Chapter 289

Rin Tohsaka: "How is this possible!"

Emiya Kiritsugu: "... artless."

Waver: "Hm?"

Emiya Kiritsugu: "Didn't Lord El-Melloi II say that Hartless tried to interfere with the formula? He probably..."

Waver: "Already succeeded."

Kayneth: "It seems he was scared away by the future Waver, but actually it's because the goal has already been achieved."

Gordes Musik Yggdmillennia: "That man, really too terrifying."

"You are the victim, and also the murderer, Magdalena."

Lord El-Melloi II said seriously: "Mm, the term murderer is not correct; saying you were a murderer is also a bit different. It should be said that in the original time, you became a murderer according to your own thoughts."

Magdalena looked at the other self after the mask was removed and groaned in a low voice: "I, then..."

【Zhong Ta: "Please rest assured, you have achieved your goal. Not a single day of the years you spent was in vain."】

【Magdalena looked at Zhong Ta and smiled: "Is that so? That's good..."】

【She covered her mouth as if accepting the fact, and then, she vanished.】

【Indeed, she disappeared before everyone's eyes as if she had never existed in the first place, leaving behind only an old, curved short sword.】

Rin Tohsaka: "Hey, hey, what on earth is going on here?"

Kayneth: "Mystic code interference, interference... wait, could it be!"

Waver: "Turning King Arthur's physical body into Magdalena—is this the result of Heartless's work!"

Rin Tohsaka: "Does that mean Gray's mother disappeared because!"

Kayneth: "The ritual is over; the spirit and the body have become one."

Rin Tohsaka: "But the situation just now..."

Kayneth: "That was the first loop. The second loop became completely different due to various variables, but death is the only thing that cannot be changed."

【Gray's brain was now occupied by fear and despair. She crouched like a crying child at the spot where her mother had been erased, her voice trembling: "Mom! Where is Mom?"】

【Zhong Ta pointed at the corpse of the Skeleton King and said: "This is her body. Before it is determined which is the subject, both can exist. Once determined, the simulated imitation has no choice but to vanish, similar to a clone."】

【"The death of Priest Fernand was likely him stumbling upon his own corpse."】

【Gray looked bewildered; she couldn't understand a word her Master was saying.】

【"Lord El-Melloi II! What exactly have you done!"】

【The Old Lady couldn't help but speak up. Her tone was less of an interrogation and more of a plea.】

【"Regrettably, I have done nothing."】

【Zhong Ta lit a cigar and said: "I am incapable of doing anything; I merely made a prediction based on the clues left behind."】

【Old Lady: "You say you predicted it?"】

【Zhong Ta: "You said Gray is the physical body of King Arthur. This means you know the Skeleton King is the spirit of King Arthur, and you are well aware that the soul is still missing. Based on this premise, you attempted to fuse the two factors here. However, that ritual has already been distorted."】

【"!!!"】

【Hearing this, everyone in the village was struck with shock.】

【Old Lady: "You say the ritual was distorted..."】

【Zhong Ta picked up the short sword at his feet and said: "The Skeleton King should have been faceless, just like Sir Kay. The Skeleton King, possessing only spirit, was incomplete, just like Sir Kay. Therefore, this village must have passed down a ritual to fuse these factors. Specifically, stripping the ritual craft or mystic code from a body like Gray's, which possesses the original spirit and soul. However, someone intervened at this point. Let us temporarily define this person as 'He'."】

【The villagers didn't know, but Gray and Kay both knew exactly who 'He' referred to.】

【"He had been eyeing this village for a long time; he is a magus who understands the three factors of body, spirit, and soul. To achieve his goal, he instigated a villager..."】

【"Crackle, crackle..."】

【Just then, abnormal static swept through the space again. The frequency and range were clearly expanding, but no one noticed it except us.】

【Gray: "Master, the static is spreading."】

【"The answer lies ahead."】

【A drop of sweat ran down Zhong Ta's temple. Clearly, he didn't think this situation would end peacefully, but now he could only bet everything on this moment.】

【"The village was originally set with several magical alarms. Even for him, it would be difficult to bypass all of them to obtain information. Seeking a collaborator was a natural result. This allowed him to obtain clues regarding the village's mystic codes, while the person providing the information received the means to interfere with King Arthur's resurrection ritual from him."】

【Old Lady: "Was that person who provided the information Magdalena?"】

【Zhong Ta: "There is no one else."】

【"However, Magdalena was not a magus at all. Unlike Gray, she was a failure who couldn't fully transform into King Arthur's body. How could such a person interfere with the ritual's mystic codes with only a little help from an outside magus? She originally possessed a major means to interfere with the key figure of the ritual."】

【Old Lady: "Are you referring to Gray?"】

【Zhong Ta looked at Gray and said: "Gray, have I discussed with you while you were present that not only the act of condensing magical energy and driving mystic codes, but also eating, sleeping, and sometimes even defecation are all connected to magic and other mysteries in every action of life?"】

