The brilliant starlight spear shot through the air! It cut a celestial scar across the night sky, disappearing into the starlit expanse like a comet striking the moon, transforming into a shining celestial star.
Rin closed her eyes, concentrating. After sensing the movement of the divine spear in the infinitely high sky, she quickly dashed in one direction.
At this moment, Rin finally realized the extent to which her future self had developed Projection Magecraft.
Combined with the application of the Second Magic, using a virtual object projected by oneself as a link, it broke through the barrier between parallel spaces, replacing it with the true body of the projected object.
In other words, the gungnir that Rin was currently using was in the hands of the Norse Chief God Odin just a second ago! It was a genuine, authentic article!
Jalter followed closely behind Rin. At this moment, Jalter slightly raised her gaze and saw an incredibly brilliant and dazzling streak of starlight flash by. Rin was currently chasing that meteor's trajectory.
Great God's Declaration · gungnir, also known as the Spear of the Meteor, once a target is declared, it is an unavoidable hit!
Boom!!!
The meteor struck the ground! Its landing point was deep within Mount Enzou, and its dazzling light instantly illuminated the mountain forest as if it were daytime! The exploding ball of light showered the mountains and fields with starlight rain.
Rin, with Jalter, sped through the mountain forest. The location of the crater, as if struck by a meteor, was very clear. Rin had to personally confirm Matou Zouken's complete demise to be at ease.
Soon, behind the mountain in the deep mountains, Rin and Jalter found the crater blasted open by gungnir. In the center of the hundreds-of-meters-wide giant pit, the starlight-shining, unavoidable Spear of the Meteor was gradually blurring. After all, this was not a divine artifact of this world; once the magical energy resisting the world's rejection was exhausted, it would return to its original world.
"Ah... Master, let's go back. With an attack of this level... even the ground has vaporized. You won't find any traces of him left."
Jalter said, a bit of a headache, to Rin, who had jumped into the bottom of the pit, insisting on personally confirming Matou Zouken's life or death.
Searching for remnants in a crater formed by a comet's impact was harder than finding a bone in an egg.
"You're still not completely dead after all."
What?!!!
Rin silently looked at the spot where gungnir had disappeared.
Only incomplete, reddish-black chunks of flesh remained of the body, not even resembling a human. It was the swarm of insects dwelling beneath the ground here, all gathered together, only able to form a single chunk of flesh, unable to maintain a human form.
Oh, oh oh, oh, oh—
Wailing in a way no one could understand, it couldn't even be called "he," but rather "it." Its painful, writhing form was nothing more than a moving chunk of flesh.
Even so, it was still alive.
Matou Zouken, who was directly hit by a mythological strike like a meteor, had his main soul worm destroyed, leaving only that decaying body, but he—
Did not want to die!
Cursing his crumbling remnant body, he survived in this world through his own obsession.
Oh oh—oh oh, oh—oh—
Trembling and wriggling, crawling on the scorched earth.
The old Magus, whose host body preserving his soul had been destroyed, continued to exist in this world through his obsession.
However, his demise was only a matter of time.
A body formed by forcefully stuffing corrupted, residual soul fragments into rapidly growing insects.
I don't want to die yet!
The old Magus, now just a mass of flesh, even at the peak of his agony, even with only his last breath remaining, even with his body completely decayed, still lived on through sheer obsession, unwilling to die.
Right before his eyes, deep within Mount Enzou, lay the greater grail that was buried there all those years ago!
He gazed up at the materialization of eternity, which he had sought for so long and was now just one step away.
Oh, oh oh, oh oh oh oh—!
Was it the pain of impending death, or regret? He didn't want to die yet, he loathed death. If he disappeared now, what more could he accomplish?
Five hundred years.
The fruits of enduring five hundred years of suffering should be rewarded! Why must he disappear?
Oh—oh, oh oh oh oh oh... All he could recall was pain. The wish of the Magus named Makiri Zolgen, spanning 500 years.
A prestigious lineage of Magecraft that left its homeland and came to the Far East, only to decline because it couldn't integrate into the laws of a foreign land.
To pursue the Holy Grail, for his own wish, he didn't hesitate to abandon his family's Magecraft foundation and came to Fuyuki, causing his family's magical bloodline to weaken day by day. After sacrificing all of this, how could he possibly die like this!
I don't want to die yet!!!
Oh, oh oh, oh oh oh oh...!!!! He wailed in infinite desolation, but no one would listen.
That's right, there's no reason to die! I hate this decaying body, pain, more pain, in short, just pain! Five hundred years of nothing but pain. Life has been nothing but pain.
Therefore, was it wrong to seek eternity? If all that remained in the end was pain, how could he disappear without leaving a trace? How could he die so painfully?
