Chapter 169
It was a vast expanse of nothingness.
As far as the eye could see, everything was white above, with no features, irregularities or anything that disturbed the flat sky which stretched infinitely into every direction, a perfectly blank canvas. The ground was just tinted a slightly darker shade than the sky, making it an extremely light shade of gray that was just barely differentiable from the sky. As it was, it still felt disorienting for most people to stand in such a space, an empty place where only an unbroken ceiling of white and a smooth, featureless gray ground existed.
In the middle of nowhere, MHX lay on the ground, her skin unblemished from any wounds, simply looking like she was sleeping to any observers in the place. Her chest rose and fell in rhythm, mouth slightly ajar as she rested with her back on the floor, face towards the sky.
Slowly, her nose twitched once, then twice, a familiar smell drifting to her face and stimulating her olfactory senses. Ahoge twitching, her conscious slowly surfaced, eyes fluttering open as she stirred from her fitful slumber.
"Ughhh, what's this smell?"
Upon opening her eyes, the first thing she did wasn't to marvel at her surroundings, but instead track down the source of the smell that was the cause of her awakening. Looking around and following her nose, she almost knocked over the cup of Instant Cosmo Noodles at her side when her hand edged close to it, the source of the smell leaking out from under the unsealed foil cover.
"Eh?"
Closing her hands around the warm styrofoam cup, she lifted up to her eyes to inspect. It was just like the ones she used to eat at Cosmo Chaldea Academy, as well as the ones she stocked up on when travelling in the Dun Stallion. The white and silver design, with two gold stripes going around the top and bottom of the cup, and the blue galaxy spiral symbol of the brand with the white splash in the middle were all exactly the same to what she was used to. Taking a look at the ingredients and nutritional information which she had memorized by heart at this point, she couldn't find anything out of place either. Looking at the bottom, there was even an expiry date, though the best before area was left blank, and the manufacture date was...today?
Suddenly, she recalled what she had been going through before she woke up in this strange place. The memories surged forth in her head, the fierce battle with the storied dragonslayer and his wife, her intense efforts in the first phase that consisted of many tricks of the trade that she had learnt and also developed herself from the years of travelling as a bounty hunter. The next phase had her unleashing as much skill and power as she could, but it still wasn't enough.
She had known from first sight that they were strong, and even when she first saw the bounty poster at the entrance of the ramen restaurant, she already recognized them and knew them by reputation. After all, who didn't know the dragon-slaying hero Siegfried and his brother Sigurd? Though the two had now fallen into hardtimes, most people in the Ether Galaxy still revered them as heroes, and their reputation had barely been touched despite the Galactic Police issuing bounties against them. Even so, she had really thought she had a chance against them, but in the end, she just wasn't strong enough.
She reflected as she ate the cup of Cosmo Noodles, a pair of chopsticks conveniently appearing next to her when the thought of eating the noodles popped up in her head. Slurping the delicious seasoned noodles kept her calm, the familiar taste of salty and savoury spices spreading across her mouth as she finished the whole cup at record speeds.
So, what had happened after she died?
She clearly remembered performing her final attack, and then getting a dagger thrown at her which she dodged, only to be blindsided by Sigurd and choked to death. She wasn't bitter or anything about her defeat and death or anything, but she was sure that if she had been looking in the right direction, she wouldn't have lost like that. Sigurd had just gotten lucky, the next time he fought her, she'd surely win.
That was, if there was a next time.
Setting down the empty cup, with only a few droplets of soup remaining on the insides of the foam walls, she stood up and took a good look at her surroundings.
It didn't take her long, with the lack of anything special. All there was white sky and gray ground, and that was it. The only other object there other than herself was the still-warm cup with chopsticks laid across the cap neatly.
