Tohsaka Rin and Emiya Shirou were destined to gain nothing tonight.
Even if they stood guard outside Sakura's bedroom door until they died, they wouldn't catch her.
The Greater Grail is connected to the Leylines of Fuyuki City, and the Black Holy Grail that Sakura has transformed into... doesn't need to walk out on its own two feet. It can move entirely through the Leylines, which is why the Black Holy Grail was so elusive in the original story.
Perhaps subconsciously not wanting to hurt Emiya Shirou, the place where the Black Holy Grail appeared was very far from his home.
"Good thing I caught up," Xia Yu said as she raised her hand to sever the ribbon-like appendages the Black Holy Grail was extending toward an innocent citizen, coming to a halt before it.
"If it weren't for Medea being so capable, I'd really have a hard time finding you."
Facing her words, the Black Holy Grail remained silent. It merely flickered a few times, approaching Xia Yu before extending several appendages in an attempt to restrain her.
"I don't have those kinds of hobbies," Xia Yu remarked as she swung her sword to sever those appendages, slowly closing in.
The Black Holy Grail sensed a threat, but it greedily coveted the massive energy within her. For a moment, it was caught in a dilemma of whether to advance or retreat.
The Matou Sakura who had lost her rationality instinctively craved Magical Energy, and currently, in the entire Fuyuki City, the only person who could provide her with a massive amount of it was Xia Yu.
Thus, even after having its attacks thwarted several times, it was reluctant to leave for a long time.
Xia Yu severed the incoming appendages as she drew closer, step by step.
The twin swords in her hands danced in an airtight defense; even when dozens of appendages rushed forward at once, they couldn't gain a single advantage.
Finally, seemingly sensing a fatal threat, the Black Holy Grail retracted its appendages, intending to leave directly via the Leylines.
But Xia Yu was quick. She dropped the sword in her left hand and grabbed an appendage that was about to retract.
Sensing her movement, even though Sakura had lost her rationality, the Black Holy Grail paused.
As a Servant summoned by the Holy Grail, one cannot resist the will of the Holy Grail. At least, that's how most Servants fell in the original story—from Artoria to the enthusiastic citizen Mr. Gilgamesh, not a single person escaped.
Especially Gilgamesh; logically speaking, he shouldn't have feared the Sakura who had turned into the Black Holy Grail. He could have completely kited her to death using the Gate of Babylon by keeping his distance.
In the end, he fell prey to his own arrogance, thinking everything was under control. The result was confidently delivering a massive "takeout" of mana to Sakura.
That directly fattened up the Black Holy Grail, even allowing it to escape the Old Worm's control. The Old Worm was likely devastated; according to his plan, even if Sakura became the vessel for the Black Holy Grail, how much mana could she accumulate just by eating ordinary people and a few Heroic Spirits?
It wouldn't be enough for All the World's Evil to descend. He had calculated everything, planning to end the Holy Grail War before the progress bar hit maximum. He hadn't expected Gilgamesh to insist on delivering ten years' worth of accumulated massive mana as takeout...
But Xia Yu was different.
Being summoned was just borrowing a path. Heh, even Command Spells can't bind me; the Holy Grail's meager control is nothing.
The appendage she was clutching tried incessantly to erode her palm, but the effect was negligible. It was laughable—what did the Holy Grail's special effectiveness against Servants have to do with her, an Iron Cavalry of Glamoth?
In the moment the Black Holy Grail was stunned, Xia Yu yanked it toward her.
"Don't you need Magical Energy?" She reached out and tapped Sakura's head. "Come on, I have plenty here. Help yourself."
Since she had watched this monster be released, she wasn't so unscrupulous as to watch it slaughter ordinary people everywhere to recover mana.
Sigh, at first she thought this was the Rin route, as the interaction between those two looked so natural. She hadn't expected that while she wasn't looking, the Old Worm would start stirring up trouble.
Now that the deed was done, there was no way to dig the Holy Grail Shard out of Sakura's body directly, so she had to find another way.
"How long would it take you to get full eating ordinary people? Come find me every night from now on," Xia Yu said, gently tapping its head. "I can feed you. But, if you dare go looking for anyone else, I'll go straight to the Emiya Residence and kill you first, then go down to Mount Enzou and dismantle the Greater Grail."
