A few seconds passed in silence.
The Everdistant Utopia had begun to dissolve at its edges, vanishing around us like a reality too perfect to be true.
Artoria finally pulled back, looking down at me. Her thumb brushed my cheek, wiping away a trace of blood I hadn't realized was there.
For the first time in a long while, my mind felt sluggish. My body heavier than ever. Talents that usually answered the instant I called upon them lay dormant. Not gone. Just... waiting. Like muscles pushed past their point of failure, demanding rest before they'd cooperate again.
I understood. Detonating my own inner world would have consequences.
I did it anyway.
At least that thing was gone now.
Golden sunlight bled out of our surroundings. Flowers shifted next, their petals turning transparent from the tips, evaporating into luminescent flecks before they could fall. Grass beneath me softened, its pointed blades curling into something thick and layered.
I felt it against my palms before I saw it.
Petals.
Pale and violet, dense as a carpet, stretching in every direction. Some freshly fallen. Some still growing.
The sky finished its dissolution overhead. That unending blue gave way to a formless, white light—soft and sourceless.
Avalon's clearing was gone. In its place stretched an endless sea of flowers beneath a directionless sky. White lilies and violet stems that had no business growing together, yet did anyway.
The Grail's true interior.
Not the hellscape of black mud and screaming faces that had tried to drown us.
Artoria rose over me in a single fluid motion, glancing left, then right, her body coiling with tension. Excalibur materialized in her grip with a flash of gold.
I didn't bother getting up.
"Master, I will get us out of here in a momen—"
Her voice cut off. She spun to her left, leveling Excalibur's tip at a figure that hadn't been there a moment ago.
"You!"
Gold blazed from her gauntlets at the silhouette.
A woman. Silver-white hair, delicate features—the same face as that thing.
An Einzbern.
But the differences registered immediately—because I was still capable of registering differences, even with my talents dormant.
That woman had worn madness like a second skin, eyes fever-bright with the joy of someone who'd found purpose in suffering.
This woman's eyes were blank. Empty. The way mine had been days ago.
That woman had worn black. This one wore white—a dress-shroud that pooled at her feet like the surrounding petals.
"Artoria. Stand down."
My jaw didn't want to cooperate, but it obeyed.
"But, Master—" She stepped closer to my prone form, Excalibur still trained on the woman. "She is—"
"I know what she looks like. Stand down."
Artoria's grip tightened on her sword. Then, slowly, she lowered her blade by an inch. Excalibur's tip was still aimed at that figure, just no longer at her throat.
I turned my head toward the woman. Even that small motion took effort.
"Who are you?"
A beat passed.
"You lay within the Greater Grail. I am its core and foundation." She said, voice flat, eyes trained on me without blinking.
"Einzbern?" I asked.
"Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern." She replied.
"I see."
"Your soul is damaged." Her head moved a fraction of a degree, assessing me. "After what you did—detonating your own Reality Marble—it should be theoretically impossible for you to remain conscious."
Her finger rose, pointing at my open eyes.
"Master!?" Artoria pulled one hand from Excalibur, already reaching toward the metaphysical space at her sternum.
"There was a sixty-five percent chance I would fall asleep and never wake up again," I turned my face back skyward. "I calculated it beforehand."
Artoria's arm trembled.
Justeaze tilted her head slightly—the first movement she'd made that resembled something human.
"Why did you still do it?" A pause. "...I don't understand."
"I don't either."
My voice came out calm, as if I'd made peace with the answer even if I couldn't explain it.
Justeaze's eyes remained on me. Uncomprehending. The same way mine used to be when logic was the only language I understood.
Artoria had brought [Avalon] out by now. She crouched beside me and pressed her sheath into my chest—fingers digging in where its golden light vanished beneath my skin.
"That sheath will prevent his soul's injuries from worsening," Justeaze's gaze tracked Artoria's motion without interest. "But to truly heal them, it will take months. Perhaps years."
"You are the Grail, are you not?" Artoria's fingers curled tighter against my chest. "Can you not heal my Master?"
"I can grant you both a wish, as you have won the war. But healing his soul's injuries..." Justeaze's arms hung motionless at her sides. "That is beyond my current capabilities."
Petals drifted between us.
"I could have torn a hole to the Root. Granted him a chance to acquire the Third True Magic—Heaven's Feel. Materialization of the soul. That would have healed his injuries completely and granted him immortality alongside infinite mana."
Artoria's eyes widened.
"But you absorbed nearly one-third of the Grail's stored mana through your artificial circuits to detonate your Reality Marble." Justeaze's gaze shifted—to those black markings still faintly visible on my face.
