I'm in Morioh, just joined a chat group for cute girls.

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Medea crossed her arms, her purple hood fluttering slightly in the wind. "That old bug should have already turned into cosmic dust."

"This cannot be taken lightly."

Gu Ye stared at the bottomless pit beneath his feet, his tone unwavering. "A monster like him, who has lived for five hundred years, who knows if he left any tricks up his sleeve? We must make sure he is completely wiped out, not even a single cell remains."

Archer appeared on a rock not far away, arms crossed, looking down at the devastated land, his red trench coat standing out against the night.

“I agree. No amount of caution is too much when dealing with this kind of enemy.”

Archer's voice was deep and magnetic, "What do you need me to do?"

"Caster, use your divine magic to create a perception barrier of maximum range and probe this area for all remaining traces of magic and life signs."

Gu Ye turned to Medea.

"a piece of cake."

Medea's fingertips glowed with purple light, and a complex magic circle rapidly unfolded around her, like an invisible giant net covering the entire mountain. "Leave it to me. Not a single insect's breath will escape my ears."

"Archer, use your clairvoyance to monitor from the highest point. I need you to find any spaces or objects that may exist and be hidden by magic."

Gu Ye then spoke to Archer.

"learn."

Archer nodded, then leaped up and silently appeared on the top of a higher tree, his sharp eyes scanning everything below like a true eagle's.

"As for me……"

Gu Ye raised his head, feeling the flow of air, "I will let the wind tell me all the secrets of this place."

As he spoke, the weather forecast reappeared, stretching out its hands and spreading out invisible waves. The atmospheric flow, temperature, humidity, and all the subtle changes in the entire region began to be brought under its control.

With a clear division of labor, the three began a meticulous autopsy of a deceased person, unfolding silently on the ruins.

Time passed second by second, and the curtain of night was gradually tinged with deep blue.

Medea closed her eyes as a vast stream of information converged and filtered in her mind.

She carefully discerned the magical reactions of every piece of scorched earth and every grain of sand.

She would occasionally furrow her brow and then relax, as if she were expelling some suspicious remnant of energy.

The Archer, high up, stood motionless like a sculpture.

In his field of vision, the flow of energy throughout the entire world was clearly visible.

He saw the holy aura left after being purified by Saber's Noble Phantasm, and he also saw the violent magic power left by W's explosion, but he didn't see any of the cold, decaying magic power that belonged to Zouken Matou.

Gu Ye walked along the edge of the ruins. He could feel the wind blowing from the depths of the pit, carrying the smell of scorched earth and rocks, but there was no sign of life, not even the slightest fluctuation of soul.

Zouken Matou is as if a piece of him has been completely ripped out of the world, and even the traces of his existence are rapidly disappearing.

This process was tedious and lengthy, testing the patience and meticulousness of the three individuals.

As the first rays of dawn broke through the clouds and illuminated the devastated land, the three men's exploration finally came to an end.

Medea opened her eyes, her gaze showing a hint of weariness, but more so a sense of relief after confirming the news.

"Nothing."

She asserted, "Nothing is left. Both his soul fragments and the worm used as a resurrection medium have been completely wiped out. That old bastard is truly dead this time."

Archer also jumped down from the tree and landed beside the two: "There are no hidden spaces or magical traps. This is just an ordinary ruin now."

Gu Ye dismissed the "weather forecast," looked up at the rising sun, and took a deep breath of the cool morning air.

"very good."

He nodded, marking the end of the operation that had lasted all night.

"Hmph, to twist himself for a long-cherished wish, he lived for five hundred years, only to end up with no trace of his remains."

Medea looked at the ruins bathed in the golden light of the rising sun, her tone laced with undisguised mockery, "What an utter fool."

Gu Ye didn't reply. His gaze passed over the ruins and landed on the Tohsaka residence at the foot of the mountain.

"The Holy Grail War is not over yet."

He calmly began, "We have other enemies to deal with."

Chapter 57 Ilya, what is your wish?

The morning mist had not yet completely dissipated, and the streets of Fuyuki City were shrouded in a hazy gray-white.

Gu Ye, Medea, and Archer walked back to the Tohsaka residence, their footsteps sounding exceptionally clear on the quiet street.

As they turned a corner, a petite figure came into their view on a bench next to the swing set in the park.

With her long silver hair and purple dress, Illyasviel von Einzbern sat there alone, her legs gently swinging, as if waiting for something.

She looked like a lost, delicate doll, completely out of place amidst the bleak scenery around her.

Gu Ye stopped, turned his head, and said something to Archer beside him in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft.

"Your sister is here to see you."

Archer's tall frame stiffened abruptly, and the lines on his face, which always carried a hint of mockery and coldness, instantly tightened.

Beneath his dark skin, some emotion seemed to be surging. In the end, he only twitched the corners of his mouth, revealing a bitter smile that was more painful than crying, and did not reply.

His gaze fell on the silver-haired girl, his expression complex beyond words, yet he hesitated, not moving forward.

Chihiro⒐⒍Mio﹄⒉㈥卍⒎Mio

Ilya had clearly noticed them too. She jumped off the bench, lifted her skirt, and walked gracefully straight toward Gu Ye.

