A night had passed since the events on Trifas.

“Really… The morals of the magi in this world are this low… It should be caused by their system of magecraft…”

Everything happened coincidentally that night.

I didn’t expect for the golem’s core to contain several dozen homunculi within it. I expected something… more proper from a magus like him. I already thought of a punishment when I saw through its true nature but I made other plans for him.

In the end, the magi of this world and the magicians of my world are worlds apart.

If someone with strong faith in Him didn’t care about sacrifices like that, then I wouldn’t be surprised if most magi conducted human experiments and treated human lives as worthless trash.

Nevertheless, I had the chance to create a plan on-the-spot. I asked Avicebron whether he could take most of the attention caused by my attack yesterday—to serve as my decoy—and he accepted it.

That decision turned him into my smokescreen. Most of the attention of this war’s participants will be redirected to him, all the whilst I begin my preparations behind the scene.

They will know that something big happened in Trifas, but as for its origins… their time will be wasted investigating it. Not only did I use three command seals to earn his silence, it also wouldn’t matter much if they find out about a third Ruler later on.

By the time the Great Holy Grail War ends…

“The Greater Grail… It is a fine Sacrament, alright…”

The Greater Grail didn’t escape my attention last night. It was something to be expected from the core of this war. In my world, it’ll be on par with the greatest Sacraments.

Unfortunately, it was still ‘inactive’. As long as it remains in a dormant state, nobody would be able to use it.

From the magi of the Clock Tower, I found out that both the Greater and Lesser Grail are already combined. For some reason, the last war ended abruptly with the nazis’ intervention, hence the accumulated magical energy from the last war disappeared. It was only due to the grail’s protective measures that it was locked up after the nazis’ theft.

As a result, the most opportune moment passed by, making everyone wait for another sixty years before the grail opens up once more.

The moment it becomes active…

It will spell the beginning of this grail war.

“This world is quite sensitive to technology so…”

*****

Underneath the Yggdmillennia Castle’s interrogation room, Avicebron was locked up. He wasn’t placed in any restraints whatsoever for fear of his death due to how fragile his body was.

“My words will not change. It was an accident.”

“...Caster.”

Currently, there are only two people inside this room—Avicebron and Vlad III. The King had taken upon himself to handle this matter due to its impact on their home base yesterday.

The core of their fortress in Trifas became riddled with destruction. More than a third of the castle was destroyed by Avicebron’s [Golem Keter Malkuth]. Despite the fact that they were able to contain the said damages, it was still a huge disaster for their homunculi army as well as their Bounded Fields. Dozens of relics and items associated with magecraft were lost as well.

It could be said that they suffered a disaster for nothing. It is also for such a reason why Vlad III came to talk to him—he wanted to gain something from Avicebron to recoup from their losses.

“The blue light from last night. Was it your doing?”

“...God had punished me for my sins.”

“...”

Unfortunately, he refused to speak up no matter how he asked him. Vlad III’s interrogation ended up in a futile manner.

Some time later, the door was opened up once more.

“Hm..?”

Contrary to Avicebron’s expectations, the person who came inside is their archer, Chiron.

“You wouldn’t tell them about the man with you?”

“...”

The caster was slightly startled. Though, he already expected that someone might’ve seen them in advance.

“Why didn’t you tell them?” Avicebron asked in return.

“...I want to know something. That man could wipe out the majority of our faction, yet he didn’t.”

Hearing Chiron’s words, Avicebron recalled their final meeting.

…

“Who… are you..?”

It was slowly becoming unbearable for Avicebron to stay awake. A mysterious power was compelling him to shut his consciousness down—to freeze his thoughts until only nothingness remained.

Still, there is a final part of him who wanted to know about this man’s identity.

The man looked at him and contemplated before he made his decision.

“Ruler-class, Galahad. You may call me that.”

…

“I don’t know.”

“...Alright.”

“...but I am certain that if he is hostile…”

“...”

Chiron left the interrogation room with a serious look. Avicebron saw this and resigned himself to his current situation.

“The Knight of Revelations…”

Many questions swirled around his mind as he was confined within this dark room.

*****

“That light…”

Kotomine Shirou noticed the bright blue light from last night. Although it was seen through their fortress’ surveillance, a strange feeling swept over him. It stirred his emotions for no reason.

Just from his reactions, he made several guesses as to what it was.

“Ruler is in a town nearby… It shouldn’t be her. Then, the Black Faction..?”

For the first time, he felt a sense of threat from this grail war. He, who has an advantage when it comes to information, was faintly threatened by the Black Faction.

“Assassin of Black and this…”

Although he is a Ruler and could see through a heroic spirit’s true name as well as their  Noble Phantasms (when used), he doesn’t know everything. As long as he hadn’t contacted the Black Faction, he wouldn’t be able to use it.

It is for such a reason that he planned a two-layered attack on the Black Faction.

