Seiji Fujiwara's declaration, one that could be called outright treason, froze the air in the great hall of Einzbern Castle in an instant.
Gilgamesh's ruby eyes narrowed dangerously. Behind him, the countless Noble Phantasms poised to strike let out a buzzing, blood-hungry wail.
"...Mongrel." He forced the word out through his teeth. "You are the first... insect ever to dare speak to the King this way."
"It seems the King will have to make you understand, deeply, just how the word death ought to be written."
In the instant he was about to unleash that world-ending attack, Seiji Fujiwara did something none of them expected.
He drew a small purple crystal from inside his coat. Then, in full view of everyone, he gently crushed it.
A crisp snap echoed through the hall.
There was no violent explosion, no dazzling burst of magical light.
But the moment the crystal shattered.
A black magical energy, vast beyond imagining and brimming with filth and resentment, surged into the sky like a flood breaking its banks from some corner of Fuyuki City!
That energy was so vast, so evil, that the entire night sky over Fuyuki City was stained with an ominous dark red.
"This... what is this?!" Rin Tohsaka cried out, the Magic Circuits within her wailing at that evil aura.
"This feeling... it's the Grail's..." Disbelief showed on Saber's face too.
Gilgamesh whipped his head around toward the direction of that explosion of energy.
On his arrogant face appeared a true expression, shock and ecstasy mingled together.
"This aura... it's Angra Mainyu! It's the thing that overflowed from the Grail ten years ago!"
"Hahahaha! I see! So that's how it is!" He burst into laughter, as though he had discovered some peerless treasure. "So the Grail has already been polluted to this degree! This is the most perfect miracle, the one best suited to this ugly age!"
His gaze fell back upon Seiji Fujiwara.
"Mongrel, is this... your trump card?"
"No, this is no trump card." Seiji Fujiwara smiled and shook his head. "This is merely... a small salute fired in honor of my queen's entrance."
The moment the words left his mouth.
The space at the center of the hall rippled black, like the surface of water struck by a stone.
A vast, irregular black "cavern," formed of pure shadow, appeared out of nothing.
A girl in a gothic black dress, with long silver-white hair and ominous red Command Spell markings covering her body, slowly walked out of that black cavern.
Her eyes were hollow and lifeless, as though she had lost all emotion.
Behind her followed the silent, loyal guardian: Rider.
"Sakura...?!"
When she saw the girl's face clearly, Rin Tohsaka's body trembled violently. Her heart, already shattered to pieces by Seiji Fujiwara, was pierced cruelly once again.
She could never have imagined that her frail younger sister would become this monstrous figure.
"Surprised, Rin?" Seiji Fujiwara's voice sounded by her ear like a devil's whisper.
"What you see before you is the true form of Sakura Matou... no, of Sakura Tohsaka."
"A girl cast aside by your own Tohsaka family, gnawed at by the Matou family's worms for ten years, connected to Angra Mainyu. The perfect... Grail."
"She is the only miracle I have ever pursued in this war."
He walked slowly to the girl's side and gently lifted her chin, as if admiring a flawless work of art.
"Take a look, King of Heroes." He gave Gilgamesh a smile full of boastful intent.
"The Grail you pursue, the treasure you imagine it to be, compared to this miracle before me, is nothing but dull scrap metal."
Gilgamesh looked at the doll-like girl radiating an endless ominous aura, and in his ruby eyes a fervor blazed like never before.
He laughed.
He laughed harder, more delighted, than ever before.
"...Fascinating."
"Seiji Fujiwara, you mongrel..."
"...you have succeeded in pleasing the King."
Gilgamesh's laughter echoed through the hall.
He waved a hand, and the countless Noble Phantasms poised behind him receded like an ebbing tide, sinking slowly back into golden ripples.
He withdrew his killing intent.
Because he had found an "amusement" ten thousand times more interesting than killing this disrespectful mongrel.
"Seiji Fujiwara." He looked at the man standing beside the black Grail and, for the first time, spoke his full name in a tone bordering on equality.
"The King acknowledges you."
"You are no longer a mongrel, nor a clown."
"From this day on, you are qualified to become the King's sole ally."
