Chapter 80: Ryuudou Temple

At midnight, as the clock struck one, the group split into three teams, approaching Ryuudou Temple from different routes.

Iskandar took the ox cart with Waver.

Artoria rode her motorcycle, with Iri seated behind her.

Shiomi used his specialty—teleportation Magecraft—to bring Morgan with him, arriving ahead of the others at the roadside just outside Ryuudou Temple to scout the area.

"...This mana reeks. It's so foul, it's nauseating," Morgan said, raising a hand to half-cover her mouth and nose, her expression twisted in distaste.

The mana radiating from Ryuudou Temple didn't actually have a smell. Morgan was speaking from the perspective of magical quality and nature.

The air was thick with moisture, clinging to the skin like a damp film.

It pulsed with an unnatural vitality, almost like the entire mountain was alive—breathing.

"It's turned completely into a visceral core, drawing in mana and preparing to devour the souls of Servants to complete the Holy Grail," Morgan observed.

Shiomi clicked his tongue. Raising one hand, he released a pale violet butterfly made of mana. It fluttered up the stone steps, and halfway up, it burst in a flash of light that swept across the slope of Ryuudou Temple.

Faerie Fire.

A detection spell Shiomi had specifically developed to counter Assassin's Presence Concealment. It wasn't certain how effective it would be, but one thing was guaranteed—once it activated, any enemy exposed by it would be unable to hide again, no matter how they cloaked their form or presence.

"Assassin's not stationed at the gate," Morgan concluded after a moment. "He must be deployed somewhere else."

It hadn't taken long to reach Ryuudou Temple from the Shiomi residence. Soon after, Artoria and Iskandar arrived as well, each accompanied by their respective Masters.

It was clear from their condition that none of them had encountered resistance on the way. After regrouping and confirming the situation, they began ascending the temple steps together.

With Gilgamesh's location still unknown, they moved cautiously, alert to every possibility.

Just then, a dark figure emerged from the shadows and approached slowly.

Kiritsugu Emiya had come too. Unwilling to let his wife face the battlefield alone, he'd decided to accompany her.

No one objected. They arranged into a formation—Servants in the lead, Shiomi in the rear—and climbed the long staircase toward the mountain gate.

At the top, they found the entire Ryuudou Temple bathed in an eerie red glow. Red phosphorescence floated on the breeze, giving the temple a strangely vivid, yet ominous radiance in the dead of night.

From behind the buildings, thick, dark colors seeped out like viscous sludge.

"You've arrived. I've been waiting," came a voice.

On the rooftop stood a lone figure in gleaming golden armor.

Gilgamesh.

Unlike earlier in the day, he no longer wore an air of playful indulgence. He was clearly prepared to face multiple Servants at once.

"Archer, did you and Kirei Kotomine force the Grail to activate?" Iri demanded, eyes locked on him.

Gilgamesh gave a dismissive snort. "Isn't it obvious, doll? I don't care about the Grail. Kirei said to start it, so I did. Tokiomi turned out to be surprisingly useful. I figured he was just some worthless failure, but he made a decent vessel. With just the souls of two Servants, he managed to jumpstart the Holy Grail."

"Tokiomi..." Shiomi's pupils narrowed sharply.

As Iri had suspected, once the core was removed, it couldn't remain stable for even a day without a vessel. One was necessary to sustain it.

The Einzbern Homunculi were designed to meet the requirements of a proper Lesser Grail.

But if the goal was only to unleash the stored magical energy, then any Magus—or even an ordinary person with a trace of magecraft lineage—could suffice as a substitute vessel.

"You're an old acquaintance of Tokiomi, aren't you? Seems fitting you'd be the one to send him off—Shiomi, was it?" Gilgamesh cast a dismissive glance at him.

"Get lost, mongrels. My business is with the Servants and this man only."

Morgan chuckled softly. "Looks like your tactic didn't quite work out, my husband."

"Hard to say," Shiomi replied, gripping his left hand tightly—where a single unused Command Spell still remained. He hadn't given this one to Morgan. It was a reward from the Holy Church, kept precisely for a moment like this.

"Let's go, Iri."

Kiritsugu, having already guessed Shiomi's plan, immediately grabbed Irisviel and bolted toward the rear courtyard.

Iskandar gave Waver a firm pat on the back. "Go on, kid. We've got this covered."

Waver stumbled forward a few steps. Clutching his own hand, where four Command Spells burned, he finally made his decision.

"By the Command Spell—I order you, Rider, to claim victory. By the Command Spell again—I forbid you to die in battle, Rider. A third time—I order you to fulfill your ambition, no retreat. And with the final Command Spell... wipe out every enemy in your path!"

It looked like reckless desperation, handing over all four spells at once—but everyone could feel it. The surge of mana from those four Command Spells had pushed Iskandar's presence to its absolute peak.

"I'm leaving this to you, Rider," Waver said, drawing a deep breath, eyes full of determination.

The King of Conquerors laughed heartily as he drew his sword. "Since my Master has gone this far, then I'll take the vanguard! At the very least—bear witness to my Noble Phantasm before you go!"

As his voice rang out, a searing, dry wind swept across the entire Ryuudou Temple.

He was activating his ultimate Noble Phantasm, dragging everyone into a new battlefield.

This wind, unnatural and overwhelming, began to peel away reality itself.

The sun scorched the earth. The horizon stretched far and wide, hidden behind raging sandstorms—above it, a flawless blue sky.

A Reality Marble: the forbidden great sorcery that rewrites the world.

Of course, Iskandar hadn't created this alone. The army now advancing behind them—heroes who had once charged into countless battles at his side—were part of it.

This was the crystallized will of them all, brought into existence.

"That should take care of it," Shiomi murmured.

The King of Conquerors had told him beforehand—this was one of his hidden Noble Phantasms, a Reality Marble.

So...

"I offer this Command Spell to my wife!" Shiomi took advantage of the chaos, using his last Command Spell. "Go to your battlefield!"

"Understood. I won't go easy on them."

Morgan vanished without resistance, following the magic's call.

"A shame the kid on my side can't teleport like that," Iskandar said with a grin.

Shiomi summoned his red spear and stepped forward to the front line.

"A battlefield's a battlefield—it doesn't matter which one Weber chooses."

With a spin of the weapon, the tip of his spear leveled toward Gilgamesh across the blazing sands.

...

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