What the hell was up with negotiating with Alaya? A flash of confusion crossed Saber and Gilgamesh's minds, but they quickly came to terms with it. Zenith, who ruled over a boundless land, really did seem comparable to Alaya.
With matters settled on this end, the Holy Grail War still had to continue.
Once Shirou Emiya made up his mind, he wouldn't easily change it. If he said he was going to end the Holy Grail War, then he absolutely had to end it.
Looking around at the remaining participating Heroic Spirits, there was only the deeply-in-love duo of Souichiro Kuzuki and Caster beside them, along with the white-haired legal loli who was currently hiding out who-knows-where.
"You're still thinking about stealing other people's Heroic Spirits? What, have you still not given up on using the Holy Grail to make a wish?"
Having fought way too much recently, Zenith expressed a deep, bitter hatred for fighting in the short term. He wouldn't lift a finger if he could help it—unless he just couldn't hold back.
"No."
Caster, a magus from the Age of Gods, whose true identity was the unfortunate Princess of Colchis from Greek mythology, was known as the Witch of Betrayal.
Hidden beneath her black, gold-trimmed mage cloak was an alluring, purple evil-stepmother dress. Her personality was twisted, but she had already entrusted her love to the upstanding teacher, Souichiro Kuzuki.
Caster shook her head. "Lord Souichiro has already fulfilled my wish. Seizing Heroic Spirits is more about not wanting the Holy Grail War to just end like this."
Her wish was very simple: she just wanted someone who loved her, and whom she loved in return.
As everyone knew, the condition for ending the Holy Grail War was to determine a single victor, and the condition for victory was killing the other six Heroic Spirits. And after it ended, the victorious Heroic Spirit would also need to return to the Throne of Heroes.
Caster didn't want to be separated from her lover.
Zenith pinched his chin, looking at Caster and then at Gilgamesh. Wasn't the answer to this problem right here?
"Summon the Greater Grail, smash it open, and take a bath in the black mud that flows out. Then you can obtain a physical body in the present world."
Everyone knew this point; Gilgamesh was a living example.
But that was exactly the problem. The prerequisite for summoning the Greater Grail was that the Holy Grail War had to decide a victor first.
It was a deadlock. If fighting Archer meant they could at least try to outsmart him, then fighting a fully mana-charged Saber whose Master could fight even better than a Heroic Spirit... with that level of Magic Resistance, Caster didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell.
"See, you've fallen into a logical trap. Our goal is the black mud, not actually making a wish. So, the condition of having enough Heroic Spirit souls return to the Throne of Heroes doesn't need to be met—having enough mana is fine."
Zenith expressed that this was a piece of cake. In for a penny, in for a pound. Since he had to gather mana-charged diamonds anyway, the little bit the Greater Grail needed was just a drop in the bucket.
Then the only problem was that the falling black mud would cause a massive disaster. The great fire in Fuyuki City ten years ago that cost Shirou Emiya his family was triggered by the overflowing black mud from the Holy Grail.
"That is an issue, but leave it to me. I'll handle the mana and the Holy Grail's black mud. You guys figure out a way to have a chat with that kid, Illya."
"Boring."
Gilgamesh tilted his head slightly. "You mean the vessel for the Lesser Grail? Just kill Heracles and rip her heart out, isn't that it?"
Shirou Emiya hadn't spoken much to Gilgamesh, but at this point, he finally couldn't hold back. "Hey, you bastard! Illya is my precious family, how could I just let you kill her so casually!"
"She's just a puppet to begin with, isn't she? And a puppet on the verge of breaking at that. Even if you leave her alone and ignore her, she'll turn into a corpse in a year at most."
Ideals were beautiful, but reality was cruel.
Shirou Emiya thought that, aside from Zenith, he finally had a normal relative, and a white-haired, red-eyed loli older sister at that.
But to think that this normal relative was actually a homunculus, and her lifespan was nearing its end.
"How is that possible? She's only eighteen!" He had to ask Zenith; only this miraculous uncle could save her. Although they hadn't spent much time together, Shirou had developed a deep trust in this man who had appeared out of nowhere.
Even though this uncle had a terrible personality and loved to make jokes at people's expense at the drop of a hat, he was genuinely gentle a lot of the time. Helping Mr. Kuzuki and Caster, saving Sakura from her fate—his uncle's heart must always yearn for beautiful things.
"Uncle, is there any way to save Illya?!"
"You've really stumped me there."
Zenith lowered his head and thought hard. Did he really have a way to save this kind of homunculus? Illya wasn't just the vessel for the Lesser Grail; she was more like the Lesser Grail itself.
Trying to flawlessly extract the physical Lesser Grail from her body was a difficult task in and of itself.
Her lifespan was actually the smallest issue. Scarf down two Enchanted Golden Apples, and she'd live another thousand years, easy.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. If worse comes to worst, I'll just hand her a Totem of Undying, rip her heart out, and use it like the Shinji Grail."
The so-called "Shinji Grail" was the Holy Grail formed by shoving Illya's heart into Shinji Matou's body. Its physical manifestation was an infinitely multiplying, massive flesh monster. Aside from being a bit sanity-draining, it was still usable.
"Anyway, the heavy lifting is on you, Shirou. Persuading girls is your strong suit, so I'll leave Illya to you. If you can convince her, I'll definitely find a way to save her."
Saving people was just like fixing a computer. The 'turn it off and on again' method and the 'kill and resurrect' method had practically the same effect, and they could solve ninety-nine percent of all problems.
Zenith wasn't worried about Illya's side of things at all; Shirou Emiya was a professional in that department. As for the black mud issue, he already had an idea.
As long as the black mud didn't touch the ground, it wouldn't trigger a chain reaction. So, using a Nether Portal to catch the black mud and dump it into the Nether would work perfectly—no, wait, he could dump it into the Void!
Zenith realized that if he exploited game mechanics to break a few blocks of Bedrock, the empty space underneath would be the endless Void, outside the world. It didn't matter if the black mud was all the Evils of Humanity; dropping into the Void only had one outcome.
Plan secured. The method to break Bedrock was also very simple: he could exploit Minecraft mechanics using TNT and pistons. As long as his hand speed was fast enough, there was a chance to break the Bedrock block the piston was facing.
Of course, just to be safe, he still needed to build some structures and defensive fortifications around the portal to ensure no excess black mud spilled onto the ground.
Oh, right, he also had to build a shower stall for Caster. Even though Gilgamesh had obtained a physical body after soaking in the black mud, his clothes—which were made of mana—had completely vanished.
It was fine for a grown man like him to be butt-naked, but Caster couldn't do that. If he didn't build her a private stall, Zenith worried his own star of death would start twinkling.
So, time to get to work! A minor project like this didn't need blueprints drawn up in advance—just start building!
Normally, portals could only transport biological entities. Not only could liquids not pass through, but sometimes they would even destroy the portal.
But coincidentally, this mechanic only applied in the Minecraft Overworld. Liquids could flow in from other worlds, but they couldn't flow out of the Minecraft Overworld. As for why, Zenith had no idea either.
Anyway, it wasn't a bug. If anyone asked, it was a feature!
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