[Beast\Human Evil] refers to various calamities that threaten human history and bring about humanity's destruction. They are born from human civilization, growing stronger alongside human progress, yet they destroy civilization from within, resembling a cancerous existence.
[Ultimate One], however, symbolizes the pinnacle of a planet's lifeforms—beings so powerful that they can single-handedly destroy the existing world.
Their strength is nearly invincible. "If the True Ancestors are enemies of the world, then these beings are enemies of planets (celestial bodies)."
Even the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception cannot kill them, as they do not possess the concept of death. The only way to deal with them is through physical destruction.
The distinction between these two lies in the difference between [Humanity] and [Planets].
Will [Humanity] be Defeated by [Planets]?
Alaric does not believe so. Even if the [Star] beneath him loses its dreams and vitality, becoming a dying planet on the verge of extinction—
A world where life can no longer survive.
A world where food cannot be grown, and the atmosphere is no longer suitable for animal life.
According to [Humanity], that would be the ultimate apocalypse.
However, even if the planet that serves as humanity's cradle perishes, the human race can persist through advanced civilization and technology.
Even the planetary apocalypse imagined by people of the past would not be enough to bring about humanity's extinction.
[Humanity]'s path will never stop at the cradle. Just as the King of Heroes once proclaimed with pride:
"The goal of our journey is the stars and the vast sea. One day in the future, humanity will come to understand that joy..."
"It is far too distant from me."
Facing the bearer of the Second Magic, the Jewel Wizard Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, Alaric raised his hand and slowly clenched it:
"I want it all, Mr. Zelretch."
Asking was not meaningless. Since Zelretch posed such a peculiar question, Alaric could discern that—
At the very least, in Zelretch's eyes, Alaric qualified to become an [Ultimate One].
Among the eight celestial bodies of the Solar System, each had an [Ultimate One]—except for the [Planet] beneath Alaric's feet, which had never given birth to one.
Even when Gaia summoned [Type: Moon], the King of the Moon, Brunestud of the Crimson Moon, and together they created the race known as the True Ancestors, Earth itself never produced its own [Ultimate One].
What kind of existence is an [Ultimate One]?
To Alaric at present, it is nothing more than a distant dream—
But not an unreachable one.
"Who knows what will happen if I put in the effort?"
"Hahaha, well, that depends on your own choices."
Zelretch, who was merely enjoying himself, laughed:
"[Ultimate One] is still a mystery to humanity. So far, only two [Ultimate Ones] have appeared."
"The King of the Moon, Brunestud, and the one in South America?"
Alaric was aware that two [Ultimate Ones] had already appeared on this planet, while the rest were expected to arrive on Earth in a few hundred years.
"Correct. Though Brunestud was eliminated, his remnants have not disappeared. As for the one in South America..."
Zelretch shook his head, revealing a troubled expression:
"Humanity is not yet ready to face him. He arrived too early."
"That's a huge problem."
Alaric, who only had a vague understanding of the creature sleeping in South America, nodded.
That was ORT, an [Ultimate One].
In a Distant Future…
Earth dies due to the lifeforms (humans) dwelling on it.
Earth harbors no resentment toward its death. However, what shocks it is that humanity managed to survive—continuing to exist on the corpse of a dead planet.
Thus, the dying Earth sought help from the other eight celestial bodies in the Solar System. In response, each of the eight planets sent forth its [Ultimate One], aiming to eliminate the humans who should have perished.
Among them, ORT is Type: Mercury, the [Ultimate One] of Mercury. However, for some reason, ORT took the wrong timeline on its way to Earth, arriving 5,000 years too early…
Due to this temporal anomaly, Alaric knew very little about ORT—almost nothing.
What could be confirmed was only that a sudden anomaly had fallen in South America before the Common Era. Its appearance resembled a spider, an extraterrestrial lifeform approximately 40 meters in length.
Its combat capabilities were overwhelming—a Dead Apostle Ancestor of the previous generation, the Fifth, attempted to capture it but was annihilated instantly.
Since ORT lacks the concept of death, even the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception cannot kill it.
The only way to defeat ORT is through extremely powerful physical attacks to halt its activity. However, ORT's outer shell surpasses any material on Earth in hardness, flexibility, temperature resistance, and sharpness.
