How come the Ace of Cups isn't considered the Holy Grail?

Is there really anyone who can defeat him in a duel?

Once the last trace of Artoria had disappeared from the restored Ryudouji Temple, Yuwatari stepped forward, picked up a Saber-class gold statue, and turned to look at the Rainbow Neos next to Rin Tohsaka.

Five of the seven gems embedded in her body had already lit up. Now that Artoria, who was a Saber-class character, had left the stage, the Rainbow Neos, who took over the role of the Lesser Grail from Illya, also absorbed her soul into her body, and another gem lit up on her body.

"Alright, let's finish what needs to be done before the Holy Grail fully appears!"

Brushing non-existent dust off his hands, Yuuto's gaze fell on Ilya and Hercules.

While Shirou Emiya was slightly saddened by Saber's departure, he felt more relieved that the dangerous magical ritual of the Holy Grail War was about to end.

As for the Holy Grail, which can grant any wish, he didn't think that Rin Tohsaka, as the Master of Yuwatari, would make a wish for the extinction of all humanity, so he wasn't too worried.

"I know... Honestly, this Holy Grail War is terrible, having to run into someone like you..."

While muttering complaints under her breath, Ilya looked up at Hercules, who was unusually quiet for a berserker, and her eyes showed reluctance.

However, she also knew that no matter how much she delayed, Hercules would still return to the Throne of Heroes after today's Holy Grail War. So, in the end, she hardened her heart and used up all the Command Seals she had.

"By command of the Command Spell! Berserker is the strongest!"

"I issue the command spell once again! Berserker is the strongest!"

"Finally, I issue a Command Spell! Berserker... will always be the strongest!"

"Roar--!"

The vague command didn't have much of an effect, but Hercules seemed to have truly received the blessing of the three-stroke command, exuding a terrifying aura.

Unfortunately, this astonishing momentum, which seemed to be breaking free from the shackles of its own mythology, was ultimately just a flash in the pan.

As one of the most mana-consuming classes in the Holy Grail War, Hercules' body emitted a large amount of golden light particles in just a few breaths after his Master stopped providing mana.

The Rainbow Nexus, who had been completely still and focused on suppressing the appearance of the Holy Grail, suddenly moved. It extended a finger and gently poked Hercules, causing even the irrational Hercules to look at it with a puzzled expression.

What are you poking?

Unfortunately, lacking the ability to act independently, he was destined never to receive a reply from Rainbow Neos. Without the supply of magic, Hercules' body completely dissipated into particles of light and disappeared, leaving behind only a Berserker-class golden statue.

At this moment, the last gem on Rainbow Neos, which contained seven souls, lit up. After he released the suppression of the Holy Grail that wanted to appear, the Lesser Grail began to function.

A large, circular hole suddenly appeared in the sky. At first, it was just a small hole with a completely dark interior, from which some dark red mud dripped downwards.

As the cave entrance grew larger, azure streaks of light flew in from all corners of the world, entering the cave and turning crimson before flowing into the flowing mud, constantly increasing the amount of mud.

"Whoa! What is this thing?!"

Since the opening of the round hole is located directly above Ryudong Temple, the mud dripping down naturally occurred on the open ground where Yudou and the others were.

Rin Tohsaka, who thought she was about to see the Holy Grail, was startled by the sudden flow of the unknown liquid and quickly jumped back to avoid the black mud. Since she had dodged it, Illya naturally wouldn't stand still and accept the 'baptism' of the black mud.

Because Shirou Emiya was standing at a distance from the beginning, he is now the one furthest from the black mud among them.

"Hmm... well, let me think how to explain this to you. Let me put it this way, do you see that thing?"

Faced with Rin Tohsaka's question, Yuuto calmly avoided the black mud and walked to her side, pointing to the round hole in the air from which black mud was constantly flowing out and asked.

Toosaka Rin nodded.

"That is the Holy Grail, or rather, the contents of the Holy Grail."

As Shirou Emiya looked at the black mud spreading towards them from the ground, a thought flashed through his mind, and he instantly recalled the Fuyuki fire ten years ago.

Ilya couldn't believe that the contents of the Holy Grail were such a thing. The thought that these things might flow out of her body made her look disgusted.