Was this heaven? Hell? Purgatory? She'd heard of these concepts, but she didn't expect them to be true. There were many religions in the Ether Galaxy after all, and the afterlife wasn't a foreign concept. Though with the existence of Servants that had links with the underworld, undead and ghosts, it was kind of a moot point. In addition, all beings in the galaxy were made of Ether, so they couldn't die through natural causes either, except for the rumored seven Humans that were supposed to still exist. Personally, MHX didn't have something like that which she believed in, but perhaps…
Could this be the rumored land? Once, she'd heard from a sketchy white-haired man calling himself 'Space onii-san Merlin', that there was a land of everflowing snacks, supplying the person who ended up there with anything they desired. Avalon, she remembered, that was what it was called. Ecchan had also mentioned something similar, a place called the Land of Anko, though she wasn't sure whether she'd misheard the girl or not. Still, if there was any place that she'd deem as heaven, a place where she could have as many Cosmo Noodles as she wanted in any variety she wanted was surely heaven.
As if in response to her thoughts, another cup of Cosmo Noodles popped into existence out of thin air, exactly the same as the first one, chopsticks crossed over the foil cover as a slight wisp of steam escaped the insides. Crouching down, MHX stared at it. Then after a moment of scrutiny, she followed her instincts and picked it up, using the chopsticks to start eating it. There was no sense in refusing a perfectly good cup of Cosmo Noodles, the best edible strings in the galaxy, or so their advertisements said. It was certainly MHX's favourite though.
Slurping on the noodles, she decided to experiment a bit on what she could in this unknown place she had been thrown in. Closing her eyes, she pictured the curry cheese flavoured version. The smooth creaminess of the noodles and slight hints of spice mixing with the pleasing taste of melted cheese appeared in her mind, and when she opened her eyes, the noodles inside had changed from the original secret recipe to the taste she had just thought of. Experimentally pulling up a few strands up for a taste test, she was pleased to find it exactly the same as she remembered. Thick broth paired with actual cheese that somehow combined with the soup to become a truly heavenly taste, sliding down her tongue as rich flavours of curry spices rode on waves of cheesiness, delivering the thin yet chewy noodles into her mouth. It was particularly satisfying to eat, with a nice texture to the noodles and thicker broth than the original that gave it a sense of weight which settled in one's stomach when it was eaten.
With one flavour tested, she proceeded to go on an eating spree as she explored the limits of this power, going on to imagine each and every she had ever tasted before as they manifested one by one. Occasionally, she would also mix it up with other types of food, such as ohagi, oshiruko, yatsuhashi and manjū, which were all Ecchan's favourites.
By the time she was done, there was a pile of cups as high as her on the ground, with several miniature pyramids dotting the landscape here and there around the largest pile. There was an intense smell of different broths, with her having tried almost as many flavours and versions as the company had officially released. The scent of hundreds of spices drifted in the air, heady incense at what could be mistaken for a shrine to Cosmo Noodles. At the foot of the massive styrofoam stack, MHX lay on the ground, blissfully resting on the ground from all the eating she had done.
"No doubt about it, this must be the promised land."
If she knew that this was awaited her after death, she totally wouldn't have minded dying. As her ahoge twitched lazily, a thin line of drool leaked from her mouth and stretched past her mouth while she thought about the possibilities. She could have any food she wanted, and perhaps it could even be possible to invent new flavours, mixing different tastes together, or make small adjustments to existing recipes to create completely different experiences. Already, she could imagine the vast sea of unknown culinary islands to explore, the depths she would plunge into with her tongue and imagination.
Those thoughts all vanished when her back prickled.
Despite her having eaten at least her equivalent in weight of food, her unique metabolic system meant it was all digested and converted into energy the moment it entered her stomach. As a result, she didn't even feel the slightest hint of being full, though after eating so much she at least had a sense of satisfaction while her stomach was technically mostly empty.
It also meant she could go into a triple somersault in the air instantly without throwing up the contents of her eating spree as she dodged a heavy strike that smashed the pile of instant noodle cups to bits, blowing over the smaller stacks nearby as well.
There were no further attacks against her while she was in the air, and she quickly returned to the ground with a light landing. Turning around, she glared at whatever had attacked her out of nowhere.
To her surprise, it was someone she recognized.
"Gawain?"
