Chapter 51: Epilogue

On the 7th day of the Fourth Holy Grail War. Every contestant had been defeated and mostly eliminated except for one. A rather unusual Master as the purpose of the Grail is to reach the Root and acquire True Magic. However, a Magician is someone who has already acquired one for themselves.

There is little news known about the identity of the Master. The only reason the Clock Tower manage to reveal his identity is because of a blackmail letter forwarded to the El-Melloi family with their Source Crest on the line. The Clock Tower confirmed the existence of the proclaimed new Magician was with the help of the infamous Magician affiliated to the Clock Tower, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg under the request of The Queen.

On the day the victor was decided, a great fire suddenly happened in Shinto district which caused approximately 500 deaths and destroyed 134 buildings according to the official news.

Because of the incident dubbed as Great Fire of Fuyuki, the authorities of the country stepped in due to citizens unrest and launched an investigation to finally revealed that the so called 'gas leaks' was false and was a cover up by the civil servants who turn out to be somehow manipulated and they never realized their deed prior to the investigation.

Because of that, conspiracy theories such as secret societies and underground groups operating in Fuyuki for a secret war popped up here and there. As a result, the criminal group, legalized or not, was investigated heavily and Fujimura Group came under heavy scrutiny and suspicion. Though, there was never evidence of their participation and they were left alone by the government. But, still under some level of surveillance.

———

Now we enter the involved people that survived the Holy Grail War.

By the strings of fate and destiny, Kiritsugu somehow found himself nearby during the Great Fuyuki Fire and went to save the victims but only saved a boy who turned out to be an orphan due to the fire and he adopted the boy.

They lived in a Japanese home that Kiritsugu managed to obtain with the help of his relationship to the Fujimura Group's leader. There he lived after his wife's death. He was still unaware of his wife's survival as he thought she sacrificed her life and achieved her purpose as the Lesser Grail and moved on.

He lived his life in retirement from being the Magus Killer and stayed with his adoptive son, Shirou Emiya. However, he had yet to give up for his biological daughter who is still in the Einzbern family in Germany.

Kiritsugu tried time and time again to save his daughter in the three years span but failed every single time. He eventually used up all his savings and favors in his order to save Illyasviel but exhausted all of them and still failed. He eventually is forced out of retirement and continues his job as Magus Killer to earn bread on the table and supplies to continue his effort to save his daughter that he had yet to give up.

———

As for Ray, after done in Fuyuki city. He first headed out to find Alma all the way in Europe and settled there for the first two years.

Using his accumulated wealth from other worlds, he acquired several businesses that are important in the world of Magus. Some of those businesses include mining for common metals, rare metals, gemstones etc which is required for Alchemy. He quickly gains monopoly of it with Tanya's help to manage the businesses and keep it afloat since he has absolutely no clue how to manage one while Charlotte and Saber being his iron fist to squash down any competition, especially from Magus' side.

Plenty of families and even the Mineralogy department of Clock Tower is not satisfied with Ray monopolizing the resources and using them to strengthen the Einzbern family under his control later and reforming the entire family to increase its power and influence.

By the third year since the Holy Grail War, Ray had control of the family and brought it out of hiding. He raised it to a prominent position and as an ancient family, their rich inheritance and knowledge made an easy entrance to the Magus world.

Some even said the Einzbern family will soon replace El-Melloi as one of the twelve lords. Though, this rumor is not out of nowhere as quite a decent amount of people already knew El-Melloi family is crumbling with its Source Crest lost.

By desperate attempt, they manage to find an heir to the El-Melloi family but she was young and looked down upon by many and assassination attempts were countless to seize the title as Lord for themselves.

They eventually regained their Source Crest but with an odd condition being Waver Velvet, one of the survivors of the Holy Grail War and a former student of Kayneth, will become the Lord in place of their selected heir temporarily till her adulthood. Of course, that isn't the only condition and the other one is the El-Melloi family will be an ally of the Einzbern family.

