Xingyue, is Xiaokai also considered Kai?

Since Novia wasn't entirely sure either, she only considered it as a reference among many directions, as she still needed to think about whether there was a way to resolve the issue without resorting to spirits.

then.

Novia heard the sound, even though it was a sound that did not come out in words, he still heard it.

I hereby swear—

I am the one who brings about perfect goodness in the world; I am the one who spreads perfect evil in the world.

If you are willing to follow the reliance of the Holy Grail and submit to this reason and intention—

My destiny is now in your hands.

This 'Master' from a distant world says such things, but no Servant will actually appear as a result.

The reason is simple: this 'call' is death itself, a call powerful enough to tear apart and corrode the Servant's core. In other words, it can only be manifested by a high-ranking Servant who transcends the fate of death, but generally speaking, this possibility is completely impossible.

Of course, for Novia, who planned to find that 'mother' on his own, he didn't take it too seriously at first. After all, it wasn't a big deal. However, he did vaguely see a round creature wriggling and circulating outside that world.

"Is the union of birth and death simply a cycle...?"

Thinking that she didn't have any particular ideas for the time being, Novia casually responded to the call, deciding to go see if she could get any clues.

"Death, if that's how it is, then come and meet me."

……

"Huh...huh..."

It was a world that seemed no different from the normal world. If you had to describe it, it was a blend of classical and surreal elements. Above many classical buildings, such as the Roman Colosseum and Arena, were advertisements playing on giant holographic displays.

On the exterior walls of buildings everywhere, signs with magical reaction lights bearing various languages ​​are prominently displayed, and large numbers of ordinary people and Servants move back and forth on the streets; in the air, flying Servants are moving about.

A seaside neighborhood in Shinjuku.

A middle-aged man wearing black sunglasses, a Hawaiian shirt, and athletic sandals sat on a small boat placed upside down in the boat dock, surrounded by shimmering red and blue water.

However, not far in front of him, a young girl with black hair, wearing a black leather jacket, was kneeling on the ground, panting heavily. Her tender face was covered in bruises, which must have been caused by the handle of the knife the man was holding. If you look closely, you can see that her collarbone was also broken.

"What, you can't even keep up with today's intensity?"

The man adjusted his sunglasses. "Those guys inside you are probably already chanting 'kill me' all the time... So, can you still stand up and continue fighting me, Lucius Longinus, Eri Utsumi?"

This is the era after the massive Holy Grail War, when everyone could possess the Holy Grail and summon Servants due to the wish made by the final victor. However, the Holy Grail War, which swept the globe, also brought devastating blows to Earth and humanity. Most areas were reduced to wasteland, with only scattered cities "embedded" on the surface for humans and Heroic Spirits to live in—Fate/Requiem.

At this very moment, it was the day that young Utsumi Erise was sent to Shinjuku to be adopted by her grandmother after losing her parents.

Lucius's teaching of young children can be described as repeated "abuse," but all of this is out of good intentions. If he did not do so, the young Utsumi Erise would be corrupted by evil spirits and eventually become an empty shell. Erise does not hate him for this, but rather respects him quite a bit.

"Phew, I'll shut up sooner or later... It's too noisy..."

Eri felt the evil spirits surrounding her become excited as they sensed the slight cruelty rising within her.

I'm going to torture him to death.

I will cut off his limbs and pierce his eyes.

I want to completely erase his spiritual core.

At this moment, Utsumi Erise was completely unable to distinguish between the people living around her and the evil spirits, and she couldn't even distinguish between the countless voices and her own thoughts.

These evil spirits stayed by the girl's side day and night. To them, the girl was like a comfortable hiding place halfway down a long, dark slope, an excellent vessel.

"I see, is this how it unfolds?"

Just as Utsumi Erise was about to pick up her weapon again in an attempt to suppress the evil spirit's murmurs urging her to kill Lucius, she heard a 'strange' voice. The reason it was strange was that Erise assured her it wasn't Lucius's voice, but rather the voice of the evil spirit.

But there seems to be a sliver of reason in him?

"I see, is this how it unfolds?"

Eri shook her head, muttering the same words, "Fine, then bring it on, if you can do it..."

To a young child, this is probably a new method employed by the evil spirits to erode them, namely by lowering their guard.

These words were unbearable for the evil spirits that were trying to possess the girl's body, as if they were hearing a lover who was more important than their own life confessing to them. However, the girl's response was not from them, but from Novia, who had been called to this place.

"Since you invited me, then I've come."

Suddenly, a strong wind blew up the little girl's black hair, and her black leather jacket fluttered in the wind.

"You have such admirable courage and perseverance, Eri. Compared to Chitose, who always has a stern face, you could be a better person to act as an advocate in the church. In a ruthless church that exploits its employees, the more you behave like that, the more likely you are to be noticed and appreciated. If it were me, I would definitely recommend you."

Lucius’s tone was extremely inappropriate, giving the impression that he was bullying the weak.