Indeed, it was the golden haired knight from planet Britain. The large blue cape and fur neck that he usually donned as formal dress over his armor, along with his gold trimmed black doublet, were both gone in favour of his usual plate armor that reflected the light, in this case the white and gray of the empty space they were in. On his breastplate, a pattern of flowers and vines stretched from his navel to his right chest, and clutched in both hands was the unmistakable form of Excalibur Galatine, the weapon that together with his prodigious abilities and blessings, granted him the title of 'Solar Sword' in the Ether Galaxy.
"Yes, it is I, Space Mash extraordinaire and master of the 'Blazing Sun' style, Gawain the Solar Sword!"
Shit, it's actually him.
Everything, from his mannerisms, the way he spoke to his movements and annoyingly showy gestures that he simply did naturally all matched up to what she'd seen of him in real life. However, she was pretty sure there was no way that he'd end up here of all places. In the first place, he wasn't qualified to end up in the Land of Anko, instead more likely going to Hell, or Hell's kitchen, if such a place did indeed exist. His space mash that he made was more than enough to qualify him a spot in the hottest pits of inferno, defeating more people than his blade had ever managed, and his other title of 'Space Mash' Gawain would probably be more well-known if his name hadn't first spread due to his single-handed extermination of whole armies on Britain.
Still, his oblivious, painfully forward nature didn't mean he wasn't a threat. On the contrary, it meant he could fight while giving it his all, sinking all his power into every slash and stab, his strength flowing freely from the bottom of his heart. Though he may be a shadow in this realm, the smash he had performed was enough to set her on edge, making her wary of how powerful this false Gawain was.
Narrowing her eyes, she settled into her fighting stance, sword in each hand.
Then she looked down, and realized her trusty partners weren't anywhere near her.
"Oh sh-"
She leaped sideways as a cleaving arc of solar energy passed through where she was a second ago.
"Prepare yourself for a taste of my sunny sword!"
"You're already attacking me!"
And no one wanted to taste anything he made, though she bit back this remark as she dodged a few more large, but telegraphed solar beams similar to the ones she had launched at Sigurd when they fought. Oblivious to the fact that she wasn't fighting back without weapons, Gawain advanced on her, quickly getting within range of his sword and striking physically, blazing flames coating his sword and extending its reach while increasing the danger it posed as well.
With no weapons in her hand, MHX resolved to avoid getting hit as much as she could, weaving as best as she could between the slow, but heavy swings of Gawain's blade.
He was strong.
There were no two ways about it. Even if the person in front of her was just a projection, it was a projection of someone who wielded true strength, on par with some of the toughest enemies she had ever faced, including Sigurd. Every blow he made was enough to split stone and shake the earth, the only reason there was no damage to the ground being the unique properties of this isolated space. Though she could make five thrusts in the space of time he needed to make one slash, that one slash was enough to seriously pressure her and force to read ahead as much as she could, pre-dodging as fast as possible to put the maximum amount of distance between her and the flaming blade. At range, the heat was already licking at her skin, turning her sweaty palms dry and roasting her face, so it was obvious what would happen if she let it get any closer.
The large flaming sword filled her vision again and again as it swung rapidly, not as fast as she could do, but packing power and chilling accuracy that made it difficult to dodge, covering as wide an area as possible. She was constantly kept on her toes, both figuratively and literally, her body moving about in a three-dimensional space as she performed extreme acrobatics in the air, her legs slicing and whirling as she spun on the ground, sometimes upright, sometimes upside down, using every part of her body to leverage against the ground and push her out of the way.
A timely cartwheel got her out of the way as she felt the soles of her shoes heat up uncomfortably, then she was bending over backward like a human bridge as her back went parallel to the floor, the sword cutting through the air right above her, her eyes locked on to the flickering flames running along it. Letting her body fall to the ground, she pushed off with one hand and rolled horizontally as the sword dropped and slammed into the floor she once occupied, releasing a burst of flames that nearly caught up to her before she pushed off the ground with both hands and launched into the air, seeing the flames wash across the floor harmlessly underneath her.
Seizing the chance, Gawain stepped forward in one large stride and swung his sword with both hands, a painfully bright arc of solar energy emitting from his sword in a continuous beam towards MHX's body suspended in mid-air.