Holy Grail, listen to my wish! Answer my question! My wish is not to die! Respond to me! Grant my wish!
Yet, this body couldn't reach it. Such a short distance, looking back over five hundred years, it was like dust, just this short distance, why, why was it so far!!!
"The Holy Grail hasn't activated yet."
The cold, blunt words shattered the old Magus's final delusional, sorrowful wish.
"Oh oh, oh, oh—!
Although he was scattered everywhere, the mass of flesh still crawled on the ground.
What an obsession this was.
It, which should have been immobile and incapable of movement, moved forward solely by resentment. It had already transformed into a monster made of pure obsession.
—You've changed this much, Makiri. There was someone with a voice as clear as a bell.
Wh-what?
Non-existent eyes lifted, and in his hazy vision,
The figure of a young girl appeared.
The charred mass of flesh stopped moving, its trembling squirming ceased.
It gazed up at the girl, mesmerized, a girl who existed only in the deepest recesses of the old Magus's memory.
That girl from his distant memory, no matter how time flowed, remained unfaded and ever-present in his heart... the winter saintess of the Einzbern Family.
Two hundred years ago, in order to construct the greater grail, she offered herself as a living sacrifice, a fellow builder of the chalice.
Answer me, my kin... Why are you unwilling to die? A single, nostalgic voice was raised.
The simple question brought his agonizing thoughts to a halt.
Why am I unwilling to die?
When he truly tried to state the reason, it felt strange.
If he just ended it, he could be freed from the pain, yet he continued to embrace all the suffering, clinging to life. Why was that?
Oh, oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh—!
I remember!
Yes, it was originally... for that noble dream!
To grasp all things in hand, to understand all truths, to reach a realm no one had ever reached, a body beyond limits, to achieve the infinity of the soul!
The species called humans is constrained by predefined boundaries, and thus wanted to escape the endless spinning spiral of the brain.
In order to heal and erase all hatred and pain!
I remember!
The old Magus's final delusional, sorrowful wish.
When I learned there was no lamentation of paradise, if this world was empty, if even the creation of a physical body was not allowed, then I would rise up and go to a place where it was permitted.
It wasn't about creating a whole new world, but about transforming myself, transforming the existence of humanity, into something new.
Oh...
That's right.
As long as I look up, I can reach that universe, that end, to be reborn anew, to a horizon no one has ever imagined, to an ideal land we cannot depict!
For this, for this, I seek the Holy Grail. I seek miracles beyond human power. Until it is achieved, there is no reason to disappear!
No matter how many times I am defeated, no matter how many times I realize that I cannot reach it with a physical body, as long as I am alive, I will never give up!
—Indeed, there is only one dream: to abolish all evil in this world! For an impossible ideal, Zelretch (Makiri) abandoned his body, family, kinship, bloodline, and humanity, staking everything he possessed!
Therefore, he must survive.
Even after all his enemies are gone, knowing it's meaningless, he will continue to seek.
Believing that there is meaning in existence, as long as it exists, one day, he believes that wish can be realized.
So he must continue to live, even knowing the pain, there is no reason to die.
Even if he has to change himself, he wants to overturn the immature lamentations of his youth. This is his way of life, and also the answer he cannot give.
Yes, even if there is no reward in the future ahead, it is the same.
Oh, oh oh, oh...!
This is the initial wish.
This suffering, compared to continuously challenging an impossible wish, the desire not to die seems insignificant!
Is that all...?
The old Magus finally accepted that it could not be achieved.
Is it over?
Our wishes, our suffering, our mission, all will end here.
The journey to seek the Holy Grail, which was decided from the very beginning, seemed endless, and he never expected it to end here.
Ha, haha, hahaha... But, the end of this long suffering cannot be concluded as a tragic ending.
Our wishes are even more distant, dazzling, and noble; they will surely be fulfilled somewhere in the future!
From now on, what will be gained after countless seasons and thousands of years is the growth of the species called humanity.
So, although it started with such trivial matters, it was a necessary factor.
Their long-cherished wish does not end here; the journey has just begun.
From now on, for a long, long time—although their goal is still very, very far away, it restarts with the end of a dream.
But, what a pity. Ah, just one step away.
With words of despair, the old Magus finally came to his senses.
No matter how brilliant his goal, he was still an evil demon and heretic whose main focus was evil deeds. Ultimately, the current situation was merely an evil thought he foolishly harbored, leading to everything becoming empty.
The last person to initially construct the Holy Grail system disappeared... The few Maguss who sought miracles, as long-lived participants and constant observers, finally gradually collapsed.
Five hundred years, looking back, it was just a fleeting long-cherished wish.
The charred flesh finally carbonized completely, collapsing along with the long-desired goal, disappearing completely from this world, leaving no trace.
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