Chapter 39: Return
The bright moon hung high. In the central street of Fuyuki City, inside a church that was nearly completely destroyed by explosions.
This was the Kirei Church. On a charred wooden bench, Su Xiao held a bouquet of white flowers.
"Father, I killed your only son. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to bring him to your grave."
Su Xiao casually tossed down the white flowers in his hand. Back when he first entered the Holy Grail World, Father Risei had been of considerable help to him. In fact, among the many derivative worlds he had experienced, the old priest was one of the two plot characters with whom he had the best relationship. As for the others, most involved mutual scheming. Unfortunately, the old priest had ultimately died at the hands of his own biological son.
The reason Su Xiao had time to come here was that he had failed to find any trace of Sakura Matou. After some searching, he discovered that not only was the Mage Association meddling in this matter, but there were also faint traces of other contractors involved. This made finding Sakura Matou and that Servant even more difficult. Although Su Xiao was stronger than these people, he was not omniscient or omnipotent.
The anticipated showdown between the biological sisters never occurred. What surprised Su Xiao even more was that Gilgamesh had actually been killed by those lone wolves. As a cost, of the nearly twenty lone wolves, only two survived.
Gilgamesh's death caused Illya's condition to become even more unstable. Although Gilgamesh was not a Servant in this Holy Grail War, he still possessed the nature of a Servant. His death meant that the Lesser Grail was about to be filled, which is to say, the Heaven's Hole was about to open.
There was no such thing as the "Holy Grail." Or rather, since the Third Holy Grail War, the nature of the Holy Grail had undergone a qualitative change. The person who had once come closest to the Holy Grail was Kiritsugu Emiya. He had realized that the Holy Grail was no longer a universal wish-granting device, which was why he had Saber destroy it.
Rumble, rumble...
A rumbling sound came. Su Xiao stood up and looked toward the eastern side of Fuyuki City. A "Dark Moon" had appeared, with a ring of cyan light around its edge. That was the Heaven's Hole.
"Who exactly is snatching the food?"
Although Su Xiao had failed to find Sakura Matou, he was not too disappointed. His main purpose this time was to settle the grudge with the Blood Gate Adventurers. Everything else was just extra gains. Not finding Sakura Matou was also within reason, after all, he had wasted a lot of time on the Blood Gate Adventurers' side.
Checking his current World Source, it had reached 51.4%. Compared to previous times, this World Source wasn't much, but it was by no means small.
"Taking the Lesser Grail that far away... Tohsaka Rin doesn't really think that once the Heaven's Hole is summoned, it will immediately spew out sludge, does she?"
"Woof."
Bubu Wang beside Su Xiao barked, meaning: "Isn't that what you said?"
"Did I say that?"
Su Xiao looked at Bubu Wang. Bubu Wang's dog face showed an awkward expression. Yielding to the tyranny of allowance money, he shook his head, his conscience aching terribly.
Su Xiao did not go near the Heaven's Hole. It was meaningless now. Or rather, Sakura Matou had never shown up from beginning to end. It wasn't because she was timid, but because a certain high-ranking member of the Clock Tower had directly told her what the Holy Grail really was.
With Stan's death, his contract with that high-ranking member of the Clock Tower was terminated. From then on, the Holy Grail War had been reduced from a responsibility to a training experience for Sakura Matou. With Su Xiao present in the Holy Grail War, it was clearly a nightmare difficulty. So that old mage, who was a fanatical protector of his disciple, would never allow Sakura Matou to continue participating in the Holy Grail War.
Back when Lord Ken had participated in the Holy Grail War, his purpose was not the Holy Grail either. It was because his family was rapidly declining, and he urgently needed a victory or proof that would command respect, thereby stabilizing his position as Lord of the Clock Tower.
[Reminder: Main mission has reached its time limit.]
Judging current progress...
Current plot progress is as follows: