Xingyue, is Xiaokai also considered Kai?

Soft lips gently caressed the young man's ear, and a clear voice quietly came through, words as sweet and pleasant as the fragrance of roses.

"I want to go with you too—ah!"

After saying that, Aika Sajou seemed to realize something, blushed, and got up, rushing to take a shower without even looking at Novia's reaction.

It was probably because the girl noticed the wetness of her left hand, and the liquid that dripped down her skirt and onto Novia's chest when she pounced on her.

......

In a city in the Far East.

In a room that was slightly dark, but whose walls were covered with dried flowers, hand-woven trinkets and small ornaments.

If Novia were to see them, he would discover that these dried flowers, with their many different colors, were gifts he had given to Eltruchi before he went to the City of a Thousand Years.

As the air circulated, these things all emitted a faint, sweet fragrance. Even after a thousand years, they have been preserved to such an extent, which shows that a lot of effort has been put into them.

"You mean, you saw him?"

Yes, very similar.

White Knight Brad nodded. Ever since returning from the Seventh Labyrinth in Elcatlas, he had hurriedly reported the matter to his lord.

"This, cough cough, cough cough cough..."

"Lord Jijun..."

The White Knight instinctively tried to comfort Altrouge, whose health had been failing since that day, but the black-haired girl, whose face was even paler than it had been a thousand years ago, waved her hand dismissively.

"It's alright, I'm used to it... The Holy Grail War, which one is the most recent one? Brad."

As the Queen of Blood and Contracts, Black Princess forcibly transformed Avia's body into a Dead Apostle, which inevitably caused her some degree of irreparable damage. This is why she has been sleeping for decades or even centuries for thousands of years.

"It's located in the United States... Lady Hime, would you perhaps like to take a look?"

"Hmm, I want to see if it really is."

The girl pushed open the magnificent door and whispered, "If it's not, and it's just something that's come to defile my lover's face, cough cough cough... I'll make him wish he were dead."

For Eltrauge, anyone who dares to defile anything of Avia is her mortal enemy.

After all, he was the one she would love until the very end of her life.

170: The Purpose of the Holy Grail War in the Snowfield

In the western part of the continental United States, there is a city called Snowfield City.

Snowfield City is not a tourist destination during this season, because in terms of its surrounding geographical environment, the city is an outlier and lacks any aesthetic appeal.

It has no farmland; to the north lies a vast valley comparable to the Grand Canyon, to the west a deep forest, to the east a wide lake area, and to the south a vast desert.

But for some reason, as time went by, the number of people in the city increased over the past few months, and the sounds of many magicians pouring in were drowned out by the loudspeakers.

In the northwest of the city, there is a privately-run prison commonly found in the United States, called the Kotzman Special Correctional Center.

In the basement of this prison, various surveillance videos, both public and private, are displayed in real time on countless screens throughout the town.

In addition, there are bird-shaped familiars moving in the air transmitting visual information.

The master of the monitoring room and the familiars is Fadius, one of the masterminds behind the American Holy Grail War.

He is a magician affiliated with a U.S. national agency. He studied at the Clock Tower. His clan modified the spiritual veins of Snowfield City, stole the Fuyuki Holy Grail fragments through "someone," and then summoned pseudo-Servants to replenish the ley lines, thus launching the True Holy Grail War.

"...What are you doing here?"

Fadius's voice was incredibly calm, yet a distinct displeasure was subtly implied.

"Hey, hey, hey, I always feel that your reaction is very cold. Can't you come if you have nothing to do?"

The owner of the voice peeked out from the shadows.

It was a girl who looked to be around fifteen years old, dressed in a Gothic Lolita-style outfit with a black and white color scheme, and holding an umbrella in her hand.

Her name is Francesca.

"It's not the right time for us to continue our contact yet."

"Oh, is that so? I didn't even think of that. Do you want me to kneel down and beg for forgiveness now? It's not impossible. Making a beautiful girl kneel down in public to show her submission is quite a conquest, isn't it?"

The girl chuckled as she twirled her umbrella.

"Speak your mind. There's no need to continue the conversation if there's anything unnecessary."

Fadius was extremely wary of Francesca. Although she looked young, she was actually a magician who had lived for countless years and was someone he wanted to keep a close eye on.

