The Ultimate Lich King of the Multiverse

Holding onto the hem of Yoru's coat, Sakura reluctantly boarded the plane bound for Einzbern.

A year from now, the Holy Grail War would begin, so naturally, Sakura had to stay in the Einzbern castle with Illya.

"Will Onee-chan and Mama be okay?"

As she cast one last glance at the land where she was born, Sakura asked absentmindedly.

"Don't worry, they'll be fine. When the Holy Grail War starts, they'll evacuate to the countryside."

"I see… then, Daddy, will you… become his enemy?"

Sakura's voice grew quieter as she said this. Yoru had become her father now, and the "he" she referred to was, of course, Tokiomi Tohsaka.

To the young and naive girl, perhaps hatred was something she couldn't yet comprehend. She only felt confusion and helplessness. Why did her father no longer want her? Why had he given her away to someone else?

She didn't understand any of the things Tokiomi had said. All the young girl knew was that she had been abandoned.

"Don't worry. Even if we lose the Holy Grail War, nothing will happen to the Masters. As long as we withdraw from the game early, it'll be fine."

Yoru spoke with a gentle smile to comfort her.

"Mm… that's good. Otherwise, Mama and Onee-chan would be really sad."

Sakura lowered her head as she spoke, the implication in her words clear: that man no longer had anything to do with her. She was no longer a child of the Tohsaka family, just an irrelevant outsider.

Now, she was Yoru's child—the heir to the Yoru family.

Well… if the Yoru family actually existed, that is.

Yoru muttered this under his breath. As the plane slowly lifted into the air, the two of them departed from Fuyuki City.

There were still ten months until the Holy Grail War officially began.

Jubstacheit was slightly surprised that Yoru returned to Einzbern with a young girl. But after learning the girl's identity, he couldn't help but show a relieved smile.

She was a child of the Tohsaka family. That meant that even before the war had begun, Einzbern and Tohsaka were already standing on the same front.

Of course, in the Holy Grail War, everyone is an enemy. But at least in the early stages, an alliance between Einzbern and Tohsaka seemed possible.

Everything was ready. All that remained was to await the Holy Relic that was being transported to Einzbern.

Once they obtained that relic, they could summon the strongest Servant, and their chances of victory would increase dramatically.

To say that Jubstacheit had little hope in Yoru would be a lie. In fact, no one was more anxious than he was.

Jubstacheit von Einzbern—since inheriting the role of the Eighth Patriarch, he had extended his life through various means and had lived for nearly two centuries. He now led the Einzbern family after their shift from seeking the Holy Grail to fighting for it.

This old man had endured the agony of failure since the Second Holy Grail War. Facing the third opportunity now, his anxiety was naturally overwhelming. That's precisely why he chose to seek outside help. If not for Yoru, the one who would have entered Einzbern nine years ago would've been the infamous "Magus Killer," Kiritsugu Emiya.

In a way, Yoru was the final trump card for the Einzbern family—who had always prided themselves on their pure bloodline. To entrust that pride to an outsider, they had, for the second time, abandoned their family principles.

Of course, Yoru knew nothing of this. He wasn't trying to win the Grail for anyone else. He didn't care about Jubstacheit's ambitions. He simply sought the Holy Grail to protect those he held dear.

Faintly, Yoru had already sensed it: if he failed in this Holy Grail War, neither Irisviel nor Illya would be spared.

He absolutely could not fail. No matter what it took, he must not lose this Holy Grail War.

The day of reckoning was drawing ever closer.

But just as the Holy Relic was about to be delivered to Einzbern, an unexpected incident occurred.

Yoru and Irisviel were urgently summoned by the patriarch to the most solemn and shadowy place within the frozen ancient city of Einzbern—the chapel of Castle Einzbern.

Of course, this was not a place for praising divine grace or seeking spiritual peace. In a castle inhabited by magi, the so-called place of prayer was in fact a ceremonial chamber for magical rites.

Thus, when looking up at the stained glass above, one wouldn't see images of saints, but rather the long history of the Einzbern family's wandering in pursuit of the Holy Grail.

Among the "Founding Three Families," the Einzberns had invested the most time into the Grail.

Isolated in the frozen mountains, they had severed all contact with the outside world and had been seeking the miracle of the Holy Grail for nearly a thousand years. But their journey had been filled with frustration, humiliation, and the pain of failure. These cycles repeated over and over, with no result.

Eventually, they fell into despair over their lone pursuit and were forced, two centuries ago, to establish cooperative agreements with external mage families like the Tohsaka and the Matou.

In truth, the once-noble Einzberns had looked down on those worldly magi families. But tragically, they had now fallen to this point.

As the Master of the Winter Castle, the old magus Jubstacheit stood at the altar awaiting Yoru and Irisviel.

"There's been a problem… The Holy Relic that we had someone retrieve from Cornwall—it was intercepted and stolen en route to Einzbern…"

Jubstacheit spoke grimly. From the urgency and fury in his deeply sunken eyes, one could see just how enraged the old man had become.

"Those filthy thieves… To pull a stunt like this right before the Holy Grail War begins—how despicable. Now, it's too late to find another relic."

The so-called Holy Relic is an object used to summon a Servant in the Holy Grail War—usually something that belonged to the Hero in life. While it's still possible to summon a Servant without a relic, doing so introduces a high degree of randomness and may result in the summoning of an exceptionally weak Servant.

Therefore, the loss of the relic was a serious matter, one that could directly impact Einzbern's performance in the upcoming Holy Grail War.

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