With no way to maneuver, she instinctively activated the force fields under her feet. All that happened was that she wasted an extra second in the air. Frantically, she searched through her mind for anything that could possibly save her. Unfortunately, all she could think of in her panic was Cosmo Noodles. Which she blurted out of her mouth.
"COSMO NOODLES!"
Immediately, two cups of the food appeared under her feet.
Without thinking, she kicked as hard as she could off the object, the recoil blasting her off in the opposite direction as the cup noodles disintegrated from the force of her kick, the remains sent flying far off into the distance. However, she managed to successfully dodge the death beam of extreme heat, though she could literally smell the air being boiled into plasma, ozone drifting near her face while the blast went past her.
Skidding to a halt on the ground, she didn't wait while Gawain charged towards her, turning around and running as fast she could while dodging the projectiles and beams that came at her, leaving the place where she had first appeared far behind her.
While relying on her finely-tuned sense of danger and fast reflexes to avoid injury, she kept running and pondering what she should do.
The sudden appearance of this Gawain was a mystery, and she had no idea why he was attacking her as well. He didn't seem to be receptive to her words, and on top of that she didn't have any way to fight back either. Her suit wasn't working, which in its current condition might as well be a fancy latex fetish suit for sci-fi play. None of her gadgets worked either, and she was pretty sure her swords wouldn't be appearing any time soon. She had tried imagining them appearing in her hands, or her suit working as it should and providing support, but it didn't work.
Well, there was no time to worry about that right now. If she didn't find a way to stop Gawain attacking her, she would eventually run out of stamina, or slip up and get hit at some point. She had (probably?) already died once, and wasn't in a hurry to do so again. While moving around, she considered her options available to her. She had her body, which included her fists and legs, and the ability to create Cosmo Noodles from thin air.
Could she perhaps use the Cosmo Noodles to attack him somehow? Experimentally, she conjured two cups and threw them at him, using her fists to punch them like she had seen Sigurd done.
They were burnt to ashes after barely leaving her fists by a solar beam, which she promptly moved out of the way of.
Well, it looked like directly attacking Gawain with them probably wouldn't do anything.
Then what about just attacking him directly with her body?
As soon as she thought of the idea, she discarded it. While it was true that she could perform hand-to-hand combat if needed, on the whole she simply sucked at it.
She remembered getting her ass handed to her on a silver platter during the combat training classes which involved hand-to-hand combat. Getting pinned, grappled, suplexed, powerbombed, dropped, headlocked, thrown and more had toughened MHX, but it also made her keenly aware of how bad she was in battle while fighting with empty hands. If she tried to get close, at best she would be able to scratch his armor, and at worst she'd simply be fried and burnt to crisp when she tried to throw a punch. No, fighting directly like this wasn't an option.
She conjured the several more cups of Cosmo Noodles into existence to use them as footholds to step into the air, air-walking with the principle of equal reaction in forces as she stepped on them with tremendous speed and strength, granting her more avenues to dodge as the cosmic rays of solar power came at her. Seeing her movements in the air, Gawain lowered his sword and assumed a different stance. It seemed that this false Gawain was starting to realize that his tactics of simply throwing energy beams to harass her from afar and slashing at her while she was close wasn't working out, so he switched strategies. With a large bound, he leapt backwards, placing some distance between him and MHX.
For MHX, it was a welcome break as she let him go, keeping her eyes on him as she weighed her options.
Lowering his right hand, he balanced the sword, then threw it upwards, the blade spinning like a boomerang.
MHX stared at him quizzically, then she suddenly realized what he was about to do.
Turning around, she sprinted as fast as possible, carelessly exposing her back to him as she ran recklessly, summoning all her speed and stamina to run like a mad.
"Under the sun's guidance, I will raze all in front of me to the ground."
Above his head, a brilliant ball of orange flames expanded, with a brilliant white core within the center, and molten yellow flowing around the core. Circles of flame stretched in the sky with the globe as the epicenter as it released its power, turning miles and miles of space into a furnace as the temperature skyrocketed instantly, the heat capable of cooking eggs near the edges of its area of influence, and the closer one got to the ball of fire, the hotter it became. It would be instant death for any Servant who stood next to it, save for an exceptional few. And MHX was not one of them.