In the Third Holy Grail War in Fuyuki, the Assassin's Master was a puppeteer magician with ties to the Fadius family. He left his memories of the events of the war in a puppet he used.

Later, Fadius's grandfather joined forces with politicians and the military of the United States to seize Snowfield City from the natives. Snowfield City's spiritual vein quality was comparable to that of Fuyuki City, and they carried out large-scale adjustments to its spiritual vein to make it closer to Fuyuki City.

When it was passed down to Fadius's father, a portion of the Fuyuki Holy Grail was stolen through Francesca, who had connections to the government's secret service.

"Wow, that's amazing! You didn't even flinch in the face of my performance. You heartless bastard, I'm starting to admire you!"

The purple-haired girl chuckled at the indifferent-looking Fadius.

“Miss Francesca is joking.”

"Sigh, what a pointless reaction."

As if she hadn't seen the reaction she expected, the seemingly disappointed girl waved her hand lightly and continued speaking:

"In the world of magic, there is said to be a great labyrinth, created to hide oneself and supreme treasures, a labyrinth powerful enough to affect dimensional distortion, um, the Great Labyrinth Alcatra."

"......What?"

Fadius knew about this labyrinth; as far as he knew, it belonged to the founder of the Dead Apostles, who had an extremely close relationship with the Church, and was said to be a strange place that one could neither enter nor leave.

But why did this old monster suddenly bring this up?

The atmosphere surrounding Francesca's smile changed abruptly in the next instant.

"The supreme treasure, whether it is a record of everything in the world, a testament to the love of the Lord in the Church, or even a replica of the universe—simply put, it is something extremely powerful."

Even though her smile remained innocent and naive, her gaze shifted to the cruel glint of someone suffering torture and yearning for revenge.

"Hmm, I really, really want such a treasure. While it's true that the idea of ​​opening up to humanity should be widely accepted, a labyrinth that can't be opened at all should at least become a place that can be challenged. It should be opened by a ritual created by the world. Think about it, whether humanity flourishes in the universe or heads towards destruction, it's all caused by humanity itself."

Francesca then spoke in a sweet voice to the expressionless Fadius, as if she were whispering words of love to the world itself.

"In this way, the lock on the great labyrinth will be released, and then we can humiliate everything to our heart's content!"

As she finished speaking, her expression turned cold again, and she spoke in a calm tone:

"This must be an absolutely wonderful thing."

........

A villa located in the lake and marshland area in the eastern part of Snowfield City.

"Here we go again...?"

The summoned assassin sensed an ominous aura approaching from the doorway and murmured to himself.

She was surrounded by the corpses of magicians. As Hassan, she did not approve of such heretical behavior, so she killed all the magicians who had summoned her.

"You are... a Servant in this Holy Grail War?"

Normally, the assassin should have ignored the newcomer and killed him mercilessly, since he was a dead traitor.

She was extremely fanatical about the Hassanid Order, hostile to those who believed in other gods and magicians and would not hesitate to eliminate them. She viewed the existence of the Dead Apostles as a defilement of the doctrine and therefore loathed them.

Through the knowledge granted by the Holy Grail, the assassin immediately knows his fate.

But her expectation of the Holy Grail is to personally bury those who are proof of heresy and return them to nothingness.

She also understood that several leaders throughout history had similarly sought the Holy Grail—

She felt only sadness, but did not hate the leaders, nor did she intend to despise them.

The object of their hatred is the being that deceived them, the entity itself, and the participants in the 'Holy Grail War'.

However, the black-haired girl in front of him, though a Dead Apostle, was someone the assassin sensed 'that' about.

Her memories, her soul, her hard-won physique, and her faith now tainted by heretical rituals—all of them clearly understood what 'that' was.

The assassin felt tears involuntarily streaming down his face.

This is what that great sage acknowledged; it is reaching the sacred temple he himself never set foot in during his entire life...

Although they were dead disciples, they were filled with dazzling glory.

"I--"

Just as the assassin was about to say something, Altrouge waved her hand to indicate that he didn't need to speak yet. Then, staring at the corpse of a magician at the assassin's feet, she slowly said:

"Jester, oh no, your name when you were human was Dorothea, right? A human with great power who was expelled from the Mage's Association and eventually taken in by Van Fim as a Dead Apostle. As expected, you are too ugly."

