Returning the way they came, after Zenith dispelled the Reality Marble, everyone was teleported back in front of the Matou family's magic workshop.
The ground was covered in dead bugs emitting a highly unpleasant odor. Amidst the sea of bug corpses, Kirei Kotomine was half-kneeling on the ground, clutching his chest.
Souichiro Kuzuki and Caster stood side by side. The people's teacher, Souichiro, pushed up his glasses. "Lancer is dead. It seems you've managed to keep your life."
Caster's goal was to seize Kirei Kotomine's Heroic Spirit. Since Kirei had already lost his status as a Master, there was no longer any need to kill him.
Lancer's soul had naturally been brought out by Zenith as well. Fortunately, nothing abnormal occurred; his soul returned normally to the Lesser Grail, waiting for the Holy Grail War to end.
"Mr. Priest, why are you looking a bit worse for wear? A guy with your formidable strength shouldn't be unable to beat a mere teacher, right?"
Kirei Kotomine struggled to his feet, unable to hold back as he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
He looked toward Gilgamesh, who was watching the show from the sidelines, a flash of surprise in his eyes. "Gilgamesh, what are you doing?"
Gilgamesh couldn't care less about what Kirei Kotomine thought. Their previous relationship was merely a standard partnership—a king's pity. Now that he had Zenith, a powerful backer who could fulfill his wishes, who the hell was Kirei Kotomine? Never heard of him.
"Mongrel, you have no right to question what this king chooses to do!"
Rin Tohsaka glared at Kirei Kotomine, her eyes practically burning with the fury of seeing a sworn enemy. Zenith had already told her the truth: this teacher she had respected for so many years was actually her father's murderer.
He had even given her the very murder weapon used to kill her father as a gift!
"I'll kill you!"
Extreme anger needed no excessive words to adorn it. Rin Tohsaka was going to bury this twisted priest who had toyed with her emotions straight into hell.
Already heavily injured, Kirei Kotomine couldn't launch any decent attacks, not to mention that Souichiro Kuzuki and Caster were right there, refusing to give him the chance to cast any large-scale magecraft.
Shirou Emiya and Sakura Tohsaka backed Rin up, ensuring no unexpected accidents would occur. EMIYA, wearing a complicated expression, looked at Zenith. "Zenith, should we go chat over there?"
Gilgamesh summoned a floating throne from the Gate of Babylon and sat on it with his legs crossed. "Oh? Faker, do you have some shameful secrets to whisper?"
Zenith, however, felt a stir in his heart.
EMIYA, or rather, the Heroic Spirit Shirou, was different from other Heroic Spirits. Shirou Emiya had no legend of his own; he was only able to become a Heroic Spirit because he signed a contract with the Counter Force, Alaya.
Even within his Reality Marble, Unlimited Blade Works, one could see the two massive gears that represented that contract.
"No problem."
EMIYA had never shown this kind of expression before. The only thing Zenith could think of was that Alaya had passed some sort of message to EMIYA.
The two flew off into the distance, finding a secluded high-rise and landing on the roof.
EMIYA set up a Bounded Field to prevent anyone else from eavesdropping, then spoke. "During the half hour we spent traveling to your infinite land, all of us—including myself, Alaya's contractor—were completely disconnected from the Root. We vanished from the Counter Force's line of sight."
*Of course. You really think you can contact anyone once you're in my Minecraft world? No matter how powerful Alaya is, it's only the boss in its own world, playing around with timelines and parallel universes. On an infinite, multiverse scale, a god born from this little broken sphere doesn't even make the cut.*
"So, what did Alaya say?"
Zenith cut straight to the core issue. He knew his own situation perfectly well, and he had no interest in listening to a long-winded buildup. It was better to just hear the results.
EMIYA hesitated for a moment, seemingly organizing his words. "Alaya said that it doesn't mind a god like you coming here for a sightseeing tour and messing up a timeline, but treating the place like a free buffet and stuffing your pockets is going too far."
"A copy of Artoria and Gilgamesh's Heroic Spirit data can be given to you, but you'll have to pay for the mana required for their Saint Graphs yourself."
*Stingy, way too stingy! What do you mean 'stuffing my pockets'? I worked hard to kidnap these two Heroic Spirits myself, alright!*
But Zenith was just complaining internally. With Alaya's endorsement, the risk of taking Saber and Gilgamesh away was reduced to an absolute minimum. He wouldn't have to worry about dragging them back only to find they had turned into blank slates.
This was literally the difference between smuggling them across the border and getting them permanent visas! Zenith wasn't about to push his luck after getting a good deal. They were all high-level gods; even though Zenith usually acted like a clown, he still cared about his face in front of an entity like this.
"Alright, name your price. How much?"
"Five thousand of those fully mana-charged synchronized diamonds per person."
"How many??!"
Zenith's eyes widened as large as brass bells. "Are you seriously asking for that much? Do you have any idea how much mana is in ten thousand fully charged synchronized diamonds?"
*One hundred million mana! And that's not even counting the resources consumed. The material cost alone is ten thousand diamonds, forty thousand gold ingots, and forty thousand lapis lazuli.*
*And that doesn't even factor in the time and resources needed to fully charge them with mana.*
"One thousand, not a single one more."
"Four thousand. The replenishment of a Saint Graph is calculated in centuries. Both Gilgamesh and Artoria are vital combat assets to the Throne of Heroes, and Gilgamesh is even a Grand candidate."
"One thousand five hundred. I'm struggling here too, EMIYA. Your boss Alaya has a massive enterprise. Forget Grand candidates, it could gather enough Grand Servants to fill several mahjong tables. Look at me, I had to scrape together my entire fortune bit by bit!"
EMIYA's already dark face flushed completely red. His mouth opened and closed, unable to form words. After holding it in for a long time, he finally burst out,
"Uncle! Shirou Emiya calls you uncle, and I'm the future Shirou, so there's nothing wrong with me calling you uncle, right? We're all family here, let's not haggle like strangers. Two thousand five hundred, and that's final!"
*You're really going all out,* Zenith thought, absolutely dumbfounded. He couldn't even imagine those words coming out of EMIYA's mouth.
The price had been slashed in half. He could still afford this amount of diamonds and resources. If this were before he developed the tunnel bore and mining machines, it might have been a bit of a strain, but now...
*When the machines start roaring, the gold starts pouring!*
He wasn't even in a rush to build redstone farms anymore. The machines he had already built basically required no maintenance, and in just a few days, they could hollow out a massive perimeter. All he had to do was periodically collect the resources and clear out the chests.
Deal. Zenith spent a hefty sum of resources to buy Saber and Gilgamesh's freedom to take them home. Of course, the prerequisite was that these two were willing to leave with him; otherwise, he couldn't exactly force them.
Returning to the ruins of the Matou manor, Gilgamesh looked at Zenith. A trace of caution appeared on his usually mocking face. "What did you do? This king can no longer sense the Throne of Heroes."
Zenith looked at Gilgamesh and Saber, feeling as though both of them were practically radiating the scent of money.
*It was way too presumptuous of me to describe these two as a gacha pull and a double SSR drop earlier. Now someone actually came knocking to collect the gacha fees. If you ask me, the Throne of Heroes should just develop a pay-to-win mobile game and call it FGO.*
"I had a friendly negotiation with Alaya and got the two of you cross-world visas. Now you can safely come with me."
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