Walking in the Question and Answer System of Heroic Spirits

"W-What's wrong? Where...am I...?"

She couldn't understand the situation.

Why is the older sister I've always admired grabbing my collar and pulling me along?

Where is this vast, unseen space?

What is this incredibly dark, murky black shadow with such powerful magic?

And what about the girls lined up on the cliff?

【"babble--"】

The next moment, chaos filled Ayaka Sajou's mind, transforming into fear that assailed her consciousness.

She began to tremble as if her skeleton were being shaken, her teeth chattering erratically. Her blinking rate briefly increased, but finally her eyes widened. Staring at the living sacrifices, tears gradually welled up in her clear eyes.

"Ugh, ugh, what is this... I'm scared, sister..."

"Stop being stubborn, Ayaka."

[With a smile still on her face, Aika Sajou stopped moving.]

Instead of clutching the child's clothes, she pointed straight ahead.

Without uttering a word, she gave instructions to the living sacrifices.

【go ahead--】

The sacrificial offerings began to walk, and one by one they began to fall.

Without pause, teenage girls, tears of despair streaming down their faces, were denied even the chance to cry for help, and simply vanished into the darkness. Not only their bodies, but their very souls were being slowly devoured.

This is precisely what Caster referred to as the most efficient material resupply process.

Househusband: "Damn it!"

Was it still too late...?

It should be said that trying to save everyone from the very beginning was inherently too difficult.

"Everyone should proceed in order without arguing or rushing, but Ayaka is an exception."

[Sajō Aika leaned down and whispered mischievously in Sajō Ayaka's ear, "Jump down now and become material. You—you're not special at all, are you? Then you'll have to go down. Because, apart from that, mortals are useless."]

[Sajō Ayaka completely broke down, unable to understand how her once radiant older sister, who was like the sun, could have become like this.]

【"No..."】

Tears streamed down her face.

"No—"

Why? Why? Why?

[And sensing the vulnerability unique to a mind driven to madness, the sea of ​​flesh, ravenously devouring the living sacrifices, stirred.]

"He's being willful again. He's hopelessly ordinary, yet he still acts like this..."

[Sajō Aika nonchalantly grabbed Sajō Ayaka's hair and dragged her towards the edge of the cliff.]

Cruelly, not even a trace of emotion was revealed on her lips.

Rin Tohsaka: "...She's gone mad, this woman is really mad."

Koles: "Just because her sister spoke to Saber, she's going to sacrifice her without any mercy."

Gina: "I can't take it anymore... Love-obsessed and yandere characters are fine to look at in anime and games, I don't want to actually encounter one."

Shishikage Kairi: "Phew, Sajyo Aika, you've really taken the wickedness of a magician to the extreme."

"—Oh, great one. Indeed, you are the mother—"

The underground space was now filled with an emotion akin to joy.

[That's right, the Beast, which is currently developing, has already developed the most basic consciousness, and she is seeing everything that is happening.]

At this moment, the shallow suspicion she had always harbored about the girl who was about to split the eggshell of the Holy Grail and bring her into the world vanished completely.

This young girl feels no affection whatsoever for her blood relatives.

[Observe her reaction to her younger sister.]

There was no warmth born of blood ties, no mockery, and no malice.

[It is no different from witnessing the myriad phenomena of the universe.]

[Sky, earth, grass and trees, flowers, animals, insects, humans, family—]

They are all equally powerless and illusory existences.

They were all equally short and pitiful.

They're all the same, piled up in clumps of worthless material.

They're all the same, not worth mentioning.

In a young girl's eyes, there is only one thing that is truly valuable in the world.

If the world is colorless and transparent, then only the pale-skinned knight possesses color and unique value. Everything else is colorless, thin and weak to the point of being almost transparent.

Although it exists everywhere, it lacks quality and is equivalent to nothing.

The Holy Grail is one. Miracles are another. Even the darkness itself, about to be born from the windless waves of the other shore, is another!

【—Great Babylon—】

[—You are the return of affectation and decadence, the mother of all femme fatales and detestable things—]

"Babylon...the witch..."

Nero frowned, the strange feeling that was both familiar and unfamiliar growing stronger.

Hier: "The Great Witch of Babylon! Could it be the one from the Book of Revelation in the New Testament—"

Amakusa Shiro: "In the end times, he will rule over all the kings on earth, riding on a seven-headed, ten-horned crimson beast, dressed in purple and crimson clothes, holding a golden cup filled with filthy lewdness, and with the words on his forehead: 'Great Babylon, the mother of all adulteresses and all abominations in the world.'"

Weber: "That's right, hence she was also known as the Great Harlot of Babylon."

Weber: "According to the records, she drank the blood of saints and those who testified about Jesus, and her sins were heinous, but in one day she encountered death and sorrow, and was to be burned to ashes."

Zabi: "To put it bluntly, it's an anti-papal entity."

Weber: "Yeah, I thought it was the Great Red Dragon, but it turns out it's something even more troublesome."

Amakusa Shiro: "Speaking of which, it is generally believed that this adulterous woman is a metaphor for the Roman Empire, because her misdeeds and fate reflect the extreme hatred of the Papacy towards the Roman Empire in the second half of the 1st century AD."

Nero: "What!"

Nero: "Ugh! This is outrageous! How dare they insult my Rome like this!"

Zabizi: "Alright, alright, calm down."

Weber: "..."

There was something he didn't say.

The Great Red Dragon is also known as the "Beast of 666," a title bestowed upon it by the Papacy after Nero's downfall.

The great red dragon, the Babylonian witch, Rome, Nero—this series of connections has already been established.

Another terrible thought popped into his mind.

"What are you doing, Ai Ge?!"

A familiar male voice rang out, but it wasn't Old Sword.

Why are you here?

It was not accidental, but inevitable.

The one who tried to stop the girl with words was not the Mage's Association, nor the Holy Church, but the girl's father, Hiroki Sajou.

[Faced with her daughter's ongoing violence, she remained selfless and unyielding, and was able to speak out openly and honestly, which demonstrates considerable courage.]

No, it's a unique spiritual quality of magicians.

Is this the power of a father?

Gina: "I didn't expect my father to arrive first."

Blonde Rin: "We're both fathers, how come there's such a big difference in how we treat people?"

Tokiomi Tohsaka: "..."

"Asking me what I'm doing...that's the true use of the Holy Grail, Father."

Releasing her crying sister, Aika Sajou turned away calmly.

[She's a daughter who completely goes against her parents' wishes, yet manages to offer reasonable and well-founded rebuttals.]

"What do you mean by 'granting wishes'? You really believe in such a ridiculous claim?"

"It's not that I believed it, it's a fact."

[Sajō Hiroki clenched his fist and said, "The Holy Grail is the bridge to the Root, the tragic wish of our past millennia, and the hope that will continue for another millennia! And you actually want to use it for this—your personal selfish desires!"]

【"puff!"】