"Stand with the King and witness with your own eyes how this grandest of dramas, directed by your own hand, will reach its end."
He had made his decision.
He would become the front-row "spectator" of this "feast of destruction."
"The honor is mine, King of Heroes."
Seiji Fujiwara smiled and bowed to him.
Two "kings" standing at the summits of different worlds, in that moment, formed an "alliance" steeped in chaos and malice.
With that done, Seiji Fujiwara turned slowly and cast his gaze upon those "former" companions, already shaken nearly to the breaking point by the surreal scene before them.
"Now then..."
That saintly, "world-weary and pitying" expression settled back onto his face.
"It's your turn, knights and magi."
He walked up to Saber.
"Artoria, do you see it?" He pointed at the dark-red sky beyond the window. "The world you wished to protect, the people you wished to save, are themselves this fragile, this ugly."
"Your ideal was a joke from the very beginning."
"But I can give you a new ideal."
"Forget that Britain that perished long ago. That burden was never meant for a single girl to carry."
"Become my sword. For me, cut down this rotten world so full of contradiction. Upon its ruins, I will build for you... a truly eternal ideal world where sorrow will never exist again."
He walked over to Archer next.
"Heroic Spirit EMIYA, do you see it too?" He pointed at the doll-like black Grail. "That is the final form of the justice you pursued."
"Full of pollution, full of malice, full of... despair."
"That wish of yours, to save everyone, was a sin from the very beginning."
"But I can give you a chance at atonement."
"Stop thinking about saving anyone. That will only make you repeat the tragedy, over and over."
"Become my trigger. Stand with me and bring a final reckoning upon this world that drove you to despair."
At last, he walked up to Rin Tohsaka, who was already weeping openly and nearly collapsing to the floor.
He crouched down and gently wiped the tears from her face.
"Rin, my genius magus." His voice was tender as a lover's murmur. "Do you see it? The suffering your pitiable sister has endured."
"That is the sin your Tohsaka family committed. It is the tragedy your father, Tokiomi Tohsaka, created with his own hands."
"Your so-called victory, your so-called glory, how pale and how laughable they are before her suffering."
"But I can give you a chance to make it up to her."
"Become my mind. Stand with me and govern this brand-new world about to be born."
"I will free Sakura from the curse of the Grail. I will make her your sister again."
"As long as..."
"...you all offer yourselves to me."
His words, like a devil's gospel, echoed endlessly through the minds of the three of them.
Their resistance, their struggle, their conviction...
all of it was ground to dust before this overwhelming "reality" and this temptation-laden "future."
Seiji Fujiwara slowly extended his right hand.
At some point, three crimson Command Spells, like brands, had surfaced on the back of it.
That was the "payment" he had received from Kirei Kotomine.
"...In the name of the Command Spell, I command you."
His voice was no longer gentle, but filled with an authority that brooked no defiance.
"Cast off your old contracts with the world."
"From this moment on, I, Seiji Fujiwara, am your only Master."
"Your swords, your bow, your wisdom, your everything..."
"...will all belong to me."
The three Command Spells flared with blinding red light.
Saber, Archer, Rin Tohsaka.
The bodies of all three trembled violently at once.
They felt the thread connecting the depths of their souls to the "world" forcibly severed by a more domineering, more unreasonable power.
In its place, a brand-new black thread bound them tightly to the man before them.
When the light faded.
Saber knelt on one knee and bowed her noble head.
Archer sheathed the twin blades in his hands and lowered his eyes.
Rin Tohsaka wiped the tears from her face, her gaze turning hollow and calm.
The three of them, like dolls drained of their souls, swore in unison to the black-haired young man standing before them.
"...We obey, your will."
"...My Lord."
In the hall, Gilgamesh watched the scene before him, one that could be called a "miracle," and a smile of utter delight spread across his face.
And Seiji Fujiwara spread his arms wide, like a monarch embracing his own kingdom.
Behind him stood the black Grail and the loyal guardian.
Before him stood the knight, the hero, and the magus, bowed in submission.
At his side stood the world's oldest king, watching with great interest.
A brand-new, unprecedented strongest faction, built around absolute "malice."
An age... belonging to the "Satan."
Was born.