291 [291] Echoes of the End

This Holy Grail War ended like this.

The war of seven and seven...

Numerous magus, executors, and dead apostiles died...

The economic loss in Egypt was immeasurable.

Cairo—the capital of Egypt and most significant city—had a large part of it turned into a massive pit.

Connected to the Nile River, it was now transformed into a vast lake.

Barthomeloi Lorelei, as the final victor, successfully realized her wish—to let the leyline continue.

However...

How long it can be extended is unknown. At least for now, there is no need to worry about the leyline disappearing completely by the year 2000.

"Fortunately..." After fulfilling her wish, Barthomeloi Lorelei breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, the wish was fulfilled... if she had paid such a high price and still failed, it would be regrettable.

Honestly, she also had no face to return to the Mage's Association like this.

After stepping out, Barthomeloi Lorelei felt somewhat complex as she looked at Kurokawa Kazuya.

How should she deal with this person? Kill him? He couldn't be killed... if it were possible, she would have already done it, and... this person seemed to be everywhere.

However, even if she couldn't kill him, she didn't want to see Kazuya again.

She liked Kurokawa Kazuya's manga, but only to that extent.

Liking someone's work doesn't mean you have to like the person, at least that's how she saw it. In other words, "This time's matter is temporarily considered settled... I'll pretend I didn't see that your Servant killed the entire Clone squad. Correspondingly, in the future, don't appear in front of me. Yes... it's better not to appear in the Clock Tower."

"I'll treat it as if you never appeared in Cairo."

Saying that, Kazuya felt that her movements had become somewhat difficult.

"That... what are you going to do?" Kazuya said, already prepared to use command spell at any time.

Barthomeloi Lorelei placed her hand on Kazuya's chest, and a strange aura entered his body. Then she withdrew her hand. "Nothing, just a curse."

Barthomeloi Lorelei sneered and slowly floated up.

After all, magus are not Servants, and flying is quite difficult. However, simply floating is easy for Barthomeloi Lorelei.

"I don't want to see you again. So, I've placed this curse. In the future, you won't be able to get near London, or else your heart will feel intense pain. Anyway, you can't die, right? So, I won't kill you, just make you suffer pain."

"So... farewell."

Kazuya touched his chest, watching Barthomeloi Lorelei float to the other side, the western part of the Nile River, and as she disappeared into the deeper area, Kazuya smiled slightly, "Curse... but it seems it's already been lifted. Avalon... huh? This thing is quite useful..."

However, it seems that the magical energy has been consumed again.

Only eleven times left...

"But, should we leave the Holy Grail here without taking it?" Kazuya looked at the intact Holy Grail behind him and placed his hand on it.

The next moment—

Originally, the Holy Grail, which looked intact, began to slowly peel off. Layer by layer, the outer layer began to fall off until, in the end—

Completely turned into dust!

"..." Kazuya was slightly surprised. "What is this? Could it be that it reached its limit because it was used to extend the leyline? Or did Barthomeloi Lorelei do something when I didn't notice?"

...

Mage's Association—

The Leylines Measurement Room.

This institution was built in 1970 to accurately respond to the accelerated depletion of the Leylines.

Since 1970, the Leylines has been depleting at a speed several times faster than usual, expected to completely vanish by 2000.

"Is this... the descent speed of the Leylines slower than yesterday by half?" A magus looked at the instrument, surprised, and said, "Is it a coincidence? Or is there some other reason? Could it be..."

"Did Lady Barthomeloi Lorelei succeed?"

...

One month later.

Cairo International Airport.

Located about 15 kilometers northeast of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, this airport miraculously escaped destruction during the previous Holy Grail War.

Although, for Arash's arrow, fifteen kilometers is not a very long distance, but this time, the main target of the attack was Alucard's River of Death, not the airport. So, the airport did not suffer much damage, and afterward, they could easily return through here.

"Fortunately, I already visited the Egyptian Museum before. Otherwise, it would have been a big loss."

While waiting for the plane, Kazuya tried to reconstruct the destroyed original manuscript in his mind.

He had drawn it once before, so redrawing it now was much simpler. This was the last original manuscript of this Holy Grail War, and once he finished it, all the gains from this war would be in his hands.

However, he was curious about Kotomine Kirei.

He hasn't been seen all this time...

Did he give up on the matter we agreed on before?

After neatly storing the newly drawn original manuscript, Kazuya stood up and walked around a bit. The entire airport was filled with a melancholic atmosphere.

Most of Cairo was directly erased from the map.

Although it was very surprising that there were no casualties among the personnel—

Magus don't count as people...

Anyway, besides magus, executors, and dead apostles, not a single person was harmed.

Now, international news is praising the "Egyptian disaster response measures."

Dealing with such a thing would be impossible for the Holy Church or the Mage's Association alone, Kazuya speculated. It's very likely... that Ozymandias also did something behind the scenes.

However, he didn't expect the entire eastern part of Cairo to disappear. Perhaps he did it to prevent their battle with Gilgamesh from affecting the entire city.

Anyway...

Although there were no casualties, millions of people lost their homes, lost everything they had. It's still a headache-inducing situation. The UK was the first to speak out, deciding to respond to this natural disaster, demanding Egypt to disclose their evacuation methods and offering a substantial amount of money for aid.

Ah...

Surely, it's because the Mage's Association behind them is operating.

Now, even a part of this airport has been set aside, crowded with people, allowing them to temporarily settle here, waiting for the local government's response measures.

"It's really a series of unfortunate events... Egypt, two meteorites fell in such a short time... one in the desert, one in Cairo..."

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