Once she felt the heat on her back, she put on even more speed, squeezing every last bit of energy from her body as her legs changed from a blur to an illusion of slow-motion from going too fast. But she knew it still wasn't enough.
"This holy sword is the sun itself."
A thin golden line stretched down to him from the flames above, golden shards flaking off it as extended. It stopped right around his torso, and lifting both hands, he gripped the golden rod as if it were his sword, which in a sense it was.
As soon as he touched it, the world shifted.
The entire white and gray space became tinted in orange and yellow, the globe expanding even further as it became just like a miniature sun, rising further and further into the sky until one had to wonder how it didn't reach the ceiling. Or perhaps, there was no ceiling, and only a white blankness above.
Circles of flames turned into yellowish white halos of pure heat and energy, circling the sun and the golden line that stretched from Gawain towards his artificial sun. Golden motes of light rose up from the ground all around him, concentrating most densely around Gawain and the rod that had now swelled to the size of a pillar, and was still growing in size. It wasn't just around Gawain though, as even under MHX's feet, golden dots of light were shimmering into existence. Despite doing nothing to hinder as she simply passed right through them, she ran faster at the sight of them, her frenzied mind sinking further into the mad dash to get away.
Then the winds of convection hit her, strong enough to cause her to stumble even with how far she was away from Gawain at this point, almost just a speck at the distance they were at. Air was quickly rising up, constantly expanding as it was heated, the air around the rings and the sun turned to plasma and added to its size as more and more air rose into the air to provide fuel. What this created was a vacuum below as less and less air molecules existed near the ground with everything being heated, resulting in the air outside the area of influence being dragged in to fill the gap and creating strong winds that tore at MHX's body, forcefully slowing her down as the air rushed in to plug the vacuum created behind her.
Doggedly, she continued to run head first into the wind, getting closer to the ground to avoid windshear until she was running almost parallel to the ground, her legs kicking her forward instead of bouncing her body upwards.
The wind roared him, light clashing and rising into the air as the temperatures rose far beyond and living being's tolerance, but Gawain remained unmoved throughout it, channeling the solar power that coursed through every fiber of his body as he prepared to unleash the blow that cemented his name throughout the galaxy. A knight of the stars wielding the power of a star itself, a light that would pierce the heavens.
"HOLY SWORD OF STARS, SWING AND CLEANSE!"
Surging forth from Gawain's position, a ring of fire flooded forwards like a tsunami of heat, stretching in every direction as it eagerly consumed everything in its way, even the very air itself. This alone, was enough to destroy armies and win wars.
Then the light from the heavens fell.
"DON"
A deep basso sound reverberated all around MHX as she felt her entire body shake as the ground rumbled. It felt like something absolutely massive was going to fall on her, but instead of there being a shadow, she felt the light around grow more and more intense, the ground glowing so brightly it felt like she was being blinded.
Blind fear clawed at her heart, her back feeling like it was going to fall off at any moment because of the heat. Yet she kept on moving, refusing to succumb to the despair and pain as she dragged every scrap of willpower she had ever possessed into existence, pumping her legs until they were bruised and screaming for her to stop, her arms swinging in defiance of her fate as she tried to outrun her imminent death.
Far above her, a solid wall of light blocked out the ceiling.
It was no longer a thin line that Gawain held in his hands, but a monstrously large pillar that was already the width of several football fields put together from end to end, radiating enough heat to vaporize metal and cut through earth all the way down to Hell. And it was still getting bigger.
There was nothing she could do to stop it. It continued to stretch at a rate far faster than she could outrun, gradually making up the distance that she'd managed to between herself and Gawain as it became longer and longer, his seemingly effortless swing downwards sending a disaster of titanic proportions crashing down on her, an epicly large amount of energy being released as it was fully unleashed from the cruel sun hanging in the sky, hellbent on burning everything in its path to ashes.