It can also mimic the abilities of the creatures it absorbs.
When it comes to killing humans, ORT ranks first alongside Primate Murder and Angra Mainyu.
Additionally, ORT can deploy the Reality Marble Crystal Valley, an invasive alien landscape.
A beautiful yet terrifying invasion of an extraterrestrial world.
Some magi and even the Twenty-seven Dead Apostle Ancestors wield the power of Reality Marbles, but none compare to ORT's.
ORT is a visitor from another star.
As long as ORT exists, Earth will be transformed to match its home environment. In other words, it alters the laws of physics, gradually reshaping the world into an alien order.
If humanity is the bane of Earth's destruction, then ORT, true to its name, is an invader that seeks to remake Earth into an alien world.
Perhaps only a Velber 02 could defeat it.
As the discussion reached this point, touching even upon the star-devouring monster slumbering in South America, Zelretch seemed to have no further interest in continuing the conversation with Alaric.
Or rather, from Zelretch's perspective, Alaric was still too immature—only by taking that step forward could he truly stand at the pinnacle of this world.
"I'll leave the rest to that magician."
Zelretch thought so.
As the bearer of the Second Magic, he had already noticed that magician's observation, yet he did not intervene, allowing them to continue watching.
Thus, the brief exchange finally ended.
Zelretch vanished into a pile of jewels, disappearing before Alaric's eyes, marking the conclusion of this thrilling conversation.
Nearby, Kotomine Kirei finally let out a sigh of relief.
Although Zelretch had no ties to the Church, Kirei was already a student under Tokiomi Tohsaka. Even though his knowledge of magecraft was shallow, he was well aware of Zelretch's legendary status.
Moreover, the content of Zelretch and Alaric's conversation left him deeply confused and troubled.
...
As Tohsaka Nagato was a disciple of the Jewel Wizard Zelretch, there were only a few magical texts regarding the Second Magic available to him. Aside from the replica of Zelretch's Jewel Sword left to him, he had also obtained a few Mystic Codes related to the Second Magic.
Of course, Alaric had no expectations for that Mystic Code that would turn someone into a magical girl.
After Alaric left the Tohsaka residence, Tohsaka Tokiomi and Gilgamesh also learned from Kotomine Kirei about what had occurred in the hidden archive.
The appearance of the Jewel Wizard was beyond Tokiomi's comprehension, and the so-called Ultimate One left him completely baffled.
The only thing that could be confirmed was that Alaric had conversed with his grandmaster for a long time.
Only Gilgamesh slightly raised an eyebrow upon hearing about Humanity's Evil…
Several minutes later.
...
"Me~~~rlin, where is Irisviel?"
Alaric, who had returned excitedly to the vast underground cavern of Ryuudou Temple while holding a magical tome, fell silent upon seeing the space before him.
Even though he never had high expectations for Merlin, he truly hadn't expected that the trickster would just release Irisviel like that.
"Calm down, calm down. After all, that lady knows magecraft. It's perfectly normal that I couldn't beat her," Merlin said leisurely, raising a glass toward Alaric, his gaze carrying a hint of surprise.
Even Merlin hadn't expected that Alaric possessed the qualifications to become an Ultimate One. The information Zelretch had revealed was slightly beyond Merlin's calculations.
Besides that, the half-body of Little Red Riding Hood also piqued Merlin's interest. If Alaric weren't here, he would love to examine the little one closely.
Alaric, setting down the tome in his hands, ignored Merlin and instead approached the Greater Grail to inspect his Second Grail.
It was a replica of a Lesser Grail, formed using Irisviel von Einzbern's heart core as the nucleus, supplemented by Alaric's own cultivated flesh mass and certain magic circuits.
In just half a day, the fusion of the flesh mass and the core had progressed rapidly. Apart from the function of the core itself, most of it was due to the flesh mass's inherent devouring instinct.
A powerful desire for possession, an instinctive aggression almost etched into its very being—
Like that of a beast.
Regardless of what kind of personality or primal emotions it contained, for Alaric, as long as it could manifest Angra Mainyu, it was a success.
