"What?"
Artoria was utterly confused, unable to grasp the situation.
"You're Irisviel, right?"
Justeaze approached Irisviel, helping her up, "I know about you from Damien."
In truth, it wasn't from Damien but from what Justeaze witnessed within the Grail.
She chose not to mention it.
Those memories were too heavy for Irisviel.
"I'm sorry for the suffering you've endured."
As fellow homunculi, Justeaze understood Irisviel, "Once this is over, I'll put an end to it myself."
The twisted will of the Einzbern family needed to stop.
But first, Justeaze had to assist Damien and Violet in resolving the issue of All the World's Evil.
"How do we proceed?"
Damien asked Violet, who replied, "It's both a challenge and an opportunity."
"All the World's Evil stems from the Grail's power. Though corrupted, it retains immense resentful energy."
Negative energy was still energy.
For Violet, a World Spirit, this posed no issue.
But she considered more.
"As I mentioned, Justeaze can help us filter impurities from souls."
"But those impurities don't vanish."
"So, we need to create a cyclic system, making All the World's Evil a usable component."
In her vision, Damien, Justeaze, and All the World's Evil would form a stable triangular structure.
All the World's Evil comprised two parts: subjective evil and objective evil.
Simply put, subjective evil came from sentient beings.
Like humans, slaughtered livestock, or animals unable to survive.
Objective evil could be seen as the resentment and discontent of nature itself, born from environmental destruction.
"Evil born from people is relative evil."
"Evil born from the world is absolute evil."
Relative and absolute evil together formed All the World's Evil.
As she spoke, Violet channeled Justeaze's power, connecting it to All the World's Evil.
The next moment, Damien saw the raging black mud begin to calm.
"I understand."
Justeaze stepped beside Violet, merging the black mud of All the World's Evil into her shadow.
"What's this?"
Damien was intrigued by the scene.
Before he could ask, Justeaze cupped her hands, conjuring a pure white orb of light.
"Souls!"
Having reached Demon Lord Seed status, Damien's sensitivity to souls had sharpened.
This white light was clearly the product of countless condensed souls.
"Correct."
"I've separated the souls trapped within All the World's Evil."
With the souls removed, the black mud became pure negative energy, devoid of consciousness.
Energy, like power, held no inherent good or evil.
It depended on the user.
"So, Damien, you can think of the soul-stripped All the World's Evil as a unique form of power."
Violet explained, but Damien was more curious about the orb of souls.
"You can't absorb these."
Justeaze clarified, "These souls still carry their past memories and spiritual essence."
"If you absorbed them, your sense of self would be disrupted. It's too dangerous."
Justeaze explained that stripping negative energy from souls within All the World's Evil was called 'soul filtration.'
Separating the personality and consciousness from the remaining souls was true purification.
"Filter once, then purify completely."
This yielded pure soul energy and the 'self'... known as the Spiritual Core.
"Spiritual Core, the core of a soul?"
Damien mused that what people called reincarnation referred not to the soul but to this Spiritual Core.
"Exactly."
Justeaze lowered her head, her red ribbons swaying in the breeze, "The concept of 'self' resides in the Spiritual Core."
"Resurrecting the dead... how do you prove the revived are truly themselves?"
"The Spiritual Core is the answer."
"Spiritual Cores are unique, unaffected by time, space, or even rules."
Thus, they couldn't be manipulated by conventional means.
Once Justeaze completed the Spiritual Core separation, they would vanish under the pull of the world's rules.
In layman's terms, they would reincarnate.
"Reincarnation in which world?"
"The Nasuverse or the Cardinal World?"
"Wherever purification is completed, the Spiritual Core reincarnates in that world."
The reincarnation system existed in every world, a fundamental rule shared across countless realities.
Interfering with a world's underlying logic required power on the level of the Star Dragon King.
Creating or destroying Spiritual Cores was a domain only true 'gods' could touch.
"Hm."
Damien chose not to delve into the Spiritual Cores' fates.
Without soul energy and with personalities separated, a reincarnated Spiritual Core became an entirely new person.
Moreover, lacking soul energy, they wouldn't possess significant talents in their next life.
Until they amassed enough soul energy, they would reincarnate as ordinary people, cycle after cycle.
"Fuyuki City ends here."
"Once we resolve the Einzbern issue, we can return to the Cardinal World."
Damien approached Irisviel, "This should be our second meeting, Irisviel."
"Greetings, Demon King."
Irisviel was visibly nervous facing Damien.
"Shall I bring Emiya Kiritsugu back for you?"
Damien had no interest in widows but offered out of courtesy to Artoria and Justeaze.
"No need."
At Kiritsugu's name, a flash of resentment crossed Irisviel's eyes, "I never want to see that man again."
Huh?
What's going on?
Damien was surprised, not expecting Irisviel to say such a thing: Did something happen that I don't know about?
***
Bonus Chapter:
100 Power Stones = 1 BC
300 Power Stones = 2 BC
500 Power Stones = 3 BC
700 Power Stones = 4 BC
1000 Power Stones = 5 BC
***
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