Though she didn't know how effective it would be, it was worth a try. Otherwise, coming out every night to look for people would be too much trouble.
Hearing this, the Black Holy Grail shuddered involuntarily and then obediently began to convert the Magical Energy.
What else could it do? Currently, it was "all alone." Originally, it could have controlled the Servants it devoured, but now things were awkward.
The only Servant confirmed to have exited the stage was Sasaki Kojiro, killed by the Old Worm's schemes, but he died far too early—back then, the shard hadn't even been implanted in Sakura.
Kojiro's soul had gone into Illya, the Lesser Grail.
As for Hassan of the Hundred Faces, who should have been summoned illegally by the Old Worm using Kojiro's death, he was nowhere to be found. Even though Xia Yu had beaten the Old Worm to death, Hassan hadn't appeared.
With Hassan missing, Cu Chulainn naturally wouldn't be killed by their combined scheme, and Artoria wouldn't be ambushed. Right now, it didn't have a single Thug in its hands.
It could only rely on itself to find food.
And the moment it prepared to act, it was spotted by Xia Yu.
Feeling her life energy being constantly converted, Xia Yu closed her eyes. It wasn't until she sensed the Black Holy Grail malevolently trying to erode her again that she opened them and directly tore away the appendages wrapped around her palm.
"That's enough," she said, looking quite kindly at the Black Holy Grail. "Good children should go back to sleep. That's all for tonight."
"Remember, if I find out you didn't go back, tomorrow will be the day you die. All the World's Evil sounds quite intimidating, but I wonder if you can still act tough after being thrown into the sun!"
Hearing this, the Black Holy Grail trembled, then flickered several times along the Leylines and left.
"Master, it really went back obediently," Medea suddenly appeared beside her.
"That's good," Xia Yu nodded with satisfaction.
"But does that little girl still have a consciousness?" Medea felt it was quite rare, her desire for research stirring. "To actually be able to understand your threat—I thought she had completely lost her mind in this form."
"She has indeed lost her rationality, but since the Black Holy Grail is using her as a vessel," Xia Yu explained, "what drives its actions is Matou Sakura's subconscious."
"This girl has been oppressed for so long; her subconscious desire to take revenge on society is likely at its peak. But you can't blame her; after everything she's been through, it's a miracle her mind hasn't snapped already."
Just as Matou Sakura said herself, beneath her obedient exterior hid a total "bad girl" who viewed the world with malice.
If she hadn't met Emiya Shirou, there was no telling what she would have grown into.
"But the subconscious is still consciousness. Faced with my threat, she can at least understand a little bit. Besides, the thing inside the Grail isn't truly ignorant."
It was precisely because Matou Sakura's subconscious was in control that Emiya Shirou was able to be so active after losing his Servant and survive every time without a scratch.
"Fine then," Xia Yu looked at the mark Medea had placed on the Black Holy Grail and nodded as it completely returned to the Emiya Residence. "It's about time I headed back. I'll leave the Greater Grail to you, Medea."
"You truly trust me..." Medea said softly. "The Greater Grail... you're willing to leave something so important to me?"
"I told you, we're good partners," Xia Yu patted her shoulder and gave her a thumbs up. "I'm at ease leaving the Greater Grail to you."
"...No, my point is, while I can research the structure of the Greater Grail, when it comes to something like All the World's Evil..." she said worriedly, "I have no solution for that..."
"No, you don't need to solve it," Xia Yu said after a two-second silence. "Just deconstruct the Greater Grail for me."
"As for that Black Mud... don't worry, I have my own ways."
"Good morning, Senior," Matou Sakura woke up feeling refreshed. After washing up, she came to the living room and tilted her head at the bleary-eyed Tohsaka Rin and Emiya Shirou.
"Um, did you two... not sleep all night?"
"No, we were just doing some research," Tohsaka Rin forced a corner of her mouth up into a tired smile. "We're fine, Sakura. Come, Archer has already made breakfast."
