Chapter 48: End of War, Cleaning Greater Grail
Don't get to excited, I am opening my vault to release couple chapters, that just to make people notice about a Plagiarizer GilgameshBabylon who wants to make money from my fics. You can find him on WN, while we bombed his fics the damage has been done.
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From the very beginning of this fight, Cu Chulainn knew he was the underdog in this fight. The Saber he was fighting against had greater parameters than his ones.
Not only that but she could counter any tricks he was employing. Combined with her invisible sword he steadily started to lose ground.
Eventually, the hound of Culann was pushed back to the point that he needed to utilise his Noble Phantasm…
"Let's end this Saber! While I am having fun there is a limit to how much fun one can have before it becomes boring!" As Lancer said that he took his favourite stance.
He leaned forward almost crouching before dashing forward with impressive speed, the Lancer then jumped up and took a javelin-throwing stance.
Red Prana exploded from his spear as he said the true name of his Noble Phantasm.
"Gae Bolg!!!"
The Irish Hero threw the spear. This was a more powerful version of the cursed spear technique, far more powerful than simple thrust.
But it was pointless as Saber knew and had a way to counter that.
Just like the Irish Demigod, her prana exploded as well and she started rapidly to charge her main Noble Phantasm.
Cu Chulainn for a second smirked.
'Is she going to try to overpower the Spear with her Excalibur?'
However, he was shocked the moment the spear 'smashed' into the Saber!
"Avalon!"
His eyes bulged out as he saw the spear simply bounce off her.
Then her sword exploded with golden light.
"Oh, fuck…"
"EX-CALIBUR!!!"
A Golden beam consumed the entirety of the night sky as it was an upwards strike, consuming everything in his path.
The Lancer didn't even try to resist the beam, he simply smiled for a bit before he was consumed by the energy.
It was quite a boring war, but it had its moments. At least he had some fun in the finals, well, finals he reached by doing nothing.
Regardless a fight is a fight, and he lost…
Once the blast has settled down. There was nothing left, Lancer was gone.
"He is gone, the grail has formed," Ren said as he sensed how the cup had formed.
"We still need to fix that corrupted Greater Grail," Saber said to her Master as she walked over to his side. She already recalled her Holy Sword.
"Pity that jump of his was the last one he will make," Ereskhigal said with a disappointed sigh. She was the only one in this group who wanted that Lancer to perform well so that she could kill him herself.
"Hmm, there is hidden disappointment in your voice." Saber Alter said that while looking at the Pseudo-Servant.
"Maybe? I wanted this to last a little bit longer." The blonde Lancer said with a disappointed sigh.
"Hmm, I suppose, with him gone the Grail War is over and this holiday soon will be over." Artoria Alter said with some disappointment as well.
"Is it going to be boring once we are in Sensei's timeline?" Ereshkigal asked curiously. It appears the darker Saber is as disappointed as she is.
"It used to be, BUT I have few ideas about how I will keep myself entertained this time." The pale blond Saber said with a mysterious smile.
"Oh, sounds interesting…" The Underworld Goddess' curiosity got pinged there.
While Shirou Emiya who was in the background felt a shiver, what were these two are planning?
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As the last fight was over there was quite a bit of time left, instead of wasting it Ren went to the underground cavern behind the temple.
This was his second time doing this so he simply knew where he needed to walk to find the Greater Grail location.
"Ugh…this is just like I remember last time. It feels revolting." Morgan said with a disgusted frown. She got reminded how this was before. It was just gross. Her memory of that time is much more bright, as she returned to life. Now she remembered how it was bad before she was resurrected.
"Was it similar last time?" Illya asked as she frowned quite a bit. What she was feeling is quite disgusting and her senses are not as good as the Fae Queen. She doesn't even want to know how much the Pale blond Witch picked up with her senses.
"It is the same, the curses here are weak, but to counter that weakness there are many of them. Mindless and quite pathetic, but once they are piled one on another they make quite a substantial effect." Morgan explained as they proceeded to walk into this cave for a second time.
Though this time she was hugging her husband's hand trying to ignore this ugly sight.
"How are we going to proceed? You want me to destroy it with my Holy Sword?" The King of Knights asked after hearing what Morgan said. It sounded quite detailed and quite dangerous.
"Nah, I am going to cleanse it and then take it for myself. We can use this to make grail war games or something. I know my Servants get bored of just killing Dead Apostles.
So Grail-like Wars are great alternatives, this would allow me to study the procedure in greater detail as well."
"That's a bad idea!/That's a great idea!" The pair of Sabers said at the same time which made Ren and the rest look at them with amusement.
"Master, this thing is dangerous! If you take it for yourself, who knows how much chaos it can bring!" The King of Knights tried to reason with him.
"What are you talking about!? He is a Sorcerer! I am positive he KNOWS what he is doing!" The Alter said with a snort. She has been longer with him so she is quite certain AND it will be more interesting for her if he brings the Greater Grail with him! They could have minor wars all the time!
