"As for the ley lines, this is the most favorable location to perform the Holy Grail summoning ritual, and it is also some distance away from Fuyuki City. Once the battle begins, we can minimize the damage to the city as much as possible," Arthur said.
{"Ryuudou Temple? I understand. Maiya and I will make the preparations. The families living at the temple will also be 'notified' before the afternoon, so they can temporarily descend the mountain and take refuge in the city."}
{"You only need to bring Irisviel here before nightfall."}
"Alright. Then I'll leave it to you."
The call ended.
The moment Arthur hung up the phone, Iri embraced him tightly.
"Iri?"
"Arthur... am I really going to die?"
Despite the reassurances given by Arthur and Artoria, when the moment of truth finally drew near, Iri could not suppress her fear.
She feared that the instant she sank into darkness, she would never awaken again.
She was afraid she would never see Arthur or Artoria again.
That feeling grew stronger with every passing minute.
And beyond that, as her connection to the Greater Grail deepened, it was slowly becoming reality.
A kind of "darkness" had already begun to wrap around her.
A silent, cold, suffocating darkness.
"Iri, you don't need to worry. I promised I would bring you back," Arthur replied with a gentle smile.
He knew she was afraid.
And as much as he wanted to tear that fear away from her in that instant, he simply could not.
"But... Arthur... I'm so scared~"
Iri whispered weakly.
Her heart felt as though it were being swallowed by that "darkness," while death drew closer and closer.
Her hands slid across Arthur's back and clutched tightly at his clothes, as though he were the only anchor still tying her to the world.
"It's alright... it's alright."
Arthur placed a hand on her head and began stroking it slowly.
Then he gave her gentle, comforting pats.
It was as though he were soothing a frightened child.
As though he were singing a lullaby to his own daughter.
Feeling Iri's grip suddenly loosen, Arthur lowered his head.
She had fallen into a coma.
Her body had finally begun its last countdown.
Irisviel's pale skin revealed brittle lines, fine cracks spreading across it like a porcelain doll that had been shattered and hastily pieced back together.
Or like a flawless jewel beginning to crack from within.
"Irisviel..." Artoria murmured as she stepped closer.
She knew that the end of that brief adventure was drawing nearer and nearer.
---
At dusk...
Clouds dyed red by the setting sun covered the entire sky, bathing the region in crimson.
They seemed to herald the battle yet to come.
Arthur carried Iri in his arms as he slowly climbed the stone steps leading to the entrance of Ryuudou Temple.
Artoria followed just behind him in absolute silence.
Her expression was solemn.
At the top of the long staircase, Kiritsugu sat alone upon the temple gate's lintel.
Inside the temple, a massive blood-red magic circle had already been drawn.
On its inner side, invisible to the naked eye, countless strands of magical energy connected it to a gigantic crimson stone platform hidden within the mountain.
Its shape resembled the circle above.
But on a far greater scale.
The scarlet patterns, as though alive, crawled along the rocky walls of that dark chamber and converged upon the central platform.
There, they absorbed the immense magical energy gathered by the underground ley lines of all Fuyuki City.
"So, you're here?"
Kiritsugu slowly rose to his feet.
His eyes were dark and lifeless.
One glance was enough for Arthur to understand that the man before him had already lost all hope.
At that moment, Kiritsugu was nothing more than a puppet trapped by the past...
Controlled by a curse called "justice."
There was little exchange of words between Arthur and Kiritsugu.
In truth, almost none were necessary.
With only a brief look shared between the two men, Arthur stepped forward in silence and carefully laid Iri's body at the center of the magic circle.
She looked as though she were merely asleep.
Almost at the same instant, a small flame quietly ignited.
There was no explosion, nor any thunderous sound.
Only pure fire.
The flames enveloped Irisviel's body, and within seconds, the speed of the combustion reduced her to ashes, as though that human form had never existed at all.
When the fire ceased, only a beautiful golden chalice remained, floating serenely in the air.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
Artoria, who had watched Iri's body turn to ashes without averting her gaze even once, murmured softly:
"We'll see each other again soon, Iri."
---xXx---
A castle covered in snow.
This was the birthplace of the Holy Grail vessel known as "Irisviel von Einzbern."