"Yeah, it's fine, Sakura," Emiya Shirou tried his best to hide his emotions, flashing a grin at her. "Come eat. You still have to go to school after this."
"Uh, just us?" She looked around. "Where is that Miss Fujimaru Ritsuka from last night and her Servant?"
"They're resting," Archer interjected smoothly. "It couldn't be helped. Ever since they found out the 'Big Boss' lives right across the street, they couldn't sleep no matter how much we tried to persuade them."
"They're catching up on sleep now. Don't worry about them; they don't have to go to school anyway."
"Okay," Matou Sakura sat down obediently at the table.
"By the way, Sakura," Tohsaka Rin asked as if casually, "did you sleep well last night?"
"Yes, for some reason, the quality of my sleep was actually very good," Matou Sakura nodded. she wanted to ask something, but in the end, her lips moved and she didn't ask.
Seeing this, Tohsaka Rin and Emiya Shirou breathed a sigh of relief. They didn't know how to tell Sakura yet.
All the World's Evil, the Beast representing the Evils of Humanity... every word weighed heavily on their hearts.
"By the way, last night I went to the Church to have that priest issue a crusade order, only to find out he's actually Lancer's Master!" The atmosphere at the table was heavy, so Tohsaka Rin found a topic to discuss. "So much happened, I didn't have time to tell you."
"Did he issue the order?" Emiya Shirou's eyes lit up.
"He didn't..." Tohsaka Rin shook her head. "He said it's meaningless now."
"After all, just on our side we have Saber, Archer, Sakura's Rider, Miss Furina's Caster, and that fake priest's Lancer. The participants of the Holy Grail War are almost all accounted for."
"As for Assassin, for some reason, even that priest can't find a trace of him or his Master," Tohsaka Rin sighed. "If we add Miss Mash, we can barely put together six Servants."
"I don't know if we can beat Miss Firefly, but to be safe, we should wait until we find news of Assassin."
In their state of anxiety, they hurried through breakfast and headed to school.
"Going to school, huh," Fujimaru Ritsuka watched their backs from a distance and sighed. "Even at a time like this, they still obediently go to school..."
"This kind of composure, as if the sky isn't falling, is something I truly can't match."
"Stop joking around," over at Chaldea, Da Vinci shot her a look. "I've found the data on All the World's Evil. Tsk, the Mr. Zhuge Liang you once summoned left some records."
"It can be confirmed that the thing truly exists. Add an interstellar super-soldier to that... this is much more exciting than North America."
"And that Furina," just then, the Doctor leaned in with dark circles under his eyes. "My intuition tells me she might have some connection to the Demon God Pillars."
"Eh?" Fujimaru Ritsuka scratched the back of her head. "Is there any evidence? After all, Demon God Pillars..."
"Just intuition," the Doctor spread his hands. "Pure intuition, not a shred of evidence."
"Fine. Use your intuition to tell me which Demon God she's connected to," Da Vinci stared at him fixedly.
"...The 41st Pillar," the Doctor said after a two-second silence.
He had to say it. As things grew more serious, he couldn't sit still either.
"The 41st Demon God—Focalor. With a human body and griffin wings, he commands the power of wind and sea, often overturning Warships and drowning sailors, yet he will not act in contradiction to the summoner's orders," Da Vinci recited as if counting her treasures. "Are you sure, Romani?"
"I'm not that sure," the Doctor hesitated. "Maybe... just some sort of connection."
As Solomon himself, he was incredibly familiar with the aura of Demon Gods, and he could smell a bit of that scent on her even across space-time.
Oh, Lev was an accident; he hid himself far too well.
But Furina hadn't hidden her aura at all. It was a power very similar to Focalor's, yet distinctly different in the details, which left him, the King of Magic, confused.
"Intuition, huh," Fujimaru Ritsuka wasn't a naive fool; she shot the Doctor a look and then said, "Let's leave it at that for now. If she really is connected to a Demon God Pillar... then her words might not be entirely trustworthy."
"Truly a convoluted web of relationships," Mash said with a face full of confusion. "So Senpai, what should we do now?"
"Now?" Fujimaru Ritsuka turned toward the residence across the street. "We can't just take their word for it, can we?"