"I no longer possess enough to open a path to the Root."
Her words hung in air.
"There should be another way." Artoria said, looking at my half-closed eyes.
"There is. Let the Grail accumulate mana for another twenty years and then I can open a path to the Root for you." A petal flew over, landing on Justeaze's shoulder.
Silence fell.
"Is there no other way?" Artoria demanded, her voice harder than before.
"The most I can do is pour my mana into the sheath, decreasing his soul's healing time to a matter of weeks. Yet, even then, he won't be able to deploy his Reality Marble on a large scale. To fully heal and summon thousands of projections as he did before will still take months."
"Do it. Heal him." With a firm voice, Artoria commanded.
Justeaze's eyes moved to Artoria. Then to me. Then back.
"Very well."
She raised one arm—slowly, like a mechanism that hadn't been used in centuries. Her palm turned upward, fingers opening toward that sunless sky.
Countless threads extended from her fingers, travelling outward for miles before vanishing into flowers. Those lilies and violet stems trembled in response, their petals shivering as though something was being sucked out of them.
Then mana began to flow. A vortex of thousands of silver threads opened above me, dozens of them stretching downward in a tight spiral, converging on my sternum and—
Thump.
A tremendous amount of mana surged straight into [Avalon]. Even more than what my pseudo-circuits could hope to generate in months. Golden light bloomed beneath my skin. It spread outward from my chest in slow increments, following paths I recognized as my original magic circuits.
Thump.
They untangled, healed, and reconnected like time was being wound back. A circuit flickered to life, then another, then ten more. Their count climbed—fifty, seventy, ninety, a hundred and twenty.
My fingers twitched against petals.
Artoria's hand found mine instantly. Squeezed.
Even the broken lines of my pseudo-circuits traced themselves back into alignment along my skin.
Then the light intensified.
Thump.
I could feel my heartbeat now. Not as a distant echo I was only vaguely aware of, but as a steady rhythm pressing against my sternum. Strong. Present.
The sluggishness in my mind receded by a single degree. Then another.
Thoughts that had been swimming through fog sharpened to a pinpoint. Analytical processes that had stalled mid-operation rebooted in sequence—damage assessment first, then environmental scan, then threat evaluation.
Each one clumsy and slower than I was accustomed to. But each one was functional.
I could count the petals drifting within a three-meter radius. Twelve meters. Still increasing. I could estimate Justeaze's mana output at roughly forty percent of her remaining reserves.
My talents were waking up.
Not the way they usually operated—instant and effortless. This was slower. Like a computer waking from a hard shutdown instead of sleep mode, each program loading with lag.
But they were there.
I exhaled.
Artoria leaned closer.
"Master?"
I opened my eyes fully. The light above me focused from a blur to absolute clarity.
"I'm here."
Justeaze lowered her arm.
"His soul is stabilizing." Her head tilted again, that fractional motion. "He should regain limited mobility within minutes. Full cognitive function within hours. But as I said—"
"Weeks for the soul," I finished for her. "Months for the Reality Marble."
Artoria's jaw tightened beside me.
"Yes." Justeaze's blank eyes held mine. "Do not attempt to deploy it on a large scale before then. Your inner world has barely begun to heal, its structural integrity still remains compromised."
I held her gaze.
"...Understood."
Minutes passed in quiet after that.
"But this can barely be considered a wish..." Justeaze spoke again, breaking the silence.
Both of our eyes snapped to her.
"I have a proposal."
"Speak." Artoria's tone was steel.
"There is a way to heal your injuries faster."
My eyes, which had been tracing a petal on her shoulder, shifted to her face.
Artoria leaned forward slightly.
"Faster than months?" She asked.
"Days. Perhaps less, depending on conditions."
Justeaze's face remained blank. The same I'd seen in my own reflection for most of my existence.
"What is it?" I asked.
Justeaze's head tilted again.
"Another world."
...
..
.
***
[200 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[5 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
...
[Authors Thoughts]
Alright... I have been thinking about showing some slice of life and fun chapters before we jump into another world and more action and serious things.
And I have also heard many people wanting me to add Illiya as Izuru's love interest. But I'll be honest, Illiya looks like a child, and I can't for the life of me add someone like that as a love interest, I mean she is nineteen years old but it's not about age, she just looks like a child. So, for any people who wanted Illiya and Izuru ships, I am sorry for having to disappoint you.
Besides why do you all want Illiya when we can have her super hot and cold ancestor? I have a new idea about Justeaze, just have to make it work out within Type-Moon's rules and we'll be golden.
Anyways... have a wonderful day, everyone!