuka, and just as Gareth was about to charge with her shield covering her chest, Artoria Pendragon swung a beam of light at the Greater Grail. She cleanly detached the part shaped like a 'Cup' and held it out to us.
"Will this suffice?"
"...Eh?"
Wait a minute, weren't you the final boss?
"Why do you look so confused? Was this not your goal?"
"No... I mean, thanks for that, but is it really okay for you to just give it up so willingly?"
"You should know as well—that there are seven more 'Singularities' beyond this one. And the catastrophe that follows 'afterwards.'"
"...How could I not know."
"Then you must have noticed. The fact that the one Rune Magus who should have been here to assist you is missing."
...?
"Wasn't he swallowed by the mud...?"
"That is not the case. I have been observing the entirety of Fuyuki City with the limited help of the Grail's power, and the Servant known as 'Cú Chulainn' was never summoned to this place."
The summoning of Cú Chulainn.
I didn't know the exact details, but I knew that a being called 'Odin' had intervened in Cú Chulainn's summoning... and I also knew the reason why that being had dispatched him.
"He was a reinforcement to prepare for the Incineration of the Human Order and the subsequent Pruning. Is that how you're interpreting this?"
"Ordinarily, I would have stopped you. There is no guarantee of victory, and even if you win, only greater hardships and uncertain adversity would await... However, look at the situation now."
The King of Demon Gods' plan had become incomplete, and it was no longer certain if the Pruning would even occur. As proof, Cú Chulainn had not come to support them.
"You surely know the reason why the Hound of Culann would be summoned here as a Servant of the Staff."
"...To prepare for the Pruning of the Human Order. Wait, don't tell me..."
No way.
No, seriously, no way...
"Now that the possibility of human history recovering has increased, I have lost any reason to neglect that Evil of Humanity or to treat you as enemies under the personal desire to preserve a fragment of human history by maintaining this incomplete Singularity."
"...The reason the mud couldn't enter the cavern..."
"Wait... because you cut it all down?"
"Precisely, little girl."
In that instant, I looked at the ground where Artoria Pendragon had kept her holy sword thrust until the moment she met us.
"...Ha, haha... hahaha! Right, this is how it should be! This makes restoring the Human Order feel worth the effort!"
"Do you accept?"
"Yeah... Yeah, of course!"
The Matou family's leylines had been severed with the Gae Bolg, and Artoria had already smashed the leylines of Mt. Enzou with her holy sword.
All that remained were the Tohsaka family and the Fuyuki Civic Center.
[Hostile entity reactions! There are approximately five of them!]
"Artoria Pendragon, King of Knights... What do you say? Can you blow them away?"
In response, instead of answering, she thrust her holy sword—now charged with a blackish-red light—forward.
The color was similar to the version Angra Mainyu had duplicated when he was trapped in Chibaku Tensei before, but the amount of magical energy being charged and its sheer power were in a different league entirely.
"Hammer of the Vile King."
It was like a sentence passed down, the image of a judge decreeing death.
"The aurora shall be inverted!"
Excalibur erupted with aurora, and the magical energy in the air began to feel as though it were melting rather than merely vibrating. The spreading magical energy stained the surroundings a deep, dark red... and in an instant, it began to spread as if eroding everything in sight.
The black-inverted holy sword was swung down, and a massive heat ray pierced through the mud-covered Servants that were rushing at us in total disorder.
[Sword of Promised Victory - Excalibur Morgan]
A massive thermal beam.
Having annihilated the five Servants and the mud that had threatened to overwhelm us in a single flash, she smirked with pride and asked Ritsuka and me:
"Well? Is that sufficient?"