She completely ignored Archer beside her, as if he were just a wisp of air.

She tilted her head up, her bright red eyes reflecting Gu Ye's image, a naive smile on her face.

"Good morning, big brother."

Her voice was clear and melodious, like a wind chime, "You guys made quite a commotion last night, you practically turned the whole mountain upside down."

"so what?"

Gu Ye calmly looked back at her.

"Therefore, I want the Holy Grail."

Ilya's smile remained unchanged as she cut straight to the point, "Give me the Holy Grail, big brother. I can tell you're not interested in that kind of thing at all, right?"

"Okay."

Gu Ye's answer was crisp and decisive, leaving Ilya with a whole host of prepared arguments stuck in her throat.

The smile on her face froze for a moment, and a hint of surprise flashed in her red eyes.

"You...you agreed?"

"Why don't you agree?"

Gu Ye countered, "If you want it, you can have it. But before that, there's something I need to tell you."

He crouched down so that he was at eye level with Ilya.

"The cup you want is defective. It's contaminated, and its way of granting wishes is very distorted. For example, if you wished upon it, 'Let there be no more poor people in the world,' what do you think it would do?"

Ilya didn't speak, she just looked at him.

"It won't conjure up money, nor will it improve the economy."

Gu Ye's tone was calm, as if stating a physics formula, "It will find something like Santa Claus and kill all the poor people overnight. In this way, there will truly be no poor people in the world. Your wish will be perfectly fulfilled."

"I do not believe!"

Ilya immediately retorted, but her voice lacked confidence, and her fingers unconsciously tightened around the hem of her skirt.

"You knew perfectly well, didn't you?"

Gu Ye looked into her eyes. "The Einzbern family has been planning for the Holy Grail for a thousand years. You should know more than anyone about what happened in the Third Holy Grail War and about that corrupted 'Wishing Machine.' Why deny it?"

Ilya's smile vanished completely.

She pursed her lips, puffed out her cheeks, and her eyes became unhappy.

"So you really do want to destroy the Holy Grail! You're just like Kiritsugu! You both want to destroy the Einzberns' long-cherished wish!"

“I didn’t say I was going to destroy it.”

Gu Ye stood up. "I just said it needs some repairs."

He pointed to Medea, who had remained silent behind him.

“This is Caster, the great magician of the Age of Gods. For her, purifying the Holy Grail that has been tainted by the ‘evil of this world’ is not a difficult task.”

"Purification?"

Ilya turned her gaze to Medea, her eyes filled with scrutiny and suspicion. "Are you telling the truth? With her?"

"Hmph, little girl, watch your words."

Medea finally spoke, taking a step forward. Her eyes, hidden beneath her hood, held the arrogance unique to a magician from the Age of Gods. "The ritual pollution created by mere modern magicians is as simple to me as clearing weeds from a garden."

"But... there are less than four days left until the Holy Grail's arrival!"

Ilya still didn't believe it. "Even if you are a magician from the Age of Gods, it's impossible for you to complete such a massive purification ritual in such a short time!"

"Who said a ceremony was needed?"

Gu Ye smiled.

The next moment, the "weather forecast" appeared behind him.

The blue and white stand-in stretched out its hands, facing the empty space in front of it.

There were no spells, no warnings.

The surrounding air began to vibrate, and an indescribable, enormous, and suffocating torrent of magical power appeared out of nowhere.

That was not magic transformed through magic circuits, but the purest and most primal ether, like a flood bursting its banks, gushing forth from the cracks in space!

They converged into a visible, shimmering, pale blue tide that swirled and flowed above the park's lawn, casting a dreamlike glow over the surrounding mist.

Although the scale of this magical tide was controlled within a very small range, the energy density and purity it contained far exceeded Ilya's understanding.

She could even feel the magic circuits within her body rejoicing at the emergence of this power.

"This is……"

Ilya stared in disbelief, instinctively reaching out to touch the flowing light.

"With this amount of 'fuel,' how long do you think Caster will need?"

Gu Ye withdrew his substitute, and the tide of magic subsided, as if everything that had just happened was merely an illusion.

Ilya fell silent. She looked at Medea, then at Gu Ye, and the doubt and wariness on her face were finally replaced by a hint of wavering.

"Okay... even if what you're saying is true."

Ilya's voice lowered, "Then why are you helping me? What do you want?"

"I'm just curious."

Gu Ye said, "What is your wish? What makes you so obsessed with the Holy Grail?"

Why do you want to know?

"Ilya asked warily."

"It's very simple."

Gu Ye replied, "If I could grant your wish ahead of time, you probably wouldn't need that troublesome cup anymore."

These words seemed to touch Ilya. She lowered her head, looked at her toes, and remained silent for a long time. Only the rustling of leaves in the wind could be heard in the park.

"I……"

She finally spoke, her voice soft and tinged with a barely perceptible vulnerability, "I'm already eighteen."

"However, my body has not grown since birth."

"Because I am a homunculus, created as a vessel for the Lesser Grail. My life... was predetermined from the very beginning to be extremely, extremely short. After the Holy Grail War ends, no matter the outcome, I won't live for more than a few years."