In the Fuyuki City Public Hall, the Holy Grail floated above the stage.
Entering the hall, Caelus saw Tokiomi and Kirei standing below the stage.
"Assassin, as far as I know, you don't have any strong desire you want realized. How about we make a deal? With your extremely unique skills, I imagine you will be able to remain in this world even after the Holy Grail War ends. Whatever you want later, my Tohsaka Family can help you obtain with all our strength, but could you yield this Holy Grail to me?"
Gilgamesh's defeat was hard for Tokiomi to accept, but he still came here refusing to give up, trying to obtain the Holy Grail through negotiation.
In fact, if the Holy Grail were not currently in a state of gathering and could not be used directly yet, Tokiomi would have used it already.
Caelus looked up at the Holy Grail floating in mid air, and at the terrifying malice within it that a normal person could hardly perceive.
"Even if my desire is not strong, I must obtain the Holy Grail. This is my quest."
"Quest?"
Tokiomi's expression immediately became shocked. Then, thinking of the other being a Heroic Spirit, his expression turned strange.
"Could it be the Counter Force?"
Caelus glanced at the blue screen in front of him. After understanding the situation inside the Holy Grail, he walked toward the stage and said, "In the last Holy Grail War, the Einzbern Family used illegal means to summon an eighth class Servant, Avenger, to secure victory. But unexpectedly, the summoned Servant was incredibly weak, almost no different from an ordinary person. So the Einzbern Family considered it a failed summoning, let that weak Servant be killed, and gave up on that Holy Grail War."
"And what they do not know is that this summoned Servant is named Angra Mainyu. Although he is not truly the evil god of the same name, he carries the special status of all the world's evils. After his death, his soul was sucked into the Holy Grail, causing it to be completely corrupted by the filth of all the world's evils it endured. It has turned into a Black Holy Grail that twists the wishes people make, granting them in the worst possible way."
"If you wish for world peace, the Holy Grail will wipe out all living beings in this world to achieve it. If you wish to become the richest person in the world, it will kill everyone wealthier than you. If Casters like you wish to reach the Root, it will also grant that wish in an incredibly twisted manner. As for whether what you reach is the true Root, no one knows."
"Once the Holy Grail fully manifests, if the black mud emerging from it is not contained, it will likely submerge all of Fuyuki City. How many will die then? How much will the existence of magecraft be exposed? No one knows."
Hearing Caelus's explanation, Tokiomi's face turned deathly pale. As a Caster, his greatest obsession in life was entering the Root. Originally, the Holy Grail ritual existed for this purpose, but now the Grail was corrupted and unusable.
At this moment, Tokiomi also filled in the blanks about why an out of spec Servant like Caelus, who normally should not be summoned, appeared in this Holy Grail War. He must be here to deal with the corruption of the Grail. Otherwise, for a random Servant to defeat the King of Heroes would be simply too inconceivable.
Caelus stood on the stage, looking at the Holy Grail that was nearly full and about to overflow with black mud. He said to Tokiomi and Kirei, who were still on the stage, "The Holy Grail is almost full, and the malice stored within is about to gush out. Are you going to stand here and face it with me?"
Without a word, Tokiomi quickly led Kirei away. At this moment, he could only pin his hopes on the next Holy Grail War, though by then he would likely not be the one participating.
But it did not matter. His daughter possessed talent far exceeding his own. If the Holy Grail could return to normal by the next time, perhaps his daughter could fulfill his wish for him.
Consoling himself with such reasons, Tokiomi survived this Holy Grail War.
Caelus watched the Holy Grail as black mud began to flow out. He jumped slightly and grabbed the Grail in mid air, then a massive surge of black mud swallowed him whole.
In a world of pitch darkness, Caelus heard various voices constantly whispering in his ears. They were telling him to kill, to rape, to rob, to curse, to hate, to despise, to mock, to indulge in gluttony, to deceive.
Countless voices, countless evil thoughts from the deepest and darkest parts of the human heart, were constantly trying to make Caelus sink into them and commit all the sins they desired to commit.
But Caelus simply walked through this darkness expressionlessly. He could understand what those sins were, but he felt no impulse to do those things.
"Why should I do this? What is the meaning of these actions?"
Caelus tried to communicate with those original sins. "What is the meaning of doing these things?"
Those original sins seemed to be encountering such a person for the first time. They were momentarily stunned, then began to use various illusions and verbal descriptions to depict the pleasure brought by these actions.
"So you only do these things because they bring pleasure, not because you purely want to do them, right? Then you do not even count as the darkness representing these evils. You are just the most basic human desire for pleasure hidden in the heart."
"Ah? Is that so?"
The surrounding environment began to turn grayish white. The consciousness hidden in the darkness, which was trying to tempt Caelus into falling, did not notice this at all, only beginning to think in bewilderment.
And once it began to think, it fell into a spiral of contradiction.
When Caelus found the last trace of black in the grayish white world, he saw a male like figure with dark skin covered in strange characters kneeling on the ground, clutching his head and constantly questioning something.
He was questioning the meaning of his existence, questioning whether he truly represented all the world's evils, or if he only represented a sin that craved pleasure. If that were true, how could he be worthy of being called all the world's evils? If he was not worthy, then what was the point of all the sins he had carried in the past?
Doubt, questioning, and denial filled this being's mind, bringing him to the brink of collapse.
Caelus crouched down and looked at Angra Mainyu, who was constantly questioning and denying himself. He said, "You were not the real Angra Mainyu to begin with, nor did you carry all the world's evils. You were merely a tool used by a small village to escape the evil in their own hearts. By carving all their sins onto you, they deluded themselves into thinking they were pure. In reality, that was just an escape."
A phantom longsword constructed from the power of Nihility appeared in Caelus's hand, and he used it to pierce the Angra Mainyu before him.
"Your suffering ends now. I shall carry the evil you currently bear."
Angra Mainyu looked up, staring with his own eyes at Caelus, who was watching him calmly. He sighed.
"How can pure evil ever fill a hollow void of Nihility..."
Then all the evil thoughts within the Holy Grail were devoured into Caelus's body.
[Ding! Main quest completed. 24 hours of free time remaining. During this period, the Host can leave this world at any time.]
(To be continued.)