Chapter 188: Greater Grail

Sensing that the Bounded Fields are disabled, Shiro directly entered the vicinity of Ryuudou Temple; to be exact, the mountain near it. It is the same mountain that Medea had first used as a base due to a sole reason:

The [Greater Grail] can be found here.

Although, it's pretty much useless unless she acquired the [Lesser Grail], its key so as to speak, hence she couldn't use it to her great advantage. Still, she designated Ryuudou Temple as her base to better protect it.

Now that she's defeated, she didn't know that someone else is about to benefit from it.

On his way there, Shiro saw the entire landscape of the mountain. It is vastly different from the looks in the modern city in Shinto Town, with nature dominating most out of it.

Moreover, he could also feel the leylines converging here thanks to the [Greater Grail] continuously absorbing mana. It is now stored in a cave under the mountain.

"Tsk. It would be a waste if this place gets destroyed by some mana blasts."

"Do you want it to happen?"

In the entrance, Castoria greeted him with a smile.

"We'll see."

As their preparations, they had prepared god-level city-wide arrays. Not only are they more than a hundred times stronger than the ones used against Walpurgisnacht, plus the fact that they can affect things on a conceptual level.

Even though he spent more than 60% of his wealth just for this, Shiro didn't care much. A part of it is him being filthy rich as Fenrir and the Magus, which shaped his viewpoint regarding wealth.

"If it can help you become stronger, why don't use it?"

Truly, the problem only the rich can understand.

Knock-!

As she tapped the entrance, a ripple appeared on the invisible barrier.

"It is already sealed, so it won't be able to escape. But..."

"What is it?"

"I won't be able to enter as well. It's your ascension, so I won't be able to interfere..." Castoria said in a slightly worried voice.

Ascension, in other terms, is the metamorphosis of oneself as they reach a higher level of life. It cannot be affected by others, lest it would impact the life level that one would have. This is why most privileged people can only be saved once their ascension ends and not during the time their life is threatened.

Furthermore, [Angra Mainyu] would intensity its attacks instead of its usual move of testing things out. If Shiro can take it down during that time, things would be extremely easy.

He immediately held her soft hand gently.

"I'll be back."

Without waiting for her response, he gave her a light kiss in her lips. It's different from their deep kisses, yet the emotions symbolized by it is not lesser.

Seeing him enter the cave, a sharp glint passed on her pupils as she readied herself in case something happens.

"Shiro." She mumbled lowly before a sharp aura started forming inside her.

*****

The moment he stepped in, the surroundings went still.

"You can still communicate with the outside world, huh?"

There isn't any winds nor any movements even after a few seconds had passed. It's as if time froze in this place.

Wordlessly, he walked deeper into the cave until he arrived at the end. There, the [Greater Grail] is located. With Justeaze's figure as its most prominent feature. It is cast out of gold while its insides are filled with innumerable magic circuits that works as its processors.

It is a project that Zelretch himself had participated, thus its complexity can't be imagined. Though, only he and Shiro knew that his main purpose is to plant some possibilities in the future fight against [Types].

"Alright, I brought back what you'd like." He said softly as he brought out the [Lesser Grail] out of his [Dimensional Storage].

The next thing that he did is to activate [Lord of the Mysteries], merging his current form with his past self from a second ago. Nothing changed on the surface, but Shiro knew that he would revert back to his previous self half an hour later.

Snap-!

Suddenly, the same phenomenon from earlier also happened on him. His body started to disintegrate into nothingness as his soul is all that's left. With that as the cost, he gained two important things from materializing his soul.

That is, immortality and the authority to generate and control mana without limits; his input and output isn't limited severely... anymore.

"Here you go." Shiro said expressionlessly.

He held the [Lesser Grail] in his hands, filling it up with overwhelming amounts of mana every second. While he doesn't have the souls of the Servants, he can overwhelm it with sheer amount of mana and energy comparable to True Ether.

A minute later, he saturated it to the point that it has the same energy as what it could get after killing six Servants whose existence are made out of pure mana and ether.

At this time, Shiro utilized his [Heaven's Feel] once more and felt the presence of a materialized soul inside the [Greater Grail]. While it is flawed, it is enough to complete the [Greater Grail] that can pierce a hole through [The Swirl of the Root].

Moreover, he can feel the presence of something extremely hidden in that soul. It is very vile as it contains all the malice in the world–be it in the past, present, or future.

'It's time.'

Sensing the attraction between them, he didn't hold back longer as he allowed the connection to be formed between the two grails. They first shone with bright light before his surroundings changed.

Looking at it, Shiro knew that his fight has started.

Sou-!

Sou-!

Sou-!

Just as he had expected, dozens of projectiles came straight at him. They flew extremely fast before being stopped a few centimeters away from Shiro.

Then, the arrows went to a different direction.

BOOM-!

BOOM-!

They are all enhanced by an unknown power, so the explosion's power increased at least two-fold.

Just as he expected, the floor turned into a black sea. Tentacles came out of it and tried to restrain him, only to fail as they were stopped by the invisible barrier once more.

Seeing this futile effort, Shiro decided to buy more time for his killer moves by talking nonsense with it.

"Do you know why affinities matter here?"

A hail of white flames rained down from above, which spread to the tentacles as well as the dark sea. The cave is completely silent, but he can feel their "wails" as they were ruthlessly burnt down by the flames of hell.

Even if [Angra Mainyu] is UR-class in nature, it is restricted inside the grail, plus the fact that [Hell Flames Ignition] greatly counters it.

"Right, I still have that move here."

A moment later, a starry crown appeared on top of his head. It is the embodiment of [Wisdom] that he had in his previous life, his staff. Though, he can change its shape at will now that it went beyond <Creator God> level. It is now an abstract object, so as to speak.

Soon, hundreds of sword-shaped flames appeared out of thin air. They all exuded a holy and incorruptible aura, showing that it is a great nemesis against evil. After all, this is the sword of none other than...

[The Commander of the Lord's Army–Michael].

When they landed straight to the dark sea, space shook as the original [Greater Grail] appeared once more, albeit it is now filled with black colors. The floating [Lesser Grail] is also tainted with [Angra Mainyu], occasionally spilling out black liquid every now and then...