IBHJ 1205

"Mordred, do you mind if I take a look at that thing?" Morgan asked, pointing at the Grail in Mordred's hand with a serious expression.

"Yeah, go ahead." She casually tossed the Grail to Morgan.

Morgan caught the Grail, but the moment it touched her hands, the three closed eyes on the Grail snapped open simultaneously, looking at her with contempt.

—Remove your filthy hands from my pure, immaculate body, vile woman.

The voice echoing from deep within made Morgan freeze in place.

When she didn't respond, the Grail's golden surface erupted in blue flames, making her cry out "Ah!" and instinctively drop it.

The Grail fell to the ground, its round base spinning on the surface. Its three eyes turned to Mordred with obvious displeasure.

—Don't let human filth touch me again, Mordred. Including your mother's parallel counterpart.

The Grail clearly still resented Mordred for allowing Saber to touch it back in Romania.

"Your nonsense is as tiresome as ever," Mordred said, lips pursed in annoyance.

The Grail having consciousness might have surprised everyone, but this cup that led to Mordred's downfall had always possessed awareness—it simply never revealed its will to anyone except Mordred.

"So that's what it is," Morgan stared solemnly at the Grail on the ground. "This must be the Holy Spirit's Holy Grail."

"No way, you're mistaken." Mordred replied as she picked up the Grail, her fingers tapping against it to produce soft ringing sounds. "There's no way this thing is that special.“

"No, I'm certain of it," Morgan insisted. "I felt something when I first saw it. That flame must be the flame of Archangel, though it seems to have been corrupted by hell's influence and become Fallen Angel." She looked at Mordred with complete seriousness. "This cup, just like the Holy Grail, originated in heaven."

"Hahaha! Did you hear that, you nasty Grail?" Mordred laughed heartily, pointing between the cup and Morgan. "She thinks you come from heaven!"

-“What's so funny about that? I did come from heaven.”-

Mordred's laughter died instantly as she stared at the Grail, eyes wide with shock. "How is it possible I never knew about this?"

-"Although I am your Noble Phantasm, in reality, you are my slave. You don't need to understand me, nor have you ever tried to understand me."-

"Hey! Who are you calling a slave? You're the one who's my slave!" Mordred snapped back, fuming with anger, yet powerless against the Grail.

It was ironic—her own Noble Phantasm had been the cause of her downfall, and now the Grail had become an inseparable part of her. Or perhaps more accurately, she had become an inseparable part of the Grail. Either way, this thing was incredibly annoying.

"So that's how it happened," Morgan said with a frown. "After the kingdom completely collapsed, Vivian and I felt there was something suspicious about its destruction. It seemed too strange, so we began investigating its downfall privately. And it was shortly after that when Vivian started behaving oddly..."

"Wait a minute," Mordred interrupted, looking confused. "I thought you said you and my teacher were fighting with each other?"

"That was in recent times. Back then, our relationship wasn't great, but it was just dislike and giving each other the cold shoulder—not a matter of life and death. But after we looked into the kingdom's collapse, Vivian started acting very strange. Eventually she wouldn't even leave Avalon at all. I assumed it was because of the disappearance of [True Ether] making her unable to function on the planet's surface, but now that I think about it, something doesn't add up." Morgan glanced thoughtfully at the unconscious Guinevere.

Mordred followed her gaze, frowning. "But you investigated after I destroyed the kingdom? Of course you couldn't find anything—this thing was already in the underworld with me by then."

She gave the Grail a kick.

The Grail seemed to glare at her with rage, but she simply ignored it.

"No, I'm not talking about that phase of destruction. I mean after the kingdom was completely wiped out," Morgan clarified.

Mordred was confused. "The kingdom completely wiped out?"

"Yes," she nodded. "After you destroyed the kingdom, Galahad used the power of the Holy Grail to rebuild the Eternal Kingdom. But strangely, not long after that, Galahad—who was in his prime and full of vitality—mysteriously died. Without a successor, the kingdom then fell into chaos from troubles both internal and external, eventually disappearing completely from the pages of history."

Hearing this, Mordred was startled. "He... mysteriously died?"

She nodded. "You probably don't know this. After Galahad used the Holy Grail to restore the kingdom, he gave the Holy Grail to Zeus."

"I heard about that from Gaia," Mordred replied. "That Zeus somehow discovered the Lord of Salvation's existence in advance. To save his world, he planned to use the Holy Grail to create something to stand against him, but unfortunately it became corrupted." Her eyes suddenly widened. "Wait! Could it be that when Zeus took the Holy Grail from Galahad, he placed a curse on him?"

"No," Morgan shook her head. "It wasn't like that at all. Galahad willingly gave the Holy Grail to him, and Zeus actually blessed Galahad in return."

"With the power of the Holy Grail and Zeus's blessing... how could my brother suddenly die?" Mordred's face filled with confusion. Even without the Holy Grail, Zeus's blessing alone should have guaranteed him at least a hundred years of life. How could he have died so unexpectedly?

"That's why we conducted an investigation, and later, we found traces of a Fallen Angel... and those traces matched the power of this Holy Grail perfectly." Morgan stared intently at the Grail lying on the ground.

Hearing this, Mordred suddenly put the pieces together and shot a fierce glare at the Grail. "You nasty Grail, was this your doing again?"

--“You're as foolish as ever, Mordred. At that time, I had already been taken by you to the Throne of Heroes.”--

"Then..."

--“It was probably that guy, Lucifer.”--

"Lucifer..." Mordred repeated the name slowly.

—“Yes, my other half. However, after you took me to the Throne of Heroes, it should not have been able to interfere with the physical world.”

"So that's what it is, you are—"

--“Ah. I am both Archangel and Fallen Angel, and also the devil of apocalypse, Satan!”--

Satan, this infamous devil from church teachings who could stand against the Holy Spirit, has been overused in countless otaku culture novels. But in reality, Satan's original form was that of an angel who once followed the God's commands, and was not originally an enemy of God.

Morgan sighed deeply. She had sensed this earlier, but only now, after getting the Grail's confirmation, did she fully understand that the Eternal Kingdom's downfall had been both a natural disaster and a man-made calamity.

According to the records, after God created Adam, Michael was ordered to bring him before all the angels to be acknowledged. But Satan firmly refused, asking: "Why should I acknowledge him? I will never bow to something so insignificant that came after me. Before he was even formed, I already existed. He should be the one worshipping me."

Satan and these fallen angels ultimately betrayed God. The mainstream explanation points to pride as the cause, but there's another theory that suggests it was hatred rather than pride.

God first created angels, and later created humans from clay. However, God loved humans more than angels, placing humans in a position above them. Satan and some of the other angels grew resentful that these seemingly inferior beings received more love, so they rebelled against God. They were eventually defeated by the Holy Spirit and cast down, becoming fallen angels.

Afterward, God created a new heaven and earth with humans. Satan, seeking revenge and determined to seize this new world, transformed into a serpent and slithered into the Garden of Eden. There he tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, then used her to convince Adam to also disobey God's command.

In this way, Satan successfully caused God's new creation to fall, opening the door for demons to enter the new world. Since then, sin, disease, and death have spread throughout the earth.

Of course, this is just one version of Satan's legend. According to the Mordred Grail's account, his experience was somewhat similar, with one key difference: Satan, the original archangel who resented that the Holy Spirit loved humans more than angels, was punished by St. Michael, who was sent from heaven after Satan had tempted Adam and Eve to fall.