"You...you are...Lord Ji Jun, I—"

Just then, the assassin noticed that the magician's corpse he had killed was moving. It was clear that he had only been feigning death, but now, after being glanced at by Ji Jun, it turned into smoke and ash.

As the ruler of blood and contracts, and the recognized leader of the Dead Apostles, even though he has been out of the public eye for many years due to serious injuries, he can completely destroy any Dead Apostle of lower rank with just a thought.

"Alright, the contract between this guy and you has completely dissolved. You can do whatever you want with him from now on."

Indeed, at this moment, the assassin felt no more magic flowing into his body; his Master, who was originally a Dead Apostle, was truly dead.

Originally, Eltrauge didn't really want to get involved in these things; she wasn't interested in the Holy Grail.

After all, her purpose in coming to Snowfield City was to see if she could meet the person Brad mentioned who looked exactly like Avia, but Jesta was just too arrogant, constantly thinking about using the Holy Grail to destroy the world, which made her very unhappy, so that's how it ended.

"please wait for a moment."

"Oh? Is there something you want to say to me?"

Just as Kurohime turned around, the assassin called out to her.

"Please, sir, show me the way home."

171: The Unexpected Swordsman

As dusk fell, Novia gazed out of her window at the city where the Holy Grail War was about to take place, while resting at her pre-booked hotel.

However, on one hand, this is the destiny that this city was created to be. Snowfield City was originally built to prepare for the Holy Grail War, which is why it has been developing rapidly since sixty years ago and has become a city with a population of 800,000 today.

In fact, Novia had intended to summon a Servant upon entering this place, but for some reason, no magical energy flowed to him...

To be precise, it seems that too much magic power was required, so the first attempt failed.

At that moment, Novia understood that she could not summon anyone other than herself. If she were to perform the Holy Grail Summoning, it would only allow her to recover her power slightly faster within the current rules.

As for why the subspecies Holy Grail War in the seventh labyrinth of Elcatlas was successful, it was mainly because Novia managed to monopolize the magical power that should have been supplied to the four Servants, which is why she barely succeeded.

After all, before the Human Order Burning Incident occurred, the probability of summoning an extremely powerful being in this world was not very high.

Ultimately, the age of gods has passed, and the age of humans has arrived. Therefore, from now on, the human world will no longer need the immense power of the age of gods, except when it poses a threat to the stability and peace of humanity and the planet.

In FSF, if the enemy were to erase his mark 'Hercules' from the world in order to prevent the enemy from seeking revenge against the Greek gods, it would cause a world-class disaster. Therefore, the human reasoning chose to let the Amazon queen Hippolyta appear in the world.

In other words, Hippolyta was destined to stop the sea of ​​hatred.

However, Novia actually understood why Hercules had gone mad.

That's because the difference in perspective between humans and gods gave rise to the seeds of madness.

As we know from the plot of The Adventures of the Second Generation 7, the vision of gods is like the difference between three-dimensional and two-dimensional compared to that of humans. From the perspective of gods, they can see various timelines of the past and future. In other words, when a person meets a god in the age of gods, it is like the god can choose a path in a game with countless routes to cooperate with that person and thus take the next step.

It was precisely because of this difference between gods and men that Heracles was driven mad, and thus, amidst the contamination of the black mud, became 'Typhon', who sought revenge against the Greek gods.

Therefore, even though Alcides, now an avenger, still harbors the image of the noble and pure Heracles within his heart, he is still determined to take revenge on the Greek gods who toyed with him, even knowing that his body was forcibly twisted in this Holy Grail War as an avenger, he is absolutely determined to do so.

Novia was well aware of Alcides's actions and understood the actions of the Greek gods. From his perspective, it was quite normal for Hercules to seek revenge against the Greek gods.

Revenge is a perfectly normal emotion; just don't become too obsessed with it, or even your original desires will be distorted.

As for the fact that he had once obtained the authority of the Roman gods in the guise of the Greek gods, Novia felt that since he had received their help, he should also resolve the troubles they had caused in the past. Moreover, he had also obtained the authority of Hercules at that time.

In Novia's view, both Hercules, the hero praised by all, and Alcides, who chose to seek revenge at all costs, were merely manifestations of light and shadow.

"The monitoring of familiars, huh?"