However, this was actually something he did on purpose to ease Erise's emotions. After losing her parents, young Erise was taken to Shinjuku by her grandmother Chitose, and their relationship was extremely tense. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they were familiar strangers. As Chitose's servant, he went to great lengths to ease the tension between them.

However, the fact that the little girl with black hair didn't move and didn't rush over with gritted teeth like she used to make a fuss caused Lucius to frown slightly and his expression to become unusually serious. He wasn't surprised; he simply threw the wooden stick aside, picked up a battle axe with his left hand and a small knife with his right.

"Has he been possessed by an evil spirit again?"

Because Eri's mother was Izanami, the goddess of the underworld, she could hear the voices of countless evil spirits from a young age.

Evil spirits, also known as malevolent spirits, are the souls of the dead filled with deep resentment.

They have no glory or honor, and even if they have committed all kinds of evil deeds, their deaths are meaningless.

They are not fit to enter the Throne of Heroes; they are merely a group of heretics.

Although they were once born into this world and had their own individuality, they were rejected by the world and even their names were taken away, preventing them from returning to this world. Utsumi Erise is the only door for them who yearn to obtain a physical body.

Those evil spirits always told young girls:

Kill him, he torments you every day. Kill Chitose Manazuru, you're just a burden to her. Grip your weapon, Eri, and destroy everything you see.

“However, there is no need to be afraid, Eri, this pain will surely end one day.”

Lucius touched the cross-shaped scar on his face, and with a casual swing, his black battle axe made a whooshing sound. "After all, the little bit of radiance I've gained is enough to deal with an evil spirit of this level."

The wind lashes against rusty billboards, clotheslines weave through the darkness, abandoned container warehouses, and the deserted coast of Shinjuku. The setting sun shines on countless rooftops, casting dark shadows on the ground between buildings, defining the still bustling Shinjuku.

'Erise Utsumi' tugged at her black leather jacket, standing in the gentle breeze.

"...Indeed, they exploit people a lot."

When Novia first heard Lucius's frank answer, she almost thought she had misheard him, but when she realized what he meant, she couldn't help but smile slightly.

The calm, almost pleasure-tinged voice, devoid of any demonic madness or rage in its response, made the usually serious Lucius extremely uneasy.

"It seems to be a rather high-level evil spirit, as it managed to maintain its rationality even after being possessed."

"So, Lucius, how were you exploited by the Black Church?"

Hearing the unexpected question, Lucius seemed slightly surprised, but he still observed the situation while replying seriously:

"Can you imagine the hardship of someone digging eighty kilometers in a few years? My old back is going to break. And that philandering boss of mine abandoned the druid girl I introduced to him. That's not all. After that, he forced me to become the commander of the Royal Guard. Sigh, I was already retired to be a fisherman, but I was dragged up and exploited until the day I die."

At this point, Lucius couldn't help but feel a little dazed, remembering that he hadn't seen Novia for almost two thousand years. If he had become a Servant, he could theoretically have seen her again. He had only responded to the summons because of the familiar aura on Chitose Masuru, but unfortunately, he hadn't.

The gradual disappearance of what was thought to be eternal was a tragedy for Lucius, who witnessed it all.

The older one gets, the more deeply one clings to the past. When people mythologize and romanticize the era Lucius lived through, it just goes to show that the early days of the Church have passed. Among the early members of the Church, after the first pope, the Roman emperor, and the twelve apostles all passed away, Lucius, who lived so long, also threw the Spear of Longinus into the sea at the very end.

After that day, Lucius kept thinking—

If Novia had lived a little longer, he would have witnessed the rapid rise of his envisioned new city, New Rome, from the former Byzantium. Decades would have passed in the blink of an eye, and the many heretics, large and small, who had mingled too deeply with the Magic Association in the city where the two first met would have vanished. In their place would be agents and hymn spreaders trained by the Church dealing with the calamities of the Dead Apostles for ordinary people all over the world, and the rise of monasteries that adopted abandoned babies in various places.

Antioch also changed; the names of Novia and Paul became one with the city, which at one time became the center of churches in various places, comparable to Jerusalem; the Roman Empire even opened a special air route for it, and Lucius went there to visit the dying Martha and Paul.

Lucius even felt that they had lived for hundreds of years in the time it took for a generation to pass.

If Novia had lived longer, she would have witnessed all of this.

But Novia did not live any longer.

In Lucius's remaining memory, he stood on a hill in Rome, watching Novia fly off into the unknown distance.

then.

The man who had spoken his 'sincere wishes' to her never returned.

...Strange, why am I suddenly so sentimental today? This won't do. I need to get rid of the evil spirit on Erise quickly, or who knows what strange aftereffects might occur if it goes on for too long.

Upon seeing the young girl in front of him looking thoughtful, as if deep in thought, Lucius, though unsure why, saw it as a good opportunity and quickly closed the distance between himself and the two.

Now, 'Erise, the child possessed by an evil spirit' is almost within Lucius's reach.

