Chapter: 19

"Ah. You are leaving already? It sure makes me sad." Jumping off his lap, Jeanne started to button her clothes, hiding away her bountiful chest and clear skin from Gin's eyes. "You can always stay here and spend more time cuddling with me."

"As if!" Jeanne gritted her teeth.

Gin talked as if she willingly allowed him to drink her blood, which obviously was not the case! Seeing how he acted as such, she wanted to smack his head with her flag at least hard enough to make him feel pain.

"Well, if you really want to go, I won't stop you." He placed his chin over his palm and stared at Jeanne's beautiful body with a soft smile on his lips. "Because you will come back to me anyways. Either willingly or forced."

"I shall never fall for your vile tricks, devil! Sure, I cannot stop you, but that doesn't mean no one can. Sooner or later, I shall stop you from doing whatever you are thinking. As the overseer of the Greater Holy Grail War, I won't allow you to disturb it!"

"Oh my. How cute." Gin chuckled, much to the increasing annoyance over the blond saint's face. "Then I bid you good luck. Though I doubt it would do anything in this case. Ah. And I'll call you once I want to drink more blood."

"You want more!?" Jeanne instinctively placed her hand around her neck and looked at Gin with caution. He had drunk her blood just yet, she thought it would have been enough for at least weeks.

But Gin seemed to have different ideas.

"Of course. Not being able to drink the blood of my beautiful saint for even a day might make me go mad."

Jeanne cringed. With her teeth gritted, she turned around.

"Do whatever you want!"

"... Aha, and she left." Gin sighed, feeling quite lonely with not having Jeanne in his embrace. Her body felt so soft and huggable. If he could, he really wanted to hug her for a longer time. But it seemed that she wouldn't be as willing as him to do it. "I wonder why she is so angry with me."

'Stop me huh…' He couldn't help but chuckle at the prospect of someone stopping him. He would not be so confident if he knew he would be defeated. The very fact he knew he wouldn't be defeated was why Gin was so confident.

Gin had already seen the future, and he already knew the results. As long as he followed the same path seen in the future, there was no way for someone to stop him. After all, he was a Merchant, and Merchant loved to cheat. Whether it be deals or anything else.

But Jeanne didn't know that, nor was Gin going to tell her. If she thought she could stop him, then he would let her do so.

'I should have made a deal about her letting me cuddle her for the night if she lost… Well, what's done is done.'

His Observation Haki burst out of his body, taking over the whole city within it. Everything that was happening within it seemed to become so vivid and clear within Gin's mind. With a relaxed posture, he calmly observed everything like some observer.

Sitting over an invisible air high in the sky, with his eyes closed, Gin waited for the right time to initiate his plans.

First, he needed Grail to be in his hand. After all, to take the whole Greater Holy Grail War under his control, Grail was necessary to be within his hands. Without Grail, no one would give a shit even if he started something. There might be a mild annoyance, but nothing more than that.

And so, he waited patiently for the war to start officially. An all-out war between both Factions.

It didn't take long. As the sun set into the horizon, somewhere within the forest, the earth shook. As if a massive earthquake had hit the town, it shook violently.

Before long, from the center of the forest, a huge landmass detached itself from the ground and started to rise into the sky. It soon became clear—a huge fortress appeared within everyone's view. It was huge with different structures on the top. And the very fact that it was flying in the sky indicated that it wasn't anything normal, but magical.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the strongest Noble Phantasm of Semiramis. It was a huge flying fortress within which every attribute of Semiramis would be buffed by one, while those not belonging to the same faction would lose their parameter by one. Though the best function had to be the fact that if an enemy Servant set a foot in it, they would lose their land blessings; if they had any.

Hence, it indeed was a death trap for Servants such as Vlad III within Romania, Jeanne within France, or Artoria within British grounds. The blessing and boost received by their birth ground would be lost, adding the debuff, it won't be a surprise if they lost.

The rise of the Garden and the dying of the sun announced the start of all-out war! Horns were played, and Homunculus filled the grounds with weapons in their hands.