Feeling her body shake more and more as it descended, MHX forced her body to it's limit, but it had nothing left to give. She had already pushed it all the way to it's last reserves of strengths, exhausting everything that she could output, and was only hanging on by a tether without collapsing from overworking herself. She could only watch as the light grew brighter and brighter from behind her, her shadow standing out in stark contrast as it became highlighted against the brilliant floor reflecting the illumination from above.
It grew so hot that she couldn't even feel the heat any more. Or rather, it was a constant pressure bearing down on her, crushing her body and smothering her senses as the sweat that flowed out of her pores vaporized on contact with the air. It felt like her entire body was in the process of melting with every step she took, her legs still miraculously moving in spite of her feeling like they had turned into jelly.
The air blurred, or maybe her vision blurred. Struggling, she forced her eyelids open, but there was nothing to see. Without a marker in sight, all there was to see was the white sky and gray ground, with even these distorted as the air turned into a haze of heat, making her doubt her eyes. Then it turned completely black, until she realized it was her closing her eyes, immediately opening them with sheer will. The light stabbed at her eyes, but there was little she could do about it.
Standing under the raging sun that was now spitting solar flares that spiked randomly from its surface, glowing a brilliant white that was almost completely void of yellow, Gawain simply stood there, holding the end of the connection as he kept the star-shattering beam steady, his field of vision in front of him completely taken up by the massive pillar of energy, but he wasn't blinded by it. Refusing to relent, he continued to pour his energy into his Noble Phantasm, sending waves of fire like ripples on the surface of a lake from his position, rings of ever expanding flames when viewed from directly above. If anyone was there to observe the fight, they could have easily mistaken the false sun for being the real thing, and the emitted beam as a laser from the De*th St*r.
On her back, for the first time ever, the jacket slid off from her back.
Not even during her battle with Sigurd had it left her, not when she was engaged in a furious battle of control with her entangled scarf, not when she was furiously pushing him back in a clash of swords, not even when she was almost teleporting at speeds that surpassed the fastest of Servants. But now, it was lost in the roaring wind that blew backwards to the origin of the power that fell on MHX.
With her bare back exposed to the heat and wind, she felt more naked than ever. Though the jacket was almost part of her body, with her life at stake, she couldn't afford to worry about it any more.
The piece of fabric fluttered into the air as it followed the surging winds, going forward until it reached the surface of Gawain's Noble Phantasm, disappearing under the layer of pure heat. Soon, MHX would join it's fate as well.
Panting, she started slowing down, her rapid steps turning into a blur, then back into visibly observable legs as she lost steam, her strength running out slowly. Having exerted everything she had in her body, there was nothing left to give. She had dashed an incredible length from start to finish, putting a distance of more than a full marathon between her and Gawain, and doing so in record time that would put any Servant's speed to shame. It wasn't enough to outrun Gawain, but nobody could say she hadn't given it her all. She wasn't built for endurance and stamina either, so maintaining that speed for so long was something she had never attempted before, and to be able to do so was a mark of her tenacity.
There were limits though, even for Servant, and she had already hit them long ago. Surpassing them could only do so much, and right now she felt more like a zombie than a Servant. Her brain was nigh-dead, her body carried forward only by her remaining momentum left over from her desperate charge. Only moving through instinct, her body went full autopilot as it carried on while her eyes glazed over listlessly, the light leaving her eyes before the pillar crashed onto her.
Her mind was on the verge of blanking out, only a shred of consciousness remaining in the encroaching darkness of rest. She never would have imagined that she would die from pure exhaustion before getting her body incinerated, with an hour at most after what she assumed to be her death at the hands of Sigurd. What remained of her thoughts became scrambled, going off in different directions as they shot off wildly into her memories, sequences of her life flashing forth in her mind's eye.
"...get her out of the pod, quick!"
"You there, standing in the sailor uniform in a weird way!"
"...a part-time job with the principal's full permission. I'll get a week's worth of lunch from this!"
"Clean up the room or I'll slice your Cosmo Noodle's into bits."
"Think you can win against me Ecchan? Think again!"
"Grawr, damned alternating current! I'll blast their warships with my DC cannons and…"
"Say, have you tried this curry before? It's pretty good…"
"...'space cheer girl'? Never heard of that before…"
"Arondight! Full Circuit Overload, commence!"