However, at that very moment, Lucius saw 'Erise' tilt her body to avoid his battle axe at the last second, and then, as she straightened her posture, she created the longest possible range between them that could replace the angle of the beam.

"Interesting. With such a reaction speed, it seems that you, this evil spirit, are only one step away from becoming a first-class heroic spirit. Second-class heroic spirits are no match for you."

Lucius curled his lips into a fierce smile. "Let me guess, you must have done something while you were alive, felt guilty, and that's why you willingly fell into becoming an evil spirit, right? Judging from your appearance, you must be related to the church? Tell me, did you take money, abuse your power for personal gain, or repeatedly violate the doctrines?"

In fact, when Eri was accidentally possessed by an evil spirit, Lucius saw it as no different from usual, like weeding out weeds. In fact, it was not a strange phenomenon for Eri. But now, the evil spirit possessing her seemed very rational. Moreover, compared to the mad evil spirit, she had a very high degree of self-control.

Moreover, it's stronger than you can imagine... but in reality, upon closer inspection, it's only slightly stronger.

"Even so—"

Before Lucius could finish speaking, he was dumbfounded.

Besides her reaction speed, Lucius had already seen that she had picked up the stick he had just discarded at some point, and at the same time, Eri's hair was transforming at an alarming speed into the silver-white hair of her grandmother, Chizuru Masato.

The setting sun adorned her silhouette, and Lucius Longinus watched as the girl's smile, which transcended age and gender, shone brightly in the backlight, yet seemed both dazzling and familiar.

The young girl swung her raised wrist down, and the wooden stick she held was aimed at Lucius like a spear.

“Erise Utsumi, she is the biological parent of the evil spirit that finally erupted after transforming into a spiritual barrier.”

The silent air wasn't oppressive; rather, it was comforting and peaceful. This made Novia, who was possessing Eri's body using a spirit possession technique, gently close her eyes and a slight smile appear on her lips.

"Therefore, Lucius Longinus, you may call the one who descended upon her—"

"ErlkoNig"

Chapter 466: He was so frightened by Erise that he fainted.

"This name, are you... Franz Schubert or Johann Wolfgang von Goethe?"

When the 'evil spirit' on Utsumi Erise uttered those words, Lucius instantly thought of these two characters.

Franz Schubert, an Austrian Romantic composer, is credited with the ballad "Erko Nig" (The Erlking).

The story tells of a father riding a horse through a dark forest with his feverish child in his arms. The demon king in the forest keeps tempting the child, who screams in terror and finally dies in his father's arms.

However, this was created by Schubert based on Goethe's poem "The Erlking," which is one of Goethe's most popular poems during his Weimar period and a representative work of the Sturm und Drang movement. However, it was actually a mistake by Herder, who was responsible for compiling it, who translated it as "Elf King." According to the German meaning, it should be "Elf King" or... transliterated as "Elf King."

However, regardless of Lucius's thoughts, neither of them should have fallen into the realm of evil spirits, so perhaps...

Lucius stomped his foot on the ground and swung his battle axe toward the young girl's collarbone.

"A fictional demon king?"

To this day, no one knows why Goethe wrote this poem. There are many interpretations of it, but in any case, Erlk (Erlko Nig) does not belong to the German mythological system, so theoretically speaking, it is inappropriate to regard Erlk as a devil or a mythological figure.

Novia blocked the attack with a wooden stick.

Subsequently.

He took the opportunity to step back with his right foot, assuming a fighting stance that caused Lucius to throw his dagger and miss. He then moved along with the movement of the battle axe, causing his small body to sway in the air. In the blink of an eye, he regained his balance and had already flashed behind Lucius.

However, just like Novia's movement, Lucius jumped almost simultaneously.

That was probably an instinctive action.

After all, this is the combat skill and keen insight that Lucius, the 'victor' of the Holy Grail War, has honed over the ages.

Immediately afterwards, in Lucius's eyes, the silver-haired Utsumi Erise murmured a chant that sounded like a sacred treasure.

“Gar SchoNe Spiele Spiel' Ich Mit Dir (The game is so enjoyable, I'm with you)”

Novia's words were not made up out of thin air, but were taken from the original text of Goethe's poem "The Erlking".

The reason it could manifest in this way was entirely due to the power of Novia and Goethe's "The Erlking," in which, according to mythology, the Erlking is the embodiment of all night, storms, and fog in the world.

“Es Ist Ein Nebelstreif (This is the misty shadow entering the vast expanse)”

It's getting foggy.

Not only at this beach, but also in the thick fog where even a few meters away was obscured, Lucius did not believe this was a natural phenomenon, considering that until just now the sky had been casting a yellow light.

So, it can only be a Noble Phantasm? But how could an evil spirit have a Noble Phantasm? But if it's a Servant, Eri Se doesn't have any Command Seals at all, so she's a wild Servant?

However, Lucius, with a serious expression, did not intend to think too much about it.

The fog began to slowly spread.