"—I hereby declare—"
At this moment, a solemn chanting echoed throughout the entire battlefield.
"—Your body shall serve under me, My fate shall be your sword—"
With an unprecedentedly resolute expression, Rozen chanted naturally while raising the golden jug in his hand.
"—If you will submit to this will and this reason…Then answer..—"
The entity known as the Holy Grail suddenly suspended itself, floating into the air.
"—I hereby swear—"
"—I shall be all that is good in this world—"
"—I shall be the disposer of all evil in this world—"
"—Bind your soul to me for this lifetime—"
Rozen raised one of his hands high, seemingly trying to establish a connection with the floating Holy Grail.
Moreover, he raised the hand adorned with the last command spell and the ring called "Miracle," making his right hand, which emitted a dazzling light, equally elevated.
Using the command spell and the ring as intermediaries, Rozen made the final summoning.
"—Come forth, my guardian—"
With this, the ritual was complete.
"Clang————!"
A radiant and dazzling light covered the entire battlefield like a tide.
That light originated from the golden cup in the sky.
That light also came from the brilliant ring on Rozen's right hand.
The two dazzling lights converged, creating an enormous and intricate magical array. It felt like a geometric mystery passed down from ancient times, presenting a cubic sensation as the vast magic circle slowly rotated.
In this moment, miracles descended.
"What...!?"
Solomon seemed to want to say something, but involuntarily raised his hand to shield himself from the dazzling brilliance.
"This light...!?"
"What's happening...!?"
"Ah...!"
On the battlefield, the shocked and battered Servants fighting against Solomon also expressed surprise. They, too, raised their hands to shield their eyes from the blinding light.
"Did it succeed...!?"
Bathing in the brilliance, Scáthach fixed her eyes in Rozen's direction.
"Senpai!"
Mash, too, only had time to call out the name of the person most important to her before being engulfed by the light.
In this way, everyone was covered by the radiant brilliance like a surging tide, and everything in their field of vision turned into a golden scene.
In this instant, no one could see anything, no one could feel anything, and all they could do was make sounds, yet even those sounds were covered by the brilliance.
At the center of the brilliance, Rozen also lost consciousness.
No.
Rozen's consciousness had followed the passage opened by "Miracle" and the Holy Grail, heading towards the location of the guardian he called for.
...
At this moment, Rozen felt like he was traversing something. His entire being moved forward in a sensation of weightlessness and directionlessness, constantly swimming.
This feeling was both familiar and unfamiliar to Rozen.
It was familiar because he had experienced this sensation not for the first time.
In the past, whenever Rozen used "Miracle" to open a gateway to another world, traveling to different realms, he felt this floating and dizzy sensation.
So, this feeling was familiar to Rozen.
It was unfamiliar because this time was different from the past, adding a sense of dissonance.
In the past, when Rozen traveled to other worlds, his body would undergo interference from the temporal and spatial shifts, resulting in changes.
Specifically, his body would continuously shrink, ultimately transforming into either a child or even directly into a baby, arriving in another world in a newborn state.
Even in those worlds he had visited before, when traversing the passages between worlds, Rozen could feel his body swimming.
However, this time, Rozen lost this sensation, creating a sense of dissonance.
In other words...
"My body is gone...?"
That was exactly the case.
This time, Rozen only separated his consciousness, entering the passage opened by "Miracle," and did not transfer his entire being to another world.
This was an exceptional case among exceptional cases, something that was not supposed to happen.
Only the consciousness traversed the passage, while the body remained on the other side. Such a thing was absolutely not supposed to happen.
However, this time was an exception.
Because, in addition to the power of "Miracle," the power of the "Holy Grail" was also involved in opening the passage.
In the instant the ritual was completed, utilizing the power of the "Holy Grail," a connection was established between Rozen and the summoned entity.
In theory, the entity Rozen summoned would follow this path and be summoned to Rozen's side.
Unfortunately, perhaps not even Scáthach anticipated that, even with the intervention of the power of the "Holy Grail," ultimately, Rozen's summoning would end in failure.
This was because neither Rozen's ritual nor the power of the "Holy Grail" could replicate the soul of this entity, allowing it to manifest as a Servant in the present world.
This entity was beyond the reach of both Rozen's ritual and the power of the "Holy Grail," unable to be fully controlled.
In this situation, to fulfill Rozen's wish, the entity known as the "Holy Grail" could only exert its full effort to maintain this path and prevent it from breaking.
However, continuing like this, eventually, the path would still break, leading to the complete failure of this summoning.
However, at this moment, also to fulfill Rozen's wish, the "Miracle" that coexisted with Rozen released its power.
Originally able to open gateways between different worlds, this ring completely stabilized the passage.
Thanks to this, the "Holy Grail" no longer needed to expend power to maintain the passage, immediately summoning its consciousness to send it to the other side of the passage to fulfill Rozen's wish.
This was an opportunity created by both the "Miracle" and the "Holy Grail" working together.
Allowing Rozen to meet that extraordinary entity, an opportunity to form a connection with it.
Now, following this passage, Rozen arrived at the location of the entity he had never successfully summoned before.
"Clang————!"
A dazzling light appeared at the front of the passage, allowing Rozen to pass through it.
...
"Ugh..."
As if being thrown out of a vortex, Rozen groaned and slowly opened his eyes.
"Where is this...?"
The scene that met Rozen's eyes made him involuntarily stunned.
"Cave...?"
Yes.
This was a cave.
A very primitive cave.
The cave was extremely vast, and the surrounding stone walls were like mountain walls, both towering and heavy, exuding a remarkable sense of time and vicissitude.
Incredibly, in such a vast and primitive cave, the ground was covered with glittering treasures of gold and silver.
Then, a massive stone bed was situated in the center of the cave.
Rozen's gaze fell on that stone bed.
"————!"
The next moment, Rozen's breath stopped, his heartbeat ceased, and his eyes widened to the maximum, while his pupils shrank, revealing a horrified expression.
This was because, lying on the stone bed, was a person.
"No..."
It wasn't a person.
It was a...
"Giant..."
Yes.
Lying on the stone bed was a giant, comparable in size to a mountain peak.
A giant resembling a human girl.
If her proportions were reduced to normal, she would be a girl with a slender figure, her entire skin tanned, sporting short white hair. She wore a white veil on her head, giving the appearance of having long white hair. Her outfit was extremely revealing, consisting only of a white bandeau and a white skirt.
Such a giant-like girl lay silently on the stone bed, sleeping in solitude, loneliness, and desolation in this unbelievable cave.
From her body, an aura emanated that made Rozen palpitate and tremble, an instinctual breath that seemed both terrifying and horrifying.
With just one glance, Rozen was certain.
"She is definitely not a Heroic Spirit."
She could be a god, more likely a demon, and even possibly a ghost, a monster, a humanoid beast, but she definitely could not be a Heroic Spirit.
Since that was the case...
"Why...?"
Why am I here?
And also...
"Who, is she?"
Rozen was completely bewildered.