And the results were clear—far faster than anticipated. There was no need for a ten-year-long fusion process or for the host's emotions to align with the inner side of the Grail before Angra Mainyu could even begin to fuse.
The Holy Grail itself had no tangible form. It utilized an entity with magic circuits (a human) as a vessel, descending into it by gathering the souls of Servants.
Currently, only two days had passed since the Holy Grail War began, and as the Lesser Grail, Irisviel had yet to absorb the soul of even a single Servant. Instead, Alaric would use this replica Grail to absorb the souls of Servants.
Moreover, as the absorption progressed, it wouldn't even require all the Servants' souls to manifest Angra Mainyu—just a starting point would suffice.
Alaric had already chosen the first Servant to be sacrificed.
"I'm sorry, Sir Lancelot."
Gazing at the writhing mass of flesh before him, Alaric slowly narrowed his eyes.
Gurgle, gurgle.
The crimson flesh pulsated, exuding an eerie radiance and emitting a nauseating squelching sound as if it were devouring something.
Seeing this, Alaric's gaze remained cold.
If he was going to make Angra Mainyu manifest, then he had to be fully prepared.
For example—ensuring the absolute firepower necessary to annihilate Angra Mainyu.
To prevent Angra Mainyu's influence from spreading too far, the entire battlefield had to be confined within Fuyuki. Moreover, Angra Mainyu needed to be instantly eradicated before it could act.
Alaric required absolute certainty—a 100% guarantee of success.
This would also be a test of Alaric's years of accumulation.
Unlike his usual combat techniques, which relied on the Gate of Holy Judgment or Holy Lance Loading to compress magical energy, Alaric, now having studied magecraft for several years, was about to construct a magic workshop and deploy his own, newly developed magecraft:
[Recreation of Noble Phantasms]
Although he hadn't yet fully understood the grand magecraft that converted mana into light, he had managed to mimic some aspects of it.
However, due to the constraints imposed by the Tohsaka family and Zelretch, he had never actually tested it—not even once.
After years of study, Alaric was no longer an amateur in magecraft. His analysis of the Greater Grail System also granted him significant insights into large-scale magecraft rituals.
Now was the perfect opportunity—a test of all the magecraft he had accumulated over the years.
As for the required materials, catalysts, and mana resources, none of that was a problem for Alaric.
With the Holy Lance Rhongomyniad as the core and Little Red Riding Hood providing mana supply, everything was arranged perfectly.
The only thing left was to test the magecraft he had designed.
Alaric's requirements for this magecraft were simple:
A stable structure
Power exceeding his current maximum single-target firepower
He had no idea what level of power Angra Mainyu's full manifestation would possess.
The only certainty was—
[All the World's Evil - Angra Mainyu]
It was an expert in killing humanity, a being that could even stand alongside Primates Murder and ORT in that regard.
But in a battlefield beyond humanity, it would be extremely fragile…
That was merely Angra Mainyu in its Servant state.
What would the true form of Angra Mainyu, born from the Holy Grail, be like?
Alaric was both curious and cautious.
After confirming the progress of the Second Grail, he didn't linger any longer. He swiftly left the underground cavern and began setting up magecraft arrays around Ryuudou Temple.
This scene was naturally observed by Hundred-Faced Hassan from a distance.
With most of its split identities already slain by Alaric, Hundred-Faced Hassan had now become a solitary observer, solely focused on monitoring Alaric.
However, this state of affairs didn't last long.
...
As the third day arrived, Alaric even went as far as erecting a bounded field across Fuyuki City, forcing a large portion of the populace to evacuate and stay away from the Ryuudou Temple area.
This action naturally caught the attention of the other Masters.
The already allied Kayneth and Emiya Kiritsugu quickly deduced that something significant was about to happen.
Meanwhile, Gilgamesh, who had been waiting idly in the Tohsaka residence, seemed to be awaiting something.
Until whatever he sought appeared, he refused to act, much to Tohsaka Tokiomi's frustration.
He had thought that summoning Gilgamesh meant certain victory, yet now, things had taken such an unexpected turn.
Amidst this tense atmosphere, as night fell—
[Assassin - Hundred-Faced Hassan], without even realizing it, was assassinated—instantly decapitated.