【Gray was stunned; Zhong Ta's words reminded her.】

【After her father passed away, her mother became even more eager to manage her life. Sleep and worship went without saying, but she also began to pay attention to the order in which she ate and the way she dressed. The attitudes of those around her were naturally influenced by her as well. Was such a life also a kind of magical ritual?】

【Echoing the Macrocosm that actually changes the world from the Microcosm called life—that is one of the true magics. By incorporating the flow of ley lines and the movement of planets into the tiny human body, great mysteries are made possible.】

【Zhong Ta: "Your mother's genes were originally close to King Arthur's. She is your mother, and this village has been cultivating these genes, so of course it would be like this."】

【"In short, the method of interfering with the ritual that he taught her was simple. By synchronizing your wavelength, which has the highest affinity with the village's ritual, with hers—the first finished product—a path sufficient to directly interfere with the ritual was established."】

【Gray: "Synchronize... with me?"】

【Zhong Ta: "Exactly. She fully participated in your diet, your sleep, and everything in your life, cleverly making you synchronize with her wavelength, while simultaneously using that wavelength to interfere with the village's ritual."】

【"Although the method itself is simple, it is certainly not easy to practice. Rather, it should be a difficult and persevering act that even a real magus would find unbearable. To make a mutated daughter align with her own wavelength, not a single mistake could be allowed. In diet, a change of a few grams would affect the precision of the ritual; even the time and number of chews had to be carefully managed, not to mention doing it every single day."】

【"Since she couldn't reveal the truth to ask for help, she must have possessed a mental strength so strong it was terrifying."】

Tokiomi Tohsaka: "This, to think there is such a method!"

Kayneth: "Tricking the ritual through synchronization? Heartless, to think that guy could come up with such a technique."

Emiya Kiritsugu: "The truly impressive one is Magdalena. She persisted in secret for several years to achieve synchronization with Gray, and the reason she did this..."】

Irisviel: "It was to save her daughter, not wanting her to become a sacrifice for the resurrection ritual."

Kirei Kotomine: "This is parental love, the greatest parental love—willing to endure pain and sacrifice oneself for one's daughter."

Rin Tohsaka: "That fanatical look she had before was all a disguise."

Waver: "Death cannot be corrected. So, the one who died in the first loop was actually..."】

Kayneth: "It was her. She successfully replaced Gray and also destroyed the ritual to resurrect King Arthur."

Rin Tohsaka: "Does that mean that Priest Fernand was also..."】

Risei Kotomine: "In the first loop, he had likely already died for some unknown reason, but Zhong Ta didn't know."

Waver: "So, the corpse Berserker saw was actually the corpse of Fernand who died in the first loop."

【Gray's body trembled slightly. Her brain could no longer understand the meaning behind Zhong Ta's words.】

【Even though she couldn't understand, she knew it was a hopeless truth. The feelings she had held for her mother until now were gradually reversing with a pain like skin being peeled away.】

【Zhong Ta: "She succeeded, she succeeded... Next, it was just a matter of proceeding according to the ritual written by Heartless on the affinity chart. Although the ritual was extremely complex, as long as the synchronization was successful, the execution itself was not difficult."】

【"The result is obvious. The unstable spirit of King Arthur received two sets of parameters. As parameters for King Arthur's spirit, there were those, and your mother's parameters. What surfaced in the conscious mind was of course King Arthur, but your mother's similar parameters also lurked in the subconscious. The Skeleton King himself likely only realized this at the very last moment."】

【Zhong Ta held up the short sword he had just picked up and asked the Old Lady: "Is this short sword the ritual craft required?"】

【Old Lady: "That is correct. The ritual craft that strips the soul and spirit from the body, 'Golden Piercing Blade'."】

【Zhong Ta: "Then the answer is very simple."】

【"Magdalena arrived here first in the first loop, replaced her daughter by stabbing the short sword into her own body, and left behind the body after the spirit and soul had been stripped. The unstable spirit of King Arthur was dragged into that body. However, Magdalena had stabbed her chest with an ordinary knife before acting. When the body dragged in was already dead, even King Arthur could do nothing and could only die just like that."】

【Old Lady: "What!"】

【The Old Lady was speechless for a moment. The surrounding villagers didn't know how much they understood, but they were shaken along with the Old Lady.】

Shishigou Kairi: "That really is a simple and brutal solution."

Irisviel: "She used her own life to resolve all worries for her daughter."

Artoria: "..."

Iskandar: "Ah, she truly is a great mother."

【"Crackle-crackle, crackle-crackle..."】

【The sound had grown into noise, sweeping across the swamp and the cracks in the temple, and now it was sweeping across the bodies of several villagers.】

【Zhong Ta: "Gray, you saw that static too, right?"】

【Gray: "Ye-yes."】

【Zhong Ta: "If the Director of the Atlas Academy were here, he would say the stage has detected a contradiction. Once it cannot bear the contradiction, the calculation no longer has meaning. Because the foundation has collapsed, it can only start over. Therefore, we must arrive here before it collapses."】

【"Ah, this recreation is truly exquisite. Even I couldn't help but wonder several times if this was the past itself. However, it is indeed different."】

【"Since it is not the past itself, there will always be parts that are hard to cover up. In this case, that is death."】