IBHJ 1294

"I'm sorry, but my answer is still no.”

The same rejection as always. Yet the light remained, unmoving. It would stay there until the Holy Grail completely disappeared, waiting for her to make the right choice.

The Incarnation ignored the light and waved her hand, causing a series of images to appear in the air before her. They showed a grand banquet with people singing and dancing, their faces bright with joy.

It was beautiful.

"Is that from the night we celebrated our complete victory?"

Without turning around, she knew who had arrived. With such a gentle voice, it could only be one person in this palace.

Artoria came to stand beside her, gazing at the images with a wistful expression. "It brings back so many memories. That night was truly the happiest of my life." She turned to look at the Incarnation. "You were there that night too, weren't you?"

After a moment's thought, Brigid looked at her. "You should understand that I am you. I've always been there. I could see everything, hear everything—I just couldn't touch anything."

"Yes. You are me... you're the Ideal King that Uther always envisioned. The person I would have become if the King hadn't existed. But—you… you want to kill Mordred." Artoria's eyes filled with sadness.

"Because she killed me!" the Incarnation replied sharply.

"You should leave while you still can," Artoria said. "The Holy Grail hasn't completely disappeared yet. There's still time for you to become a true transcendent being. Do you really want to disappear forever?"

"I am the Counter Force. I am the Ideal King," she stated firmly. "My purpose is to ensure Camelot's survival. The Holy Spirit means nothing to me, and I care nothing for transcendence. What I want—all I can do—is resurrect the Eternal Kingdom. To give those who died another chance at life, another opportunity for happiness."

"But what about you? You're not just the Counter Force or the Ideal King or even Artoria—you're Brigid!" Artoria insisted.

"No, I'm not." she removed the bracelet from her wrist, turned away, and started to leave.

"Go now! Your time is truly running out!" Artoria called after her.

"Even at the end of time, the Counter Force's duty is to protect what matters." she walked away without looking back.

Artoria stood there, looking at the beam of light above the Holy Grail before turning to watch the banquet scene again. In those images, everyone—Shirou, Merlin, Morgan le Fay, Gawain, Agravain, all the Knights of the Round Table, all the soldiers, and herself—were smiling with genuine happiness. The sound of clinking cups filled the air as they toasted together.

Artoria's eyes grew sad. The Ideal King was the Counter Force, and also her former self with emotions locked away, always sacrificing for the greater good... but there was nothing she could do now. She could only watch helplessly as Brigid fought against Pan-Human History, battling the very people she once loved and protected. She could only watch as Brigid's time slipped away bit by bit.

"The truth is... you're not like the others from the Eternal Kingdom. You don't really want to hurt us. You don't actually want to kill Mordred—what you want to kill is her sorrow. And what you're trying to resurrect isn't really the Eternal Kingdom itself. What you want to bring back, what you're fighting to protect, is simply the smile on our faces, Brigid." Artoria looked up at the light above the Holy Grail and sighed deeply.

…

Brigid climbed to the highest point of the Imperial Palace. She slowly spread her arms wide, and instantly, the nebula surrounding the solar system activated. Countless beams of light shot down from the stars as Earth and sky transformed in a flash. Reality rippled like water disturbed by a stone, colors inverting before settling into new patterns.

Her time was running out. She could no longer afford to wait, nor did she have time to hope that the Eternal King and the others would change their minds. What she needed to do now was completely synchronize history, creating a new history without the Lord of Salvation, without betrayal... and without sorrow.

...

"Demon King..." Shirou frowned. They had barely started dealing with the Ideal King situation, and now Sixth Seat was already making his next move.

Demonic Bodhisattva was the embodiment of desire itself. But what nobody had expected was that the Lord of Salvation had chosen Demonic Bodhisattva to carry Beast III, planning from the beginning to use her to create a Demon King.

The Demon King stood as the direct opposite of Buddha. Long ago, Shakyamuni had meditated beneath the Bodhi tree and saved the world from the demons. This was the origin of Shakyamuni Buddha's classification as a [Saver].

In other words, the very existence of the [Saver] class came about because of the [Demon King] concept.

If the Demon King were to be born, the entire world would become her land. The Beast could then use the Demon King to ambush the Incarnation, and afterward use Earth as a launching point for its revenge against Heaven in the farthest reaches of the universe.

But Shirou would never let that happen. He didn't care about the ancient grudge between Sixth Seat and the Holy Spirit, but if the Demon King came into being, it would mean the end of this world.

Just as they were discussing how to deal with Sixth Seat, a strange wave suddenly began spreading into Tír na nÓg from all directions.

"What's happening?" Everyone looked up at the sky in alarm.

Waves that shouldn't have been visible to the naked eye were rippling across the blue sky like water. The horizon and the edges of the earth began breaking apart like dissolving foam, transforming into pure energy particles that scattered through the air.

"The Ideal King is using up the Holy Grail's power much faster now," Ambrosius said, her face grim.

Shirou understood immediately. This wave was proof that the Ideal King was forcing the synchronization of history. Normally, this process would happen gradually, invisible to everyone. But with Pan-Human History and Sixth Seat threatening her plans, the Ideal King had decided to burn through the Holy Grail's remaining power to speed up the assimilation of history.

"She's going all-out now, using the Holy Grail at full power," Ambrosius said, her expression suddenly changing. "At this rate, the Holy Grail will be gone in minutes, and the entire history—including Tír na nÓg—will vanish in just ten minutes!"

However, just as she finished speaking, the surging waves seemed to hit some kind of interference and suddenly settled down. The rate at which the sky and earth were disappearing also slowed significantly.

"What just happened?" someone asked in confusion.

"It's those books," Shirou said gravely.

The Eternal Empire existed because of the Holy Grail's power. The Ideal King could control all of the Holy Grail's power because the people of the Eternal Empire had no independent thoughts. But Shakespeare's books had given them something to think about, introducing a bit of uncertainty.

This small change in their thinking, though it might seem minor, had disrupted the stable foundation of the Ideal King's power, causing the waves of historical synchronization to slow down. Even so, the process was still erasing their history at a speed they could actually see with their own eyes.

"At this rate, how long do we have before she completely synchronizes history?" Shirou asked Ambrosius urgently.

The Holy Grail was what allowed the Ideal King to exist, yet now she was burning through it to speed up the synchronization of history, to bring back the Kingdom faster. Perhaps she had given up hope, or maybe she just wanted to complete her mission as quickly as possible.

"At this pace, I believe our entire history will be completely synchronized in less than three days," Ambrosius replied.

Hearing this, Shirou pinched the bridge of his nose.