At first, the El-Melloi family thought Ray was forcing them to be subservient to him. But, it turns out it's really just an alliance between family and nothing else. Many wonder why such a powerful family would want to make their fallen family as allies.

As for the Einzbern family goal, there were none known yet. They rarely engage in the politics of the Magus and prefer to keep expanding their power and influence without disturbing anyone. But their rapid growth and expansion cause many to be wary or outright hostile to the Einzbern family because they fear if the Einzbern were to be left alone, they will grow to the scale of a large faction comparable to them in power like the Clock Tower itself.

What is known to the public is that Einzbern are conquering Europe, starting from their home ground, Germany. Other families and clans were absorbed as vassals and actually treated nicely as long as they are subservient and can prove their worth.

If they are willing to sign a Geas contract of absolute loyalty to Ray, they will be provided with resources and some access to the knowledge held by Einzbern's long history.

As a result of this promise, plenty of smaller or new first to third generation magus families choose to latch themselves under a big tree.

Although conflict of their personal crafts are bound to happen as Einzbern prior to Ray's annexation is focused linearly to Alchemy and Alchemy only. There are other families that focused on other crafts which caused the clash of interest in their craft. For that reason, Ray made a new order so that each member of the Einzbern family, regardless of being the main branch or the vassals, must learn the Standard Curriculum prepared by Ray and Tanya which is literally the Spell Formulas from Tanya's world.

The advantage being, it's a different set of magic systems that sought to replicate mortals' tools of war. It doesn't rely on Mystery to be powerful as Formula relies on its caster's understanding of a phenomenon to recreate it. Besides, even the so-called Supreme Mystic Code, Volumen Hydrargyrum cannot withstand an armor piercing rocket.

Surely Formula based magecraft will be superior and flip the balance of power upside down when old magecraft refined by ten generations are defeated easily by a new, barely ten years old magecraft. It was basically a barrel of gunpowder waiting to explode at this rate.

There was an attempt to copy or steal the widely spread magecraft among the Einzbern vassals. But all attempts failed as the first condition to obtain the magecraft is to sign a Geas contract of absolute loyalty and secrecy. Ray did this to ensure no one can use his blades against himself. Even those within the Einzbern also need to do it. Ray fears they could be manipulated in some ways to reveal it. So, he made sure to tie all loose ends.

The expansion of the Einzbern family under Ray's leadership went unhindered. Day by day, many big to small factions look with unrest and satisfaction among its people, calling for justice when their superiority is challenged. The only exception being the Mage Association. They are the only ones aware that the Einzbern family is led by a Magician.

It's safe to say, basically everyone hates the Einzbern from their brazen action, stirring and flipping the balance that had existed for a long time and forced others to adapt. However, no one dares to speak up their voices because the Einzbern have the strength in the form of vassals, homunculus army and Formula magecraft that they pioneered in this world.

———

During the end of the 4th Holy Grail War. Ray left the Einzbern castle along with the remaining homunculus maids and returned to the main house of Einzbern in Germany.

His arrival seems to be well known by the main house as Acht himself greeted Ray and his entourage upon arrival in the territory of the Einzbern family.

Ray was immediately given the right over the Einzbern family as the new head and as the Magician of the Third Magic. He didn't expect it would be smooth sailing and thought there would be some resistance.

He soon discovered that all this time, the Head is the absolute figure within Einzbern. Akin to god. What the family Head ordered will be carried out instantly and obeyed by all homunculi created by the Einzbern. They are after all like a machine, made to obey all the given orders.

Well, there are actually some slight issues being Acht insisted that Illyasviel, the sole person in the family that carry the Justeaze model and technically, the only one with the bloodline that contain the traits of the Einzbern family, that capable of creating offspring to be married off to Ray and produce a heir.

Ray has to fight with words against Acht and convince him that an heir is pointless if Ray is now an immortal with the Third Magic. Acht still insisted that there is a possibility that Ray can go missing or die by unnatural cause like the former holder of the Third Magic. Ray countered by saying he can simply create an heir using homunculi and inherit the Third Magic if needed. That way, he can optimize it to bear the Third Magic compared to a normal heir that might have a chance to not inherit it.