From the Garden, bones started to fall onto the ground. The moment they touched it, they would turn into a bone soldier ready to fight against the army of Homunculus!

"I shall also get ready then. I hope the people of Yggdmillennia won't be too mad at me." With a mocking tone, Gin vanished from within the air and appeared over a wood bridge under the castle of Yggdmillennia.

His eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he stared at the stone woman in front of him. It was a statue, quite big, of a woman with huge wings that embraced everything about her leaving only a small opening in the front. From that hole, golden light shone brightly.

She seemed to be protecting something, or a more apt word would be embracing something.

It was a cup. A golden cup, shining brightly in a golden sheen. The most notable thing about it would be the huge concentration of magical power that was being released from it.

"Greater Holy Grail. It sure does look less badass. I'd thought it would be more… intimidating and imposing." Gin sighed. "Guess I was thinking way too much."

Greater Holy Grail, a magical device that was said to be able to grant any wish of the user. Of course Gin did not believe in such a thing. Not because he already had seen the original timeline, but because he didn't believe that a man could create something like a wish-granting machine.

At best, Grail could only realize miracles that were possible through magic only. And the only True Magic it could give to its user was Heaven's Feel. The theory about it being able to puncture a hole in the Root with its colossal magical power could have been true if Gin could do the same.

He had more magical power than the Grail in front of him after all! And even he couldn't just force create a tunnel to Root.

Becoming a Primogenitor, Gin had access to neigh-immortality and neigh-infinitely energy. After all, his immortality and energy came from his infinite life force.

It was not wrong to say that Gin was walking Dragon Vein!

But having near-infinite magical energy didn't mean he had infinite magical energy. In a fight against other Primogenitors, he would not be surprised to use all his energy. As such, he needed the Grail. The fact that he could get infinite magical energy through it wasn't something Gin was willing to miss.

Hence, the moment he appeared in this world, Grail was meant to be his.

He took a deep breath as a big golden halo appeared over his head with different spikes on it. His azure eyes turned crimson as he raised his hand and pointed it toward the Grail. His life force turned into Divinity as it poured out of his body like an unstoppable waterfall.

If someone was present here, they would be stunned to feel the near-infinite divinity pouring out of Gin's body. But since all of it wasn't directly outside, but carefully coated around the Grail, no one felt a thing. And the fact that every Servant was busy with their fight helped a lot.

Within seconds, the whole Grail was coated with dense divinity. With a gentle push by the Gin, the dimensions started to get chaotic. The moment he released his presence outside, the world around him started to bend into a weird mesh of kaleidoscope as six pairs of wings folded out from his back, one side black while the other white.

With another push, Grail vanished. Gin pushed the Grail into the same dimensional space where his existence laid! In simple terms, unless a being of the same dimension as Gin appeared, it was impossible to get the Grail anymore!

The moment Grail vanished, Gin's presence also vanished as he retracted his wings and halo; returning to normal.

"With this, step one is completed." He released the accumulated breath before his smirking expression returned. "Now needed to create a weak ass clone for the deal."

It was going to be the wildest Grail War that the world had ever seen!

1

From the moment she was called to oversee this war, and when Karna attacked her, Jeanne knew that something was amidst.

She was supposed to investigate the cause, find the cause of this discomfort she felt during her summon; she could not do so any longer. The presence of Ichimaru Gin, which she came to call Vampire-Devil Hybrid changed everything!

Jeanne still didn't understand how such a being could stay on this side of the world. The only clue about it she had was what he told them, but Jeanne rather not have herself believe in what a Devil said.

'At least he won't hurt innocent people as long as I give him my blood.' Jeanne was ready to sacrifice herself if it meant saving the lives of many. She didn't know whether to think of it as a blessing or curse; the fact that the Devil took a liking to her blood. It sure felt weird, that was for sure.

The main problem, however, was what that Devil had said; he wanted to participate in the Grail War. And not just participate, he wanted to take over it!