After they had sent in Spartacus and retreated, chances are that he would be manipulated by the Black Faction. Little did they know that trying to control him is a huge mistake.

When they clash for the second time, he will go berserk. Shirou will then use this opportunity to spy upon the servants of the other faction and learn of their true names.

By the time they clash for the third time, it will be the decisive battle that ends everything.

Unfortunately for him, there is a variable that has the potential to ruin his plans for sixty years.

“Something’s wrong…”

He steadily tapped his fingers on the side of the bench. It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep.

“Ah..?”

A certain Queen of Assyria didn’t let this “opportune moment” slide and gave him a lap pillow.

*****

“It is definitely His light…”

The designated Ruler-class Heroic Spirit for this Great Holy Grail War, Jeanne d’ Arc,is currently in a dilemma. Her long blonde hair was skillfully braided, preventing it from becoming a hindrance during combat.

“A heroic spirit of that caliber was summoned by the Black Faction… Maybe he could be of help with my current mission…”

Like any other Ruler-class servants, Jeanne has the [Revelation] skill. It gave her a connection to His voice. It works passively as a form of “minor clairvoyance” (i.e., choosing the best decisions) and actively as a direct guidance from Him.

Her mission was related to the ‘occurrence’ which could endanger the world. She hadn’t received anything else other than that, thus she couldn’t do much except observe both factions first.

As for the heroic spirit who manifested His influence…

“Is he a saint?”

Only saints were able to do something like that.

Just then, she noticed someone looking at her. She was immediately locked on the person’s golden pupils.

By the time she noticed, he had already gone far away.

“Those eyes…”

*****

Zelretch…

I think I could understand the reason behind his small tricks. I saw how he treated some of the Clock Tower magi playfully. To him, it might as well be some sort of pastime. People with long lives tend to develop these eccentricness. I have seen this with many high-level magicians back in my world.

From making small pranks such as making thieves slip up to dropping a grimoire to a novice magician’s doorsteps, I have seen them all. Though, most of the oldest magicians tend to stay cooped up in their workshop in the mountains without any trace of technology.

Thus, many novice magicians still see them as the mysterious yet powerful individuals that they are.

Right now, I am spreading both fake and real information to the two factions. Hiding and staying lowkey is not that effective compared to having an additional layer of smokescreen which makes them unable to distinguish the truth from lies. If they do ever manage to piece together all the truths, it would have already been too late.

Moreover, I am still hiding a lot to act as my safety buffer.

“This… It feels like satisfying my childhood fantasies of being a boss who controls everything in the shadows.”

I could still recall my embarrassing childish moments when I found out about magic and the supernatural. I went through phases such as being “Magic X’s wannabe” to being a “hidden boss in the shadow”.

“Magecraft…”

My mind shifted to another topic as I arrived at my next destination. Under the canopy tree, I let out a small hole from my storage space—within a silver ring. These nanites dug deep into the ground without showing any signs of their existence. They are kept in a “locked” state that doesn’t let out any signals to the outside world.

Seeing my plan work out, I confirmed another portion of those wills’ capabilities.

If this is under their detection range, it means that I could do a lot more things than what I had initially thought of. Those wills’ aren’t as observant as I expected them to be.

“Don’t blame me for summoning an entire army during the final fight…”

With these amusing thoughts, I continued with my plans.

*****

Several days had passed since the golem incident. The Black Faction hid most of the information from the damage during the fight days ago. Outwardly, they seem to have fixed their defenses and maintained the number of their army to an optimal state.

As for the Red Faction, they hadn’t done anything noticeable… until now.

“FIGHT THE OPPRESSORS!!!”

Spartacus’ loud roar briefly deafened the ears of the other heroic spirits on the flying fortress.

“How loud…”

“It can’t be helped. His master suppressed him for days using command seals…”

The entire Red Faction moved at Kotomine Shirou’s command. He had directly skipped the first step and went ahead with his second step.

In this battle, he plans to dispose of the uncontrollable Spartacus while seizing the Greater Grail in one go.

Seeing everything, Lancer of Red fell silent.

For once, he looked forward to his rematch with the Saber of Black. Yet, he is also slightly bothered by Shirou’s abrupt actions, though he chose not to do anything in the face of it.

Meanwhile, the Black Faction was caught off guard by the huge flying fortress in the sky.

“Hey, hey…”

Rider of Black—the pink-haired knight of Charlemagne—smiled wryly at the sight of it.

“A Noble Phantasm…”

Chiron looked at it and determined the approximate distance between them. He then looked at their de-facto leader, Vlad III.

Holding his blade vertically to the ground, he thought of several possibilities.

‘Only Rider could reach it, but it is futile. Fighting a defensive battle is the best choice.’

Just then, a loud scream shook their eardrums.

A black silhouette blasted through Trifas’ walls.

“OPPRESSORS! I HAVE COME!”

Spartacus began causing mayhem from the fortress’ outer area.

“We shall settle this one first.”

Tonight, the first true clash between the two factions began.