Who are you calling a stable boy?!

With a sigh, Rin bowed to Kiritsugu and the others.

"Gentlemen, please follow me. My father has been waiting for you for a long time."

As everyone entered the house, Tokiomi Tohsaka stood in the hall. After a few brief words, they moved together to the reception room.

"I have long admired Mr. Emiya's reputation, so I will not waste any more pleasantries. The reason I have invited you all here is that I hope to draw on the wisdom of the Einzbern family to jointly resolve this Holy Grail crisis."

After taking his seat, Tokiomi Tohsaka got straight to the point.

"Regarding how to resolve the contaminated Great Grail, after consulting the clan's archives and reflecting on it repeatedly, I have come to a conclusion."

"That is, whether it is to purify, repair, or completely dismantle it, it is probably not something that can be accomplished overnight."

"In other words, the most pressing issue we need to address right now is how to invalidate this Holy Grail War."

"Therefore, I came up with two solutions."

"One approach is to follow the example of the previous one, allowing the Greater Grail to successfully descend first, and then having a sufficiently powerful Heroic Spirit destroy it. This method is direct, but it is risky and has many variables. After much consideration, I think it is inappropriate."

"Secondly, we can start directly with the Holy Grail War itself, this massive ritual..."

Tokiomi Tohsaka raised his hand and pointed to the Fuyuki City map that had already been spread out on the table.

"To be more precise, we need to start with the spiritual vein of Fuyuki—Mount Enzo!"

Chapter 122: I, Old Zheng, will stand up for you!

The Holy Grail War is essentially a massive ritual created by the three starter families to reach the Root.

In this ritual, the so-called Holy Grail is actually divided into the Lesser Grail and the Greater Grail.

In short, the Lesser Grail is Irisviel, while the Greater Grail can be described as a super-large formation located at the foot of Mount Enzo.

Tokiomi Tohsaka's judgment was correct.

If we want to completely nullify this Holy Grail War, the safest approach is to start with the formation at the foot of Mount Enzo.

However, the formation at the foot of Mount Enzo was one of the extraordinary feats created by the Einzbern family's Winter Saintess, who combined the strength of the three founding families.

It would be almost impossible for Tokiomi Tohsaka, or rather, the Tohsaka family alone, to come up with a good plan to change the formation in a short period of time.

Therefore, he hoped to use Irisviel's magical knowledge—the magical knowledge from the Einzbern family—to work together to develop a suitable solution as soon as possible.

"I will do my best!"

Irisviel immediately agreed.

Although she no longer had the ability to mobilize the family's resources after completely breaking with the Einzbern family, she was, after all, a Holy Grail Guardian created based on the Winter Saintess. As a magician, Irisviel not only possessed excellent basic qualities, but also had a wealth of magical knowledge originating from the Einzbern family.

If one had to point out any shortcomings of her as a magician, it would probably be that she lacks practical experience.

Kiritsugu Emiya had no objection to this.

He and Irisviel have decided to settle in Fuyuki.

Of course, even without this decision, Kiritsugu could not stand idly by while the Greater Grail could potentially bring disaster to the world.

He really is that kind of man.

Having received the promise from the Emiya couple, Tokiomi did not hesitate and immediately set off with some pre-prepared materials, leading everyone to Mount Enzo for an on-site investigation.

The discussion about the Greater Grail formation lasted from noon until sunset, during which even Kiritsugu Emiya's opinion was sought.

Although he cannot be considered a traditional magician, he is infamous as a magician killer, and in terms of knowledge and experience, even Tokiomi would not dare to say that he can compare with Kiritsugu.

The three of them did try to ask Zheng Jing for his opinion.

"I, Old Zheng, will just strike with my stick and that'll be the end of it, won't it?"

After hearing this answer, the three felt that Zheng Ji didn't need to worry about it.

Making a move against a large formation that is essentially equivalent to the Third Law is by no means an easy task.

Fortunately, the three's current goal is not to make any improvements to it.

They only want to temporarily halt the operation of this grand formation without affecting the Winterwood Spirit Vein.

Although it was a difficult task, at least by combining the wisdom of Tohsaka and Einzbern, along with the knowledge and ingenuity of the Magician Killer, the three of them actually came up with a preliminary plan after this trip.

Seeing that it was getting late, Shichen suggested that we call it a day, as he had some ideas that he could check the ancient books at home to verify them.

Meanwhile, Irisviel and Kiritsugu indicated that they would carefully review the castle's collection of books, hoping to find information that could help refine their plan.

Both sides agreed to meet again at the foot of Yuanzang Mountain the next day, and then part ways on the spot.

"Master, please wait."

Just as Zheng Jinggang was about to take Rin, who had also attended a magic class all day, back to the Zenjou family home, Tokiomi suddenly called out to him.

"Huh? Is something wrong?"

Tokiomi did not respond immediately.

He glanced at Rin.

"What? Is it something that Rin-chan can't stand to hear about?"

"...No, now that things have come to this, I should face up to my daughter's growth."

Tokiomi shook his head with a self-deprecating smile, then straightened his expression and looked at Zheng Jing.

"Master, I am in trouble, and I hope you can help me!"

"Oh? Tell me about it."

"To my shame, it's about Archer... that Gilgamesh."

"What? Did he give you a hard time?"

Zheng Jing glared at him, reached behind his ear, and was about to pull out a stick.

"Come on! I, Old Zheng, will stand up for you!"

You've misunderstood!

Shichen quickly persuaded Zheng Jing to stop.

"Please be patient and let me explain!"

Seeing Zheng Jing stop what he was doing, Tokiomi paused for a moment and then said, "Just now, judging from the relationship between Mr. Emiya and his wife and Saber, they seem to be planning to keep that King of Knights alive."

"That's the plan, and my younger sister is happy to stay."

Seeing Zheng Jing nod, Shi Chen sighed.

"That's right. Summoning heroic spirits is supposed to be a grand ritual that is difficult for humans to accomplish, but with the help of the Greater Grail, it has become a miracle that even laymen who don't understand magic can achieve on this land."

"After that, as long as the contractor can provide magic power, the summoned heroic spirit can exist as a familiar for a long time..."

"Oh, I understand."

With a blink, Zheng Jing understood what Shi Chen meant.

In the Holy Grail War in Fuyuki, the summoning of Heroic Spirits is achieved with the assistance of the Greater Grail. In this process, as the price for being able to manifest in the world, the Heroic Spirits that respond to the summons must absolutely obey the Command Spells.

The power of the Command Seals comes from the Greater Grail.

In other words, once the Holy Grail War ends—regardless of how it ends—the Greater Grail will cease maintaining the master-servant contract between the Master and the Servant.

In this way, without the Master's magical energy supply and without the help of the Greater Grail, Servants who should not exist will basically be pulled back to the Throne of Heroes unless they possess some special abilities or are able to "receive flesh".

Taking the Emiya couple and Artoria as an example, if they wanted to keep Artoria, they would need to re-sign a contract with her after everything had settled down, before Artoria returned to the Throne of Heroes, making her their familiar.

This would indeed allow Artoria to continue existing in the world, but in return, the Emiya couple, as her contractors, would have to bear all the magical energy consumption required for Artoria's survival without the assistance of the Greater Grail.

Moreover, and most importantly, Tokiomi Tohsaka estimated that if everything went smoothly, after they altered the formation of Mount Enzo, without the Greater Grail to maintain it, the Command Seals that the Emiya couple had not used up would most likely become ineffective.

More accurately, it means that all the Command Seals that the Masters failed to use up will become ineffective, including those that the Church had previously collected.

In other words, if Gilgamesh had continued to sign a contract with Tokiomi Tohsaka and remained in the world after this Holy Grail War was canceled, Tokiomi would very likely have faced the trouble of being unable to use Command Seals to control this tyrant.

Based on Tokiomi's observations of Gilgamesh over the past few days, he estimated that the tyrant would not obediently return to the Throne of Heroes so easily.

Without the constraints of Command Seals, Tokiomi found it difficult to imagine how he could restrain this capricious king.

Compared to its power as a familiar, Tokiomi is more worried about the trouble that its personality might cause.

He had absolutely no intention of keeping Gilgamesh alive.

Of course, Tokiomi could choose not to renew his contract with Gilgamesh.

However, Gilgamesh possesses the skill "Act Alone," which is even at the A-rank level.

This means that Gilgamesh has the ability to find others to provide him with the magic to survive before he is pulled back to his throne!

Tokiomi also considered using the three Command Seals he possessed to force Gilgamesh to leave the stage and return to the Throne of Heroes.

But the target was Gilgamesh, who possessed the Royal Treasury and could act independently as an A-rank Servant. Even with Command Seals that theoretically had absolute binding power over Servants, even with three Command Seals in total, Tokiomi still felt it wasn't safe enough...

The matter is of great importance, and he doesn't want to fail at this crucial moment.

After careful consideration, Shi Chen finally decided to seek help from Zheng Jing.

Chapter 123: You monkey, you really amuse me!

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Over the past two days, Tokiomi and Emiya Emiya have worked tirelessly and finally devised a safe plan. All that remains is for the three of them to go to Mount Enzo again to modify the Great Grail formation, which will bring this Holy Grail War to a close and prevent further chaos.

During those two days, Zheng Jing knew his departure was near, so he didn't hesitate and taught Xiao Ying how to use sticks and boxing. Although he couldn't teach her all his martial arts skills in two days, he still managed to teach Xiao Ying a level of skill that Diarmuid would sincerely praise.

The Holy Grail War was originally a fierce battle that would last for about seven days, but in the blink of an eye, five days have already passed since the official start of the war.

On the sixth day, in the name of the Holy Church, Tokiomi Tohsaka gathered all the Masters and Heroic Spirits at the Fuyuki Church.

First, he stated that after tonight, the Greater Grail would no longer maintain the master-servant contract between each Master and Heroic Spirit, and he emphasized that any Command Seals that the Masters had not used up would also likely disappear.

When the time comes, it will be best to make a decision as soon as possible regarding whether the Heroic Spirits will stay or leave, and how the Masters will respond to their decisions.

Tokiomi Tohsaka himself, of course, had already made preparations.

"Huh?"

On the Fuyuki Bridge at night, Gilgamesh looked down at Tokiomi, who was kneeling on one knee in front of him.

"Tokiomi, are you teaching me how to do things?"

"How dare I?"

"What do you have to be afraid of? Don't you have three complete Command Seals on the back of your hand? Since you're thinking of using them, why not just use them?"

Gilgamesh laughed.

"His Majesty......"

"Hey, Tokiomi, why are you wasting your breath talking to him!"

Just then, a voice came from up above.

Zheng Jing was seen sitting at the highest point of the Dongmu Bridge, carrying a stick on his shoulder and swinging one leg.

As he spoke, he jumped down and landed in front of Gilgamesh, pointing his club at Gilgamesh's face.

"Jinhua Ham! Don't say you weren't given a chance. Today, in front of me, Old Zheng, you'd better establish some rules with Shi Chen. From now on, as long as you follow the rules, you can enjoy all the worldly splendor you want."

"Sure enough, it was you, you monkey, backing him up..."

As his body shimmered with golden light, Gilgamesh shed his modern attire and donned the golden armor. He looked up at Zheng Jing and sneered.

"You're even willing to play along with this kind of act? Have you been playing house with little girls for too long? Or are you scared?"

Turning around to meet Zheng Jing's golden eyes, Gilgamesh pointed to the ground beneath his feet.

"It's simple. Why don't you kneel down right now, kowtow, and I'll grant you face and agree to three rules with you, Shi Chen? How about that?"

Upon hearing this, Zheng Jing lowered his head—

I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Of all the people who came on this trip, besides Lao Kan, you were the most capable! You were the best at making Lao Zheng happy!"

With a smile, Zheng Jing straightened his back and stood up.

"Hey, Jinhua ham, don't worry, I, Old Zheng, won't let any of the treasures in your warehouse get away!"

Just as the two sides were locked in a tense standoff, with their auras clashing and Tokiomi sweating profusely, a thunderclap suddenly erupted in the night sky.

"Oh la la la la la—"