The first few months, Ray tasked Tanya to acquire useful businesses to serve as stable income for the Einzbern and to fund his reforms of the Einzbern. Meanwhile, Ray himself is personally reforming the family from the inside. He also reached out to Marisbury Animusphere to provide monetary funding for his research facility and security organisation, Chaldea.

Acht, being the golem equipped with what is equivalent to an AI, able to help Ray manage even easier. He is knowledgeable and connected to every facility within Einzbern territory.

After the first six months passed, he finished reforming Einzbern and mass producing homunculus with different purposes to become his workforce to man all the physical expansion of territory. It starts from the existing Einzbern territory, filling it with facilities such as Alchemy workshops to produce tools, weapons, elixirs and potions.

Then Ray let Tanya recreate Flight Mage using homunculi as she suggested. The Flight Mage will be the sword and shield of the Einzbern family, conquering land and defending the territory. After all, without a deterrent force. Others will easily stomp his attempt of expanding the Einzbern territory.

As such, at least 500 homunculi are made with careful attention of Ray and Acht which later will be trained into Flight Mage by Tanya and a few specialized homunculi. They are trained for a few weeks before being thrown against their first opponent.

Few prominent families within Germany express their dislike for the Einzbern monopoly of resources and expansionism. Thus, they form an alliance to curb the Einzbern family before the Einzbern pick on them one by one.

Ray caught wind of it and sent Tanya and Charlotte to crush the alliance and seize their territory by force to show their might and deter other weaker families from having similar thoughts.

Ever since then, none dare to challenge the Einzbern's authority locally. Having a strategy quick response Flight Mage makes any attempt of invading or capturing territory belonging to the Einzbern next to impossible as their number increases by the day.

Almost a year later, the entirety of Germany's supernatural territory belongs to the Einzbern family now and is controlled either by the family itself or its appointed vassals.

The vassals are either surrendered families or those willingly joined. Each of those families are filtered first by Ray himself and then have to sign the mandatory Geis contract and agree to the Devil's Contract to protect the knowledge and things Ray distributed to them.

As benefits of joining the Einzbern. Ray will provide resources and knowledge to them in exchange for their subservience.

Beside that, Waver Velvet was sent back to the Clock Tower with a task from Ray which is to compile his former teacher's knowledge to save the crumbling El-Melloi family. Along with him, is a letter that Ray sent to the El-Melloi family regarding their Source Crest and his willingness to return it but with conditions.

Few days after that, he was visited by the Troll Emperor himself, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, the Wizard Marshall. Unwillingly, Zelretch meets with Ray and to Ray's surprise, already knows him. The only thing Zelretch said is to not destroy the world and humanity before leaving with an exhausted sigh.

Another pass, Ray already expanded towards France, Italy and the other countries below Germany.

With an iron fist, he conquers and expands the Einzbern family. He eliminates those who resist and accepts those who surrender. However, he steer clear from the Holy Church.

The Holy Church has a neutral opinion of the Einzbern expansion.

On one hand, Einzbern is clearly not siding with Dead Apostles and their cronies as Ray will kill them normally. Since they are trying to wreak havoc in his turf and sometimes, even robbing his people. The Einzbern alnos never prevent the faith of the Holy Church to flourish among the normal humans within his territory, knowing it's Alaya they are worshiping. He doesn't dare to mess with anything related to Alaya, lest she send her hound at him again.

But, on the other side. The Einzbern aren't an ally of the Holy Church and treated as any other Magus.

During this time, Alma suddenly returned with Lamina and happily assisted Ray to enrich his territory with her power over nature.

It seems her endeavor failed no matter how she tried to contact Gaia. Gaia never responded to her and the Earth continued to lose its vitality and inch itself closer to death by each moment. Once the vitality of the world dries up, the world will become barren wasteland without even a single blade of grass able to grow.