Before her, scattered across the white ground, lay countless mutilated corpses.
All of them looked very much like her.
All had the same faces, the same hair, even the same crimson eyes.
Piled atop one another, they stared at her with expressions of mute sorrow.
Unable to bear the sight, Irisviel began to cry.
Tears fell down her face like rain.
"Why are you crying, Mother?"
When she opened her eyes again, the landscape had completely changed.
What Irisviel saw before her was the future she had always longed to experience.
Its culmination.
The continuation of her life.
"Illya!"
Sitting on the edge of a bed, dressed in a white nightgown, Irisviel suddenly pulled into her arms the daughter who had just awakened.
Illya hugged her tightly, still shaken.
"Mother... I had a nightmare."
Her voice trembled.
"In my dream... I turned into a golden chalice..."
"It's alright."
With tears in her eyes, Irisviel held her daughter even tighter against her chest.
"I will never let that happen to you."
She knew Illya had seen her own future.
The predetermined fate of becoming the vessel of the Holy Grail.
"Illya... you will be freed from the chains of destiny..."
Holding her daughter in her arms, tears streaming down her face, Irisviel failed to notice that the room around her was gradually being swallowed by a sinister darkness.
The walls vanished, and all warmth disappeared.
The discarded homunculi thrown away like trash for possessing defects—the same ones that had haunted her nightmares for countless nights—appeared around her.
This time, however...
All of them wore grotesque smiles stretched to their ears.
"Ah—"
Irisviel awoke instantly.
Illya had vanished.
She was still trapped inside the castle room, now almost entirely consumed by darkness.
Black snowflakes fell from the open sky.
A burning pain struck her arm when one of the black snowflakes touched her.
All the evil of this world accumulated within the Holy Grail descended from above like viscous mud and slowly filled the ground.
"Where am I...?"
Irisviel stepped back in panic.
Even so, the darkness swallowed her completely, plunging her vision into a world of total blackness.
"This is the inside of the Holy Grail? But how is that possible...?"
As reason and awareness gradually returned, Irisviel understood her situation.
She had died.
Her soul, like those of the fallen Servants, had been imprisoned inside the Holy Grail into which she herself had transformed.
But that... that filthy scene before her... that black mud at her feet...
Was this truly the Holy Grail?
Deep doubts flooded her mind.
Suddenly, the apparent stillness of the darkness was shattered by the malice emanating from the depths of the Grail.
Countless distorted human arms emerged from the black swamp.
All of them trying to drag Irisviel into the same abyss to which they belonged.
"I don't want to go!"
"Let me go! Let me go...!"
Irisviel struggled with all her strength to free herself.
There, her body was no longer as weak as before.
Even so, the combined strength of those countless arms was far beyond what a delicate woman like her could resist.
"Someone... save me..."
She was quickly dragged downward.
Only one outstretched hand remained above the dark mud, reaching for help.
Reaching for hope.
"Arthur..."
Instinctively, Irisviel called the name of the man she loved.
The next instant, she was completely swallowed by the black mire.
Her vision was stolen once more by darkness.
Yet shortly after...
A golden light appeared.
It dyed that black world with another color.
"Arthur... is that you?"
Irisviel looked at her own hands before her eyes.
Her lost senses were fully returning.
Then she touched her own face in disbelief.
"I told you I wouldn't leave you alone."
His voice echoed before her.
"It's really you, Arthur?" she asked, still trembling.
"Yes. It's me."
He answered calmly, opening his arms.
Tears immediately welled in Iri's eyes.
Without hesitation, she threw herself against him and hugged him tightly.
"If you keep crying like that, your eyes are going to dry out."
Arthur laughed softly as he wiped her face.
"H-how are you here?" Iri asked, looking at him without releasing the embrace.
"I'm not exactly here."
He smiled.
"I'm only a fragment of my soul that I placed inside your body."
Iri's eyes widened.
"As you've probably already realized, this is the interior of the Holy Grail."
Arthur then raised his hand and pointed toward the black mud moving around them.
"I'm here specifically to protect you from that."
"Protect me?" Irisviel asked.
---
(End of Chapter)
A/N: The Fate/Zero arc is finally reaching its final conclusion.