"Y'know, an outlaw like me shouldn't be fighting next to a bounty hunter like you…"
"If you try to eat them raw one more time, I'll turn you into space sashimi, understand-dechi?"
"OH FUUUUuuuu━━━━━"
"There goes Lancer again."
"Among all the Sabers I've met, you're the only one who uses his fists and calls them swords."
"...how dare ya insult my waifu! Be prepared to be boarded by Blackbeard Binks ya scallywag!"
"...and now it's time for the final song, 'Kirameki Starrider'! It's your shining idol, VB Eli-chan, here to shine like a comet and brighten your day!"
"FREEDOM FROM THE OPPRESSORSSSSS!"
She'd been to many places and seen a lot of things in her life, and even if there were many things she regretted, it was definitely a fun and memorable time she'd had from start to finish. If she died now, she supposed she could say she had lived a full, satisfying life. She hadn't been able to process her death at Sigurd's hands with it's suddenness, but now with the time she spent running, all these images, people and words popped up into her head, reminding her of what she had experienced.
Slowly, her legs started slowing down of her own volition, the frantic speed she had tried her best to keep up even with her battered and tired body fading away as she accepted her fate. Above her, she could feel the heat inching closer and closer, the distance between them closing as it stretched far above her into the distant, a limitless sky of energy that already extended out of her vision in front of her, as well as being wide enough to flatten her no matter which direction she tried to run. Not that she could run that far though, in the state she was in.
Still, it would've been nice if she could have fulfilled that promise that she had kept close in her memory at all times.
"Let's eat manjuu later, alright?"
It seemed simple on the surface, but the fact was that she wasn't able to find the person who said those words even after so long. And just when she had obtained a solid lead after a particularly difficult mission, she had gotten chased down, crashed onto a desert planet, and then killed after getting into a fight with an enemy that she thought she had defeated. Was this how it would end, before she even got a chance to see Ecchan one more time?
"...if you can't defeat your enemy with the sword that you have, then imagine a sword that can."
For some reason, the advice of a red drifter slid through her mind, a strangely nostalgic and familiar voice that she couldn't properly identify. All she could remember was a shock of white hair peeking out of the hood, and a red sash wrapped around the face to obscure it as she crossed swords with the man, his twin swords interposed against her Secret-calibur.
"Your true strength isn't your body, your abilities or the concept you embody. Instead, it is the irrationality that allows you to reach past what is the boundaries of possibility, grasping the impossible with both hands and bringing it into reality."
She didn't understand what those words back then, and even until now she didn't know what he was trying to say, but now, all she could do was act on those words as a final determination entered her, the memory of those days with Ecchan spurring her on for one last attempt. She stopped in her tracks, conserving the dregs of energy she had left in her body for what she was about to do.
Mustering all her faith, all her concentration, all her imagination, she gambled it all on the words of a stranger, placing her hopes on a lone throw into the dark.
Closing her eyes, she reached out her right hand, the arm stretching into empty air and carrying her will to touch upon the realm of the gods, and onwards to somewhere even beyond that, infringing on the border between dreams and reality.
When she opened her eyes, there was a cup of Cosmo Noodles resting in the palm of her hand.
"..."
Well, she might as well have one more cup of Cosmo Noodles before she died for good.
Shrugging, she opened the cap and dipped her chopsticks into the soup, pulling out strands of white noodles dripping with brown liquid and sucking them into her mouth.
Before she even started chewing down on the noodles, her mind blanked out.
The taste itself was like nothing she had ever eaten before, a texture of mystery that surpassed anything in her repertoire of culinary experience, a heavenly smorgasbord of pleasure firing off into the deepest recesses of her soul from one drop of the soup falling onto her tongue. To describe it as a divine revelation failed to fully describe the complex emotions welling up from her heart as tears fell from her eyes, hands frozen in mid-air as the noodles stayed resting in her mouth. It was rumored that ambrosia created by the gods was the best seasoning for Cosmo Noodles, but she was damn sure this was beyond even that. A sense of indescribable peace and balance flooded into her entire being, both euphoria and melancholy coexisting, expanding uncontrollably, and then all that was left was a space inside her that was both empty and full at once The universe was flowing into her, her body becoming one with the F*rce. For a brief moment, she ascended and peered into the deepest depths of the Swirl that lay outside.
