Aphrodite's beautiful eyes widened in horror as she stared at the golden Holy Grail. As an Earth Mother Goddess, she instantly recognized its true nature—and that was precisely why she was terrified.
This was something capable of corrupting her, the very thing Earth Mother Goddesses most despised and feared.
In her panic, Aphrodite struggled even harder, her muffled cries escaping from behind Roy's hand as she twisted her face desperately. Finding a slight gap, she opened her mouth and bit down hard on Roy's palm.
An ordinary person would have cried out in pain from such a bite, but Roy was far from ordinary. His Body of the Holy Son was tougher than any steel—no matter how hard Aphrodite strained, she couldn't even break his skin.
Instead, her frantic movements caused her lips and tongue to brush against his palm, sending a tickling, pleasurable sensation through him.
"Stop squirming, Goddess Aphrodite! If you behave, it'll just hurt for a moment and be over. But if you keep resisting, you might suffer a lot more."
Roy's threatening words made Aphrodite's delicate body stiffen. The goddess then struggled even more violently, whimpering as her long lashes trembled. Her bright, ink-black beautiful eyes shed a continuous stream of glistening tears. Her peerless beauty, pitiful gaze, and pleading, sorrowful expression were enough to melt steel into tenderness and strip any man of his cruelty.
But at this moment, Roy was utterly unyielding, pretending not to see Aphrodite's mournful pleas. With a firm grip, he scooped up her jade-like legs beneath the gauzy fabric, tightly seizing her slender ankles, and carried her to the Holy Grail like a captured piglet.
"Athena, how do we initiate the Holy Grail's activation ritual?"
Not wanting to delay matters, Roy cut straight to the point.
Athena, now restored to her mature, triple-form appearance, elegantly lifted the Holy Grail. Her amber eyes gleamed with delight as she glared at Aphrodite, scrutinizing the Goddess of Love and Beauty with a vicious gaze—as if contemplating whether to cut out Aphrodite's venomous tongue before the ritual began.
"Leave the rest to me. I will ensure you receive a Holy Grail that you can wield freely, allowing you to exploit its vast reserves of divine power to your heart's content!"
Roy's earlier actions had earned Athena's approval, and she spoke in a lighthearted tone, ignoring Aphrodite's pitiful glances. She circled the goddess once, as if deciding where to strike.
Suddenly, Athena pressed the Holy Grail against Aphrodite's chest. Under Roy's watchful gaze, the child-sized cup rapidly shrank until it was no larger than a thumb, piercing through her clothing and flesh to embed itself within her divine soul.
Seeing Athena nod at him, Roy released Aphrodite. The panicked Goddess of Love and Beauty collapsed onto the sand, too distraught to care about Roy's roughness. Clutching her chest, she screamed in agony, "No! Get this thing out of me! Please, I beg you—take it out now!!"
The goddess, famed in myth for her unparalleled beauty, wailed like a cuckoo crying blood, her mournful pleas piercing the air. She knelt on the sand, her pristine knees digging into the grains as she clawed at her own body in desperation. The heart-wrenching sight stirred even Roy's emotions, making him ache with the urge to offer her everything—he knew this was Aphrodite's divine influence at work.
Yet this faint influence wasn't enough to cloud Roy's judgment, and Athena remained entirely unaffected by the goddess's allure of love and desire. Under the two's demonic gazes, Aphrodite's expression twisted in pain, her cries growing weaker until, at last, her divine authority and power were absorbed by the Holy Grail. Like the Heretic Gods Roy had slain before, she dissolved into scattered motes of light.
The Holy Grail then reappeared before Roy, restored to its original size of roughly one meter, its golden surface now etched with intricate, mystical patterns. Simultaneously, Roy sensed a connection to the Grail—he knew he could now harness the immense curse power stored within it.
Of course, while this amount of magical power was vast, how to utilize it remained a significant challenge. Simply relying on pure magical energy to kill the Last King was unrealistic—it had to be transformed into a means of securing victory.
"With the Holy Grail, the first of the three steps in my plan is complete. The remaining two are obtaining sufficient wisdom and a method to reverse time—and I already have solutions for both."
Roy murmured in delight.
Athena's stern gaze swept over Roy. She didn't know the specifics of Roy's methods or measures, but seeing his confident demeanor, the goddess of war and wisdom inexplicably felt reassured. It was as if no crisis could remain unsolved, no puzzle could stump him when this man was present.
Roy stepped forward, preparing to reclaim the Holy Grail, when suddenly a faint shadow appeared beside it. The shadow gradually solidified into physical form, and to Roy's astonishment, Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, manifested once more.
However, this version of Aphrodite looked completely different from before. The previous Aphrodite, while not particularly tall, had at least appeared in the form of a young maiden. Now, her body had drastically shrunk, almost turning into a loli.
An even greater difference was that Aphrodite's divine aura had grown extremely faint. What emanated from her now was a scent Roy was very familiar with—that of a Divine Ancestor.
The goddess of love and beauty glared at Roy and Athena with utter despair and fury. If looks could kill, she would have slain them countless times over. But soon, Aphrodite realized there was nothing she could do against these two. In the end, she collapsed to the ground in despair, covering her face and sobbing like a child.
.....
Roy turned his gaze to Athena, waiting for her explanation.
"The Holy Grail is a divine artifact forged by Guinevere through the sacrifice of her divinity and life. Its master has always been the Last King. Fearing that she might fail in her mission to find and deliver the Holy Grail to him, Guinevere embedded a mechanism within it."
"...That is, should Guinevere perish, one of the Earth Mother Goddesses slain by the Holy Grail would become the new 'Witch Queen,' taking her place to fulfill the duty of delivering the Holy Grail to the Last King."
Athena, her tall figure towering over the weeping Aphrodite, looked down at her with the smile of a victorious goddess. "...Now that you, Roy, have split the Holy Grail in two, the divided Grail has recognized you as its new master. Yet the mission Guinevere bestowed upon it remains. By sacrificing Aphrodite, the Holy Grail absorbed her divinity and power, reactivating itself."
"...Aphrodite was chosen as the Grail's custodian, transformed into a Divine Ancestor. Everything about her is now bound to the Holy Grail, and since you control the Grail, that means Aphrodite has become your subordinate. No matter what command you give, the Holy Grail will forcibly compel her to obey—any command at all~~"
Athena's tone dripped with malice by the end, causing the newly transformed Divine Ancestor to stiffen and sob even louder.
'So it's like the Holy Grail has granted me infinite Command Spells, and Aphrodite is the unlucky sole contractor.'
Roy thought to himself, casting a pitying glance at Aphrodite. The fallen goddess, now reduced to a Divine Ancestor, would likely spend the rest of her days under Athena's shadow.
***
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