"Huh?! You mean those things are inside the Holy Grail?"

Pointing to the ground beneath the black mud, which was already making a 'sizzling' sound, Rin Tohsaka's face was full of resistance.

If the Holy Grail contains something that looks ominous, then why bother fighting over it?

Can it grant all wishes... all through these disgusting, mud-like things?

Rin Tohsaka couldn't help but shiver.

Chapter Fifty-Two: Hello, 'Me'.

The story begins with the Third Holy Grail War.

In order to win the Holy Grail War, the Einzbern family used a foreign classic as a catalyst to summon Angra Mainyu, a Heroic Spirit of the Avenger class, in place of Berserker.

However, the true form of this Avenger is just an ordinary young man in a Zoroastrian village who has been unjustly labeled as "all the evil in the world," and even when summoned, his strength is quite weak.

Just four days after the start of the Holy Grail War, Angra Mainyu was defeated and taken back by the Holy Grail.

However, since Angra Mainyu himself represents a collective wish, his entry into the Holy Grail is equivalent to making a wish directly to the Holy Grail.

'Want to become all the evil in this world.'

The Holy Grail granted his wish.

However, Angra Mainyu, who became 'all the evil in this world,' corrupted the Holy Grail. His colorless magic turned into black mud, causing all desires to be twisted towards 'evil,' always fulfilled in a way that brought destruction and disaster.

"how come……"

After listening to Yu Du's brief explanation, the group all wore expressions of disbelief, not even bothering to wonder where Yu Du had learned these things.

Even if they did ask, Youdu has a universal answer you can use.

'Otherwise, why do you think I was summoned?'

Just say that to them, and then all you have to do is wait for them to fill in the blanks in their minds; they'll convince themselves.

However, the problem now is that we need to find a way to get rid of this black sludge...

Looking at the black mud that had almost covered the entire open space in the short time it took him to say those few words, You Du had no desire to touch it whatsoever.

Although this isn't Matou Sakura's black mud, what if he still gets corrupted after touching it?

He couldn't even imagine how Rin Tohsaka and the others, who had no Servants left, would face a corrupted version of himself.

"Please, Rainbow Light New Universe Knight, get those guys out of here first!"

Nodding, Rainbow Light New Universe Knight picked up Rin Tohsaka and Illya with one arm and Shirou Emiya with the other. Amidst the exclamations of the others, he flapped his broad wings and flew into the air, transforming into a streak of light as he flew towards the city below the mountain.

You Du withdrew his gaze and looked at the round hole in the air, which was still continuously flowing with black mud.

He did this just to be on the safe side.

That way, if he accidentally turns evil later, Rin Tohsaka and the others who know most of his abilities won't be killed by him as soon as they meet.

It did give them a tiny bit more chance to defeat him, though it was really only a tiny bit.

After Rainbow Light Universe Knight returned from seeing everyone off, You Du had him fly towards the round hole in the sky.

Theoretically, to solve this black mud problem, one only needs to use a beam cannon like Artoria in the UBW route to destroy the 'hole' in the sky that is flowing with black mud.

However, doing so would destroy the Holy Grail along with it, which would be somewhat of a waste for Yuuto, who wanted to use the Holy Grail to craft cards.

So when he saw that it would take some time for the black mud to spread outside Ryudong Temple, he decided to try his own method to see if he could deal with the black mud without destroying the Holy Grail.

With the help of Rainbow Light New Universe Knight, Yuto arrived near the 'hole' in the sky. He only got a little closer before he felt countless malice emanating from the 'hole'.

It was a pure form of malice, devoid of any other emotion.

It wasn't out of disgust or anger, for no reason at all; it simply wanted humanity to perish.

Braving the chilling malice, You Du approached the 'hole' and, looking at the dark space within, had no intention of entering.

"That should be about right, right? Time to see if it works..."

With that, he raised the duel disk he was wearing on his left arm high.

Clearly, what he wanted to do was simply try to see if he could use his Noble Phantasm to make Angra Mainyu, who was in the Holy Grail, play cards.

This will not only fundamentally resolve the contamination of the Holy Grail, but also allow you to obtain a perfectly intact Holy Grail!