Jeanne knew nothing good was going to come out of it. Yet, she could not do anything to stop him. Not her alone at least. She had already tried to fight him, but the fact that he stopped all her attempts with a single spell told her another story.

She needed help. Probably gather all Servants together to beat the shit out of that bastard!

"Ah. My lord, what am I thinking?" She hurriedly apologized. To think she would ever use such foul language. It was all that Devil's fault!

Jeanne believed that no matter how strong Gin was, even he should not be able to fight all Fourteen Servants alone. After all, Gaia and Alya suppressed the powers of every being on this side of the world. In his suppressed state, even he shouldn't be undefeatable.

… At least that was what the blond saint wanted to believe. She hoped that it really was the case. Otherwise, they were done for and Gin would be the only winner of this war.

'Whatever the case may be, I shall not allow his vile hand to hurt the people of this land!'

And so, she ran. With her flag in her hands, she ran while destroying the bone soldiers on the way. All her eyes could see was a never-ending expanse of bodies and blood. The scene itself depicted what an apocalypse would look like.

Just then, she stopped. A mental image appeared within her mind—a vision!

She saw twelve beasts flying in the air, each stronger than anything she had seen. Phantasmal Species were mixed within them! In front of them stood the person who the blonde saint would never forget—Ichimaru Gin!

Her heartbeat rose exponentially as she cried out. "Oh no!"

Her head jerked upward, and as if he waited for her, a pair of crimson eyes met with her. She seemed to not hear anything else as the Devil smirked and waved at her. He was enjoying it!

Jeanne gritted her teeth as annoyance seemed to burst into her heart seeing the all-knowing smirk of the Devil. She wondered if he had Clairvoyance or something like that!

"Ahem. Hello, hello." His voice pulled the attention of every being within the battlefield as everyone halted whatever they were doing and collectively looked towards the flying Nephalem. "Guess it is working. Well, it is nice to meet you. I am Ichimaru Gin, a Merchant. I'm sure that everyone is quite busy with their fights, so I will keep this short; Grail is within my hands."

"What!?" Jeanne blurted out in shock as the dimensions behind Gin swayed like a mirage and one could see the flying Grail there. Her eyes widened. 'How did he get it!?'

"I know, I know. Shocking, right? But that isn't the main reason why I have gathered everyone's attention on me. As you already know, I am a Merchant, so I came up with a deal. It is fairly simple, actually; you people want the Grail? Come and get it."

A smirk appeared on his face as he opened his arms wide.

"There are fourteen Servants, minus Saber of Black, so thirteen I guess. Anyhow, I have fourteen avatars of myself, each controlling a Beast. The deal is quite simple, defeat my avatars and the life of this body shall be yours… with the Grail of course. But! If you get defeated by my avatar, everything that you have shall be Ichimaru Gin's!"

He snapped his finger as an earthquake suddenly occurred over the grounds, rising a clearly cut circular area easily five miles above the ground.

"This shall be my territory now. The moment you enter this territory, you shall be agreeing to the deal anonymously. So please think twice before entering it. Other than that, good luck~"

"How detestable!"

Jeanne stomped on the ground with anger apparent on her face. She could not remember the last time she felt so annoyed and angered. Obviously, Gin had known everything from the start and had planned everything.

She finally understood why he let her go, despite the fact that it would be the same as adding another enemy. He never considered her a threat from the start! It gave birth to a new kind of annoyance within the heart of the blond saint. She hated how Gin seemed to treat her like any other bug!

She was the Ruler! She was supposed to be the overseer of this war! Now she was naught but another of Gin's entertainment pieces! And this truth seemed to hurt her more than the fact that her position as a Ruler was useless now.

"Grrr. If that's what you want, then so be it!" She stomped the ground once more, shaking it slightly. "I will never let you win!"

If Gin was here, he would have just smirked hearing her. After all, she looked quite cute. Not that Jeanne would ever know it. At least not until the future.

…

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