Thus, Alma decided to create a safe haven herself so, life can still propagate even when the vitality of Earth died out.

She starts with a World Tree within the heart of Einzbern territory. A tree different from its counterpart, Yggdrasil of Nasuverse. Her version is a tree that was owned exclusively by the Elves that worshiped the God of Nature and granted a tree that produces vitality to enrich their own land and create a paradise where all beings can flourish without the help of the world.

If this tree were to be planted in a barren wasteland, it would turn into a lush jungle in no time. Filled with flora and fauna to sustain life.

In the third and final year of the timeskip, the Einzbern family flourished and went unchallenged until somehow, the Einzbern was attacked by Dead Apostle and no one knows why.

Army of Corpses, Ghouls and Undead lead by a Nightkin first appeared around Einzbern's territory and caused many death but fortunately evaded annihilation when thousands of Flight Mages arrived to reinforce the vassals in their defense and delayed enough for Saber to take the field.

Unfortunately, it was all a ploy to weaken the defense of other regions and invade the weakened territory.

The Dead Apostle already knew he had Saber, Ray trump card. Or at least, that is what they assumed with how tight lipped his people are and constantly leaving no loose end.

While assuming they managed to fool Ray, the army of dead that invaded from the west were given a surprise when Ray's first and actual Army debuted for the first time. Undead against the Unliving.

Wraiths numbered in millions devastate the invading forces. When the battle ended. What is left is a sea of corpses without any intact limbs.

The results of the sudden war between Einzbern and the Dead Apostle was in favor of Ray. But this sparked the never ending conflict as a Dead Apostle declared war on the Einzbern which many theorized was caused by Einzbern taking away their feeding ground.

Apparently, the Einzbern family's expansion and conquest had cause many Dead Apostle who generally stay in the depth of their fortress hidden from the surface of the world to come out because all their hunting ground is now seized by Einzbern who act like the sovereign of the territory he conquered.

After the first nameless Dead Apostle was defeated and forced to flee as his lair were torn down and demolished. He vanished for a while and returned with even more Undead and even secured more allies.

Turns out, he isn't the only one dissatisfied. In fact there were more but none dared to start a fight until he started and the others followed. Thank goodness in this timeline have stronger Human Order unlike Tsukihime timeline or he is fucked if he stepped on an Ancestor tail.

If the Dead Apostles and their army of Undead are the only enemies it would be great. But some groups, organizations and families had long been dissatisfied with Einzbern expansion and rich resources, eager to kick it down and slice the pie for themselves.

By the end of the third year, the war isn't heading toward a conclusion. In fact, it had barely reached the climax yet. In Ray's opinion at least.

—————

(Author Corner )

I think this is a good place to end Volume 1?

Well, the reason I split the volume here is because. At volume two, it will focus solely on this world. Or, at least within the confines of Nasuverse only.

Also, after attaining Third Magic. Ray isn't all powerful yet. He just obtained a legendary sword but has yet to learn how to wield it but crudely slashing it.

If you get what I mean.

I am going in the direction of FGO. That's why I mentioned Chaldea. But idk now Romani will fit in this since Solomon never summoned in 4th Grail War and never wished to become human.

Maybe use the 5th Grail to adjust the timeline again?... Idk man…

Also, before people crucified me on the cross for adding another harem member. There ain't no harem and Alma isn't going to be Ray's lover. He is not gonna fk her.

Tanya is the one going to be wife.

As for Charlotte… killing her at this point of the story is illogical… she never intended to be heroin in the first place. Her role is supposed to be like Ray Elliot's Artemis. Minus fucking her. Fk my indecisiveness…

Yeah, everything is a bunch of mess now that I reviewed all my archive and notes for Rebellion of His Creation fic

Ye, I have a separate list for character, character notes or their stats basically, the power system and the minions to allow me to refer back if needed. But, to be real. I don't really look at them much.

Partially the reason for volume two is to prune off unnecessary details that complicates my writing.