Chapter 14: Reaching the "Moon"

Fuyuki City.

An indescribable ripple tore through the fabric of space. High in the night sky, the pale disc of the moon seemed to dim for a fleeting second.

"Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill... Wait, was it four times or five?"

In a pitch-black room, Ryunosuke Uryu tapped his head, looking utterly perplexed. He shook his head vigorously. "Whatever, let's go with five!"

The television nearby was broadcasting news about the recent serial killings. Using his toes dipped in fresh blood, he was scrawling a summoning circle on the floor. Ryunosuke, who had merely stumbled upon an ancient book on summoning demons at home, had unexpectedly been chosen by the Holy Grail as a Master despite being a mere layman.

He was currently preparing the servant summoning ritual.

But in the next instant, a powerful surge of energy swept through the room, descending upon his apartment. A brilliant golden gateway suddenly snapped open.

Ryunosuke stared at the door in confusion. He scratched his head; his summoning ritual wasn't even finished yet, why was there already a response?

From within the gate, Zoran drifted out silently. He surveyed his surroundings as a massive influx of information regarding this world flooded his mind.

So, this is... the Fourth Holy Grail War.

He closed his eyes in contemplation.

The Holy Grail War: a conflict where seven Masters chosen by the Grail summon seven Servants of various classes to fight for the Holy Grail—a supposedly universal wish-granting machine. Of course, Zoran knew that was a deceptive description. In the grand cosmology of this world, the Grail wasn't truly omnipotent, but it did possess staggering power.

While he couldn't use it to directly resurrect Shendu, using its vast magical reserves as a tool to aid himself wouldn't be a bad idea. After all, facing He Xiangu and the likely appearance of other Immortals meant he needed to draw strength from beyond his original world.

Having reached a conclusion, he finally looked at the person before him.

Ryunosuke Uryu was currently staring at Zoran in a daze, failing to comprehend what was happening.

"I remember... the Servant was supposed to appear over here..." Ryunosuke muttered, pointing at the ritual circle on the floor. "Who... are you?"

Facing the presence before him, which radiated a crushing pressure, Ryunosuke's body began to tremble instinctively. Zoran had some memory of this man, a homicidal maniac obsessed with the "art" of death, and a participant in this war. If he remembered correctly, at this point in time, the man was supposed to summon the Caster class: another legendary mass murderer.

"Me?" Zoran's tone was subtle. "You don't need to know."

His gaze shifted to Ryunosuke. "Your status as a Master, would you care to surrender it to me?"

Ryunosuke lifted his hand to look at the Command Seals on the back of his palm, the mark of a Master. "Well... you could go find someone else. I kind of want to play this game..." Out of sheer ignorance, he declined Zoran's request.

"Fair enough."

Zoran shrugged helplessly and gave a slight flick of his fingers. An irresistible force of gravity and repulsion instantly enveloped the man. Half a second later, a rain of blood fell within the room.

Since he wouldn't cooperate, Zoran had no use for further words; he simply took what he wanted. One must always maintain the fine qualities of a villain, he reminded himself.

With a swirl of violet-black magic, a dark, patterned brand appeared on the back of his own hand. "And just like that, I have my ticket to the show." Zoran's lips curled into a faint smile.

His gaze fell to the floor. Besides the ritual circle, there was a child tied up, evidently a victim Ryunosuke had kidnapped. With a flick of his finger, the two doors of the apartment slammed open, and gravity pushed the boy toward the exit. He had no interest in children, and whether the boy suffered lasting psychological trauma was none of his concern.

Zoran turned his attention back to the summoning circle. This was the necessary step to summon a Servant. Usually, a Master uses a Catalyst to facilitate the summoning. Generally, the result is random but strongly tied to the relic. One Master, one Servant, the standard configuration.

Zoran had just secured his Master status. Then again, as far as Masters went, wasn't he perhaps a bit too powerful? Having restored his peak strength by absorbing the moon's full gravitational pull, his power level was, at minimum, planetary.

The ritual circle was only one step from completion. With a single glance, Zoran, a former Demon Sorcerer, analyzed and deciphered its essence. He was curious to see what kind of Servant he would summon.

He channeled his Demon Chi, completing the final stroke, and waited quietly. When in Rome... Zoran preferred to operate according to the local rules for now.

The ritual circle ignited, and a pillar of white light erupted. He had no physical Catalyst, or rather, the Demon Chi he used to connect the final line acted as the medium. If he remembered correctly, this would be a "Compatibility Summoning."

The floor beneath the circle trembled, and a staggering amount of magic instantly filled the room. Something was about to manifest.

What blew through the ritual circle was a wind from another world.

…

The Other World.

In an ancient underground palace in Asia, a golden circular statue rested silently against a wall. The sealed Shendu was immersed in his own thoughts. Having been struck by Uncle's spell, derived from the Sacred Warrior Lo Pei, he had once again returned to a state of total powerlessness.

Again. Another failure. Shendu was used to it.

The only silver lining was that Tso Lan had successfully left the Netherworld and even escaped that world entirely. Within his heart, Shendu felt neither joy nor sorrow. If he had to do it over again, he didn't know what choice he would make.

He simply felt, in that fleeting moment, that he should stand up and give Tso Lan a hand. Perhaps it was that conversation in the rocket cabin before they landed on the moon. He felt Tso Lan had changed. The elder of the Eight Demon Sorcerers seemed to have regained the aura he had millions of years ago when they ruled the world together.

If there was a chance, even if it wasn't his own, seeing Tso Lan succeed was a satisfying alternative. As for himself, it was merely another defeat. He had experienced too many in his long life to be truly unsettled by this. This world was an Ouroboros, a cycle he could never escape.

In the dim underground palace, there was no sound or ripple besides the presence of his sealed form. Silent. Breathless. A deathly stillness akin to eternity. Aside from his mind remaining intact, it was no different from being in the Netherworld.

But... strangely...

In the next heartbeat, Shendu suddenly felt a faint pulling sensation. Though the statue remained still, the attraction acted directly upon his soul. He focused his mind, preparing to resist this mysterious force immediately.

But a second later, a familiar aura emanated from that pull.

Cold. Dark.

It was an aura Shendu knew intimately. Within the silent underground palace, his spirit whispered:

"My brother..."