Irisviel gazed out at the night sky, falling silent.
She recalled the information about the Third Holy Grail War within the Einzbern Family archives.
It was indeed recorded that the Einzbern Family, in their pursuit of victory in that war, employed special means to summon the eighth Servant class, Avenger Angra Mainyu.
Mystery is nullified before a higher-level mystery; Heroic Spirits are generally no match for gods.
If a true god could be summoned in the Holy Grail War, then winning the Holy Grail War would be effortless.
Even if the god's true form couldn't be summoned, a fragment of a god would still be an incredibly powerful existence.
As the dark chief god from ancient Iranian mythology, the source of all evil and darkness, the arch-nemesis of Ahura Mazda, the good god revered by Zoroastrianism, and the most ancient and evil demon god—Angra Mainyu was undoubtedly the pinnacle of power.
In mythology, Angra Mainyu was one of the two highest gods in a dualistic system.
From a divine rank perspective, only the God of monotheistic religions was higher than him.
Even great gods like Odin and Zeus could not compare to Angra Mainyu in terms of divine status.
Although Odin and Zeus are famous, they are not recorded as the first God-Kings in their respective mythologies.
They belong to the second, or even third, generation of gods, and their divine status does not place them as the originators of their respective mythological systems.
Therefore, from the Einzbern Family's perspective, as long as Angra Mainyu was summoned, this Holy Grail War would be a guaranteed victory.
But who would have thought that Angra Mainyu, seemingly a ceiling-level entity, would turn out to be just an ordinary young man after being summoned?
The Holy Grail of Fuyuki City simply did not possess the ability to summon a god.
The Holy Grail cannot summon god-level Servants, nor can it bear the immense magical energy required to summon a god.
The Einzbern Family originally thought they could draw an overpowered five-star character, easily crushing the other Servants.
But who knew they would draw a one-star character whose noble phantasm was a blue card, and whose strength was only slightly better than a mere grunt?
They thought they could summon the true Angra Mainyu, but instead, it was just a weakling in disguise.
Thus, the Einzbern Family hastily lost the Third Holy Grail War.
Although the summoned Angra Mainyu was merely a weak young man, he was indeed the embodiment of humanity's evil desires.
If, as the person before her claimed, Angra Mainyu's wish was unexpectedly granted by the Holy Grail after he was defeated and entered it, then the concept of 'All the World's Evil' that Angra Mainyu bore, if truly realized by the Holy Grail, would be enough to pollute the entire Holy Grail.
After all, the Holy Grail ritual is merely a magical construct, and the actual Holy Grail is just a vessel for magical energy; the greater grail uses ley lines to absorb sufficient magical energy, storing a large amount of unaligned magical energy.
It is precisely because magical energy is unaligned that it can be used by Magi to fulfill wishes.
But precisely because of this, it is also very susceptible to being tainted by the 'colors' of other desires.
It's like pouring ink into a lake and polluting the entire lake.
Not to mention the malevolence that can be called 'All the World's Evil'; it is truly enough to pollute the entire greater grail.
Moreover, it is very easy to determine whether the person before her is lying; even without investigating the ritual array for the Holy Grail War within the Mount Enzou cavern, simply defeating five Heroic Spirits—no, only three Heroic Spirits—and guiding their souls into the lesser grail within her body, opening a small crack in the greater grail, would be enough to discern the truth of what the person before her said.
Thinking of this, Irisviel's eyes truly dimmed.
She was like a broken doll, weakly supporting her body.
The Holy Grail was polluted, unable to properly grant the victor's wish.
Then Kiritsugu Emiya's ideal, the Einzbern Family's millennium-long aspiration, and her own perseverance all became a joke.
Ridiculous, ridiculous, ridiculous.
For Kiritsugu's ideal, she could pretend to share his ideals, she could sacrifice her own life to avoid becoming a burden to him, and she could smile as she bid him farewell.
But if all wishes were castles in the air, mere mirages, and the Holy Grail truly couldn't respond to anyone's wishes, then was there still any need for the Holy Grail War?
The Einzbern, Tohsaka, and Matou Families, tirelessly and successively pursuing the Holy Grail, only for it to become such a 'dirty' thing in the end.
However, if the patriarch, Jubstacheit von Einzbern, were to learn of the Holy Grail's pollution, he would undoubtedly still allow the Holy Grail War to continue.
After all, granting wishes was not the Einzbern Family's pursuit; their true pursuit was the Third Magic—the materialization of the soul.
As long as it could be confirmed that the Holy Grail could truly descend, and they could touch the miracle of the Holy Grail, even a wish of 'evil' would be acceptable.
But... what about Illya?
Becoming a vessel for the lesser grail was undoubtedly a painful experience.
Irisviel had originally intended to end this suffering herself, to conclude the Einzbern's millennium-long obsession, and to free her daughter from a tragic fate.
She wanted that child to become an individual completely unrelated to the Holy Grail, to live out her entire life as a true human being.
But if Kiritsugu knew the truth of the Holy Grail's pollution, that any wish would bring disaster, then given his character, he would certainly try everything to destroy the disaster-bringing Holy Grail.
However, if the patriarch did not see the Holy Grail brought by Kiritsugu, he would surely believe Kiritsugu had betrayed them and would expel him, preventing him from ever seeing Illya again.
At the thought of little Illya, Irisviel's brows furrowed, her doll-like beautiful face filled with worry and anxiety.
Her hands unconsciously clasped together, her fingertips lightly tapping her arm, making a faint, rhythmic sound.
Illya, without her and Kiritsugu's companionship, might be considered a worthless doll by the patriarch and abandoned in a junkyard deep in the forest... At the thought of her own past experiences, Irisviel's face grew even more distressed.
But soon, Irisviel took a deep breath, suppressing the panic in her heart, and a determined light began to flicker in her eyes as she looked at Chen Yu and said, "If, as you say, the Holy Grail has been polluted, and the fulfillment of any wish is imbued with endless malice, forcing wishes to be interpreted in an evil way and manifested as disaster, then why do you come to me for an alliance? Since the Holy Grail is still useless, why should we form an alliance?"
Chen Yu chuckled softly, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned as he looked at Irisviel and said, "You've already thought of it, haven't you? It's naturally to prevent disaster from happening."
"Fuyuki City is a modern metropolis, home to at least hundreds of thousands of people. When disaster strikes, not hundreds or thousands, but tens of thousands of people will die in this catastrophe. Although I am no saint, and preventing this disaster is not out of noble virtue, I truly do not want to stand by and watch so many people die in this disaster."
Then, a glimmer of pleasure flickered in Chen Yu's eyes, and his voice, low and tinged with a hint of playfulness, said, "Besides, the Holy Grail is only polluted, not entirely beyond saving..."
"Do you have a method to purify the Holy Grail?"
Irisviel's eyes revealed a hopeful gaze.
If the Holy Grail could be purified, then everything would return to the starting point.
"Of course... I have my own brilliant plan."
Chen Yu paused, his eyes somewhat unfocused as he spoke.