However, while he was down there, he wasn't sure if the black mud counted as Angolan Mainyu's true form, so he had Rainbow New Universe Knight fly him up to test it out around the 'hole'.

If this doesn't work, then he'll have no choice but to... abandon this plan and have Rainbow Universe Knight directly deal with this 'hole'.

No way, he wouldn't be a fool to risk going into that obviously dangerous-looking 'hole'...

You Du dared to guarantee that it was absolutely full of black mud, and there wouldn't even be a place for him to stand.

"Alright, Angolan Mainyu! Let's have a pleasant duel!"

With a smirk, Yuuto unfolded his Duel Disk, and an invisible domain rapidly expanded outward, enveloping 'Kong' within it.

Without the help of Rainbow Light New Universe, at this moment when the duel began, Yuwatari truly stood in front of 'Kong' solely on his own two legs.

The black mud inside the hole surged like an ocean, and from the vast amount of black mud, something was born: a human figure formed from the accumulation of black mud.

It was a figure completely black, with numerous red tattoos on its skin, and looked exactly like You Du.

He stepped on the churning black mud, an ocean formed by malicious accumulation, and gradually arrived at the edge of the 'hole'. Looking at Youdu standing outside the 'hole', he revealed a maniacal smile.

"Hey~ Hello, 'me'."

Yudo watched silently as the Angolan Manuel, disguised as him, performed, showing no intention of cooperating with him.

He just felt that his face didn't really suit that kind of wild smile; it looked really strange...

"Okay, okay, I guess you don't believe me, but it doesn't matter anyway—"

Seeing his calm demeanor, Angolan Manuel knew that the other party did not believe him, but he did not care, and his smile became more and more ferocious.

"—You'll believe it soon enough!"

Angolan Manuel summoned the sea of ​​black mud beneath his feet, countless clumps of mud covering his arms and coalescing into a pure black dueling disk. He proclaimed in an exaggerated tone, like an opera singer on stage.

"Alright! Let's begin! After all, this is what you came to me for, isn't it?"

Yudo didn't say much, but together with Angolan Manuel, who looked almost exactly like him except for his dark skin and hieroglyphs tattooed all over his body, he announced the start of the duel.

"DUEL!" ×2

【Yoto LP: 4000】

[Angola Mainyu LP: 4000]

Chapter 53: Evil-Hearted Hero

"Oh? So I'm going to make the first move?"

Angolan Manny casually drew his initial five cards from his deck, looked at the order of attack displayed on the duel disk, and gave a clearly feigned look of surprise.

"Let me see... Hmm, you're the one!"

He was like a clumsy theatrical actor, reciting his lines mechanically and then immediately reverting to his original expressionless demeanor. Coupled with his flippant gesture of drawing his cards, it created a strong sense of incongruity.

"This card can be Special Summoned from my hand in Attack Position when I have no monsters on my field!"

"I hereby Special Summon [Evil Hero Hell Imp]!"

Hehehehehe...

A chilling laugh echoed from the space beyond the 'hole,' and the black mud beneath Angolan Manuel's feet piled up on his field, coalescing into a mischievous little devil.

It spread its fleshy wings on its back and flew wildly in the air, expressing its joy at being born.

【Evil Hero: Hellish Little Demon】

【2 stars】

[Demon/Dark]

[Attack power: 300]

[Defense: 600]

A villainous hero?

Yuuto looked at the Hellish Imp that appeared on the Angolan Mainyu field, his eyes turning strange while he nodded knowingly to himself.

No wonder this guy insisted on portraying himself as the dark side as soon as he appeared, acting like he would definitely believe it. It turns out that his confidence stemmed from this deck...

However, most of the evil heroes based on Elemental Heroes monsters do look like corrupted Elemental Heroes.

There aren't any spectators here right now, otherwise I might have really been fooled by this guy.

Seeing the constantly changing expressions on Yudo's face, Angolan Manuel thought he had been fooled and let out a low laugh.

"I offer the hellish minions on the field as a sacrifice, Superior Summon!"

"Appear! Level 5! [Evil Hero, Ferocious Corpse Demon]!"

The little demon from hell, who had just been overjoyed at its birth, let out a piercing scream and was instantly swallowed up by the black mud below.