Gawain (False) continued pouring his energy into the limitless blast of solar rays, an inexhaustible wellspring of mana flowing into him, sustaining what would otherwise have been a much shorter attack if it was the real Gawain doing it. At this point, he probably would have managed to shoot a hole straight through a moon with the amount of energy Galatine was releasing, and it was overkill against MHX who couldn't fight back. Nevertheless, he continued to channel his Noble Phantasm for another minute, just to be safe.
Or he would have done so, if he was given the chance.
A splitting blade of light suddenly appeared in the middle of the titanic swath of solar energy, bisecting the heat flare as it rose far into the sky until it at least reached the same height as Gawain's sun, if not even higher. Flickering valiantly against the flood of white flames from Gawain, blue auras wavered around the golden core that gradated towards white at the center, one stretching upwards, another stretching downwards, like a candle with two lit ends, the flames meeting at the middle. Though it was only an inscrutable speck from Gawain's position, he instinctively knew who it was.
Pouring in more effort his the Noble Phantasm, he cranked its output to the max, turning it from a flood into an all-encompassing sea that blotted out the sky in its entirety, blotting out the white canvas of a sky and turning it into a roiling sea of flames and plasma encased beneath the shifting heat. The ground below would have turned into magma and volcanoes if he had done this on Earth, wrecking the land and turning it into a fiery wasteland. As it was, in this unique bubble of space all that happened was that the greyish ground turned a bit brighter underneath the boiling oceans above.
At this point, any other Servant would have been defeated except for the cream of the crop, and even they would have struggled against an entire sea of blazing flames coming at them with abandon, but MHX was beyond that now.
Floating in the air at the center of the massive lances of energy pointing towards the sky and the earth, she crushed the cup of Cosmo Noodles in her right hand, letting it fade away into golden dust as it had already served its purpose. In her left hand, she held the core of the almighty spire of energy that served to split the sea of flame and protect her, projecting the weapon that Gawain could see from afar.
A blade that didn't just cut heaven and earth, but reached towards the end and beginning of all things, the spikes of light reaching outwards from the black sphere at the center of the galaxy as the arms of the disk all spiralled towards the center. Light of the galaxy's end, cosmos in etherbelts.
"X-Emperor X(s)lash"
Raising it over her head, she flew forward, splitting the Noble Phantasm of Gawain right down to it's core as the molten sky parted in her wake.
Letting a cry of triumph, she swung downwards.
The sun was engulfed in a piercing light that collapsed everything into a singular speck, swallowing even the imposing star that had hung above Gawain's head. Then everything exploded into a blinding disc of light, recreating the birth of the universe as everything expanded outwards from the center, a curious X shaped pattern of bent light forming around the singularity.
MHX wasn't sure what exactly happened, but the next instant she found herself on the ground after completing the swing, with no sign of Gawain or anything else around her.
The sky was now completely free of flames, plasma or anything at all, returning to the blank whiteness that stretched in all directions. Looking down, she realized that the ground itself was no longer grey, turning into a pure white that was just the same as the sky, morphing the entire space around her into an endless expanse of blankness that seemed at once open and oppressive.
Yet she wasn't too bothered by it, instead the events that had just happened a moment ago replaying through her mind.
She couldn't really make sense of it, but it seemed like her eyes had been opened after eating the first bite from the Cosmo Noodles that had suddenly manifested when she had desperately wished for the power to win against the seemingly invincible Gawain. Awakening her to a new power, she had received a gift that few ever had the chance to encounter, and those that did were often destroyed by it, becoming one of the handful that had reached into the existence outside the domain and came back with mind and body intact.
Then the world of white started fading from her sight, turning to darkness and black nothingness swept across the equally blank white space, her vision engulfed into pitch darkness in seconds.
"Wha-"