Simply fantastic!
While the pair bickering, Morgan and Ereshkigal were thinking about all the possibilities of studying this thing. The Underworld Goddess is still Rin, so she still has her curiosity.
And the Grail War was always on Tohsaka's family's mind. So it is win-win for her.
"Fine…I suppose not that I can fight you, nor that I care about this anymore either." Illya said with a resigned sigh. She lost the war and found that she has a little brother. Which is more important than some sort of a cup.
"Ughh! I am the only one who thinks this is a bad idea!?" Saber asked with a shocked look. Everyone is sorta on Ren's side for this!?
"Don't worry, you will always be my Saber, we can mix it up from time to time. Alter Saber one run, then you rinse and repeat." The Sorcerer's words didn't make her happy at all!
"...Fine…whatever… worst case I just use my sword to blow it up," Saber said with a grumpy voice, she was still reeling in that no one was thinking this was a bad idea. Maybe it's her trauma from the last war. Or something like that. Grail War = Very serious stuff in her mind.
"Relax, worst case I'm just from Rhondomyniad from orbit. It would erase any enemies." Morgan said with a confident smile.
"...I will pass on that." The King of Knights quickly declined such an idea. Making Ren and Saber Alter smirk for a bit. They saw Saber react to Morgan's words.
'Yes, they all are crazy, why did I even consider otherwise…' Internally she groaned from frustration. She decided just to roll with this and forget about it. If something happens she can always say 'I told you so!'.
Eventually, the group arrived at the flat and wide cavern area. There is a huge circle carved on it.
"The Greater grail is hidden under this one. At this moment it can't access the Prana the lesser Grail has gathered. While it wasted the majority of energy it has gathered for the war." Ren explained to them that he was looking at the ground.
"So we just drained it while fighting our battles?" Artoria asked him, she was still green when it was concerning the mechanics of the Grail war.
"Indeed, you can say interfere with the battle—Hmm? It appears Angra Mainyu noticed us. It's preparing to summon Servants."
His words made everyone except Morgan start arming themselves.
"Master, will you allow it to summon someone, or are you going to cancel it?" Saber Alter asked him as she armed herself with a single Excalibur Morgan.
Ren looked at his wife who simply shrugged at him.
"With the amount of Prana it has left, it should not be capable of summoning a proper Servant. A shadow of it at the most." The Witch said while sensing the Grail under her foot.
"True, since you could not face the Heracles you can face whatever this thing will summon." In the end, Ren decided to pamper his Fallen Knight who grinned at him. She used Prana bursts to appear. At the front and face whatever will be summoned.
A moment later in a self-drawn circle appeared a shadowy creature.
The Sorcerer narrowed his eyes and tried to figure out what it was. Eventually, he realised that this thing summoned Jeanne Alter's shadow. An Avenger, that thing most likely used itself as a catalyst, and since he had Artoria Alter which has a dragon trait.
"Be careful, that's the Dragon Witch, Alter form of Jeanne D'arc. It has powers over Dragonkind."
"Good to know!"
Saber Alter rushed at the shadow form with empowered Prana Bust, her swing carried quite a bit of energy as the blade released a blast of black and red energy. The Alter was not holding back, with the amount of power her body holds she can practically spam overpowered techniques.
The same can't be said about the Shadow Servant which was blasted into the wall of the cavern.
While the one-sided beatdown was happening Ren looked at the ground. For a second he used his connection to the root and started to design an amulet. He decided that this time he will do a different type of cleansing. More like… he will find some use for all that cursed energy that thing still has.
"You are not going to pay attention to that fight?" Morgan asked him as she sensed that he ain't paying attention.
"It's fine, it's a Shadow Servant, if it was the real deal it would have been more interesting. Avenger Class Servants have few perks other regular classes don't have. They are quite freakish if employed properly. But this one… it's just a shadow."
As he said that Saber Alter overwhelmed and cut the shadow in half. It was nothing impressive.
Saber Alter's grin disappeared; she had a frown on her lips. She was just getting started but that shadow just died on her!
"See, nothing major. This is why I've been doing this." As he said, an amulet starter manifested in his hand. He utilised several known myths around amulets which hold curses. Using that as a basis he created a specific amulet that can hold all the world's curses.
This was nothing quite an easy task, much easier than creating a custom-made Gate of Babylon.
It was a simple black stone amulet on a chain.
"What is that? I can sense dark magic…" Morgan turned her head when she sensed familiar energy at her side.
" A different way to deal with the cleansing."
His words made her think for a bit before she understood what he was about to do.
"Oh, I see… Did the Gate creation make you into someone who wants to collect now? Well, it doesn't matter, let's see what you will get after that amulet absorbs all the curses."
Ren simply nodded at her before he pointed to the amulet and the circle and it started to suck in all the curses from the Greater Grail.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone