Theophany
Anyone else would have seen a red comet speeding away.
But Hakuno Kishinami was able to see much more. She discerned the convection movement from the arrowhead, much like a drill bit drilling a wooden plate.
This is enough for her to understand which weapon Shirou used and how to counter it.
See. Judge. Plan. All this took less time than the blink of an eye. It must be said that the swirls of time seemed disproportionately slowed around the Last Master of the Moon.
Between her stretched fingers a swirl of crystal cubes and purple particles turned into a book: The Demonic Atlas.
Holding the Formal Wear in his hands, Hakuno shouted:
"Code Cast: add_invalid ()"
Like petrified, Ishtar looked at death rushing towards her in the form of a bloody comet.
Even for the Queen of Venus, there were impossible things.
The attack was all the more effective as the arrow had been fired by Emiya Shirou. Briefly shocked to discover that the man she loved wanted to kill her, Ishtar had lost a tenth of a second to accept the reality... A very small delay. But for a person targeted by a supersonic arrow, it was already too much.
Ishtar was a respected Mesopotamian goddess and was even feared by other gods from multiple pantheons.
The Mistress of Heaven was powerful and much stronger than a human. Few weapons could hurt her, and even magic was not very effective.
But Caladbolg was no ordinary arrow. It was a sword with the power to pierce anything that had been turned into an arrow by Alteration Magecraft. Only a legendary shield with the virtue of being impenetrable to any projectile could still save Ishtar.
Athena had such a shield, not the Sumerian Goddess of Love...
Just prior to reaching Ishtar, perhaps a meter in front of her... Caladbolg stopped.
The eyes magnified with terror and surprise, the Goddess saved by a real miracle looked at the arrow frozen in the air, suspended a little more than two meters from the ground. The projectile looked like a fly entrapped in amber.
It lasted less than five seconds and then...
Caladbolg began to dissolve into nothingness! From the arrowhead to the rear tail it only took the time of a heartbeat. The structure of the arrow collapsed into cubes of crystals and purple particles that disappeared as if wiped out by a blow of an eraser.
The phenomenon had the specific signature of the Mon Cell's intervention. Ishtar turned to Hakuno Kishinami. As she had guessed, the teen girl was still holding the Formal Wear she had just used.
The Demonic Atlas was a single-use Formal Wear, and the Sovereign of the Moon could no longer use it for this fight. Hakuno was however happy to have "canceled" (invalidated, in the computer sense of the term would be more accurate) Shirou's attack and thus saved Ishtar. Unfortunately, she had sacrificed for this one of her best assets. The Last Master had no doubt that Rama was capable of attacks that surpassed Caladbolg... by far and the Demonic Atlas could have saved them all. Nevertheless, Hakuno was not one of those who wept over the spilled milk. She was essentially a practical person.
As Ereshkigal asked her sister to focus on Shirou and his next attack, Kishinami looked at a virtual screen floating in the spherical shield protecting the Regalia wearer.
Another opponent approached them, an opponent difficult to perceive because he had literally turned into... shadow.
Unlike the others, the Last Master was not surprised by Lakshmana's presence away from his brother. It was normal that he was actually there. His place was near a Mother Goddess... near Ishtar.
Hakuno had a faultless memory; she remembered perfectly the role that Rama had entrusted to his brother during a previous fight.
Let's go back a few hours to the strategic conference that preceded the fight...
Godou had just stood up. He erased the laminated whiteboard and wrote another name.
Laskshmana.
"Rama's younger brother is a very dangerous opponent. First, Laskshmana inherited some of his elder's invulnerability. Not only can he live eternally without drinking or eating, and even survive in the cosmic void, but he does not fear the most powerful attacks. He can regenerate even if his body is 90% destroyed. However, his resistance remains much lower than that of Strongest Steel. The younger god is known as the King of Shadows. Laskshmana can literally enter the shadow of a person or object. He uses it not only to hide but also to move. He can enter a shadow and come out in a shadow, that's his variant of the God Step Authority."
Sitting on a chair in the front row, Hakuno made a Head Tilt before raising her hand. Godou Kusanagi smiles as the teen in school uniform behaves like in class. Hard to believe that this teenager was the Last master of the Moon, the winner of a tournament that opposed 999 Masters...
"Kishinami-chan, do you have a question?"
The Japanese Campione bit his lip not to add "... or you ask permission to go to the toilet?" Goudou glanced towards Ereshkigal... he did not particularly want to visit prematurely the 'sojourn of ash and dust where rivers of tears flow and where the glow of an oil lamp seems as dazzling as the sun'.
Hakuno nodded.
"Assassin?"
After months of associating with the cutie doll-like girl with long caramel-colored hair and caramel eyes, the Godslayer immediately understood what she wanted to know.
"Indeed, the King of the End entrusts this kind of mission to his brother. Let me tell you a story that will shed light on his role in the Strongest Steel's strategy."
Godou began to speak, remembering what Athena had taught him.
Thousands of years ago, Rama confronted Ravana and his armies of Rakshashas (demons). But even the power of Rama, his allies, and the armies of Kosala were insufficient against the countless Rakshashas. The Mother Goddess Sita was Rama's wife and knew his Authorities' operation. Eager to save the Aryans, she proposed to her husband that he sacrifice her... and the Strongest Steel accepted. The god sent her to Ravana because he didn't want to kill his spouse with his own hands.
The Strongest Steel believed that the demon would not hesitate to kill Sita. However... things did not go as planned.
Not only did Ravana not kill Sita, but he asked her to marry him, to become his queen and goddess.
This did not really suit Rama, and for more than one reason... and above all because he began the fight against Ravana by being markedly disadvantaged.
Then Lakshmana used his ability to travel between the shadows to enter the demonic city of Lanka, to Sita's room, and... assassinated her.
Rama immediately absorbed the power of the Mother Goddess who had just been killed and - with a single arrow- slew Ravana.
Hakuno nodded slowly and looked towards Ishtar.
If Rama had really planned the assassination of his own wife in the middle of a fight, just to increase his power, there was no doubt that the King Who Rule at the World's End would target the Mistress of Heaven. And for the very same reasons... because she was a Mother Goddess.
Back to the present...
Almost as if she was disinterested in the fight between the Mesopotamian goddesses and Shirou, Hakuno watched a red dot sliding from shadow to shadow, reaching Ishtar's back.
Just as Lakshmana regained human form and raised an arm behind his back to grasp the handle of the sword hanging from his shoulder, the Last Master of the Moon reached out.
"Code Cast: Hack!"
Suddenly enveloped in yellow and painful lightning, the King of Shadows froze... paralyzed, of course, but only for a brief moment. Except it was all Kishinami needed. She sent a telepathic message to the Mistress of Heaven.
[Noble Phantasm!]
The goddess of love had just turned around... realizing at the same moment what danger she had just escaped. She did not question Hakuno's order; the young Master had once again proved that she could flawlessly predict the actions of their enemies.
In Ishtar's hand, Dilibat - her silver spear- began to radiate an increasingly powerful light, while lightning flashed, radiating from the shaft of the weapon and randomly striking the rocks all around. Suddenly, then the spearhead began to shine with an unbearable golden glow, and the Queen of Heaven leaped forward to plunge her divine weapon into the chest of her immobilized opponent. Simultaneously, the Sumerian goddess screamed with all the strength of her lungs.
"Jabal Hamrin Breaker!"
Impaled in the heart, Rama's younger brother was thrown to the ground with such violence that the ground exploded under him, forming a deep crater. Ishtar then leaps back, abandoning her spear in Lakshmana's chest.
And... at that moment... a violent telluric tremor shook the ground and was preceded by a second a geyser of lava. It leaped towards the sky, emerging from the place where the Mountain Destroyer Goddess had planted Dilibat.
All around, the Ley Lines ignited and the wave of destruction converged towards the spear. The ground broke into cracks that lengthened, and widened, spitting more and more lava.
Ishtar jumped to the side of Ereshkigal. The latter had just run to safety, carrying Hakuno in her arms. The Goddess of Venus extended her hand in an imperious gesture. Dilibat fell back into her palm. Then, she twirled the spear in a demonstration of skill that Cù Chulainn would not have denied, with a proud and mocking smile on her lips.
"This is how the enemies of the Great Goddess perish!"
But the Last Master shook her head.
"Not finished."
With her finger, she pointed to a swirl of ashes that was heading towards them. The ash actually formed a kind of stream that twisted and the grayish flakes did not disperse... No need to be a genius to understand that this behavior was not very natural.
The cloud took the form of a face... the furious face of Lakshmana!
"Mere Goddess of the Earth, you probably thought you had succeeded in defeating the brother of the greatest of all gods! You are wrong. I am only his shadow, but I have inherited a small part of Rama's invulnerability!"
Ishtar was surprised and even a little worried, but the Sovereign of the Moon was not. Hakuno suspected that even Ishtar's Noble Phantasm would not be enough to kill the King of Shadows. But this attack was only part of the Sovereign's plan... She turned to Ereshkigal.
Her features were serious and focused.
[Skill] she said telepathically.
Immediately understanding the plan of the teen Master, the Queen of Kur laid her on the ground and waved her hand. A circle of red spears fell from the sky, surrounding the snowy, gray shape that Lakshmana had become.
Feeling in danger, the King of Shadows wanted to get out of the circle but... he backed away screaming in pain after hitting a wall of glowing energy emitted by the spears.
When she extended her hand again, the goddess of the dead smiled with a superior look.
"Oh yes, you are a pretty impressive god... but tell me, O noble brother of the mighty Rama... reduced to ashes you are more dead than alive... is it not?"
The god did not respond, bouncing once again against the energy wall created by the doubles of Mestlamtaea, the divine spear that Nergal had lost to his rival Ereshkigal. The latter lifted very high the elongated black cage that she now held in her hand.
"You know, O noble Lakshmana, normally I could not do much against you. Except that, only one of the most tenuous threads still connects you to life..." With a theatrical cape movement that emphasized her words, she activated her cage. "Bringing rest to beings stuck between death and life is one of my Divine Tasks (1). Now you can do nothing against the power of the Great Ereshkigal, Goddess of Netherworld and Queen of Irkalla."
The cage opened with a prodigious air displacement as if a huge difference of pressure reigned inside. Literally sucked, the younger brother of the King of the End was dragged inside although he struggled in vain and insulted Ere throughout the entire process.
Without moving, the goddess glanced at the small sphere of ash that collided with the bars and sent this cage to join the others in Kur, the kingdom of the dead of the ancient Mesopotamians.
"And here it is!"
But once again, Hakuno shook her head and pointed a finger.
"No!"
The two Sumerian deities turned in the direction she pointed and saw... a cloud of arrows rise toward the sky before falling vertically toward them. Using their spears they smashed translucent prana projectiles by ten at a time or jumped from one side to the other to dodge other salvos. But still, more arrows were fired towards them... Not only did Shirou Traced the arrows at incredible speed and shoot them with relentless precision, but each projectile multiplied at the apex of its trajectory and fell down transformed into a volley of a dozen identical copies.
It was a bit like facing alone the English longbowmen that won the battle of Poitier (2)!
In the midst of the Self-Replicating Arrows fire, Ereshkigal turned to her sister.
"Shirou is stubborn, but he will exhaust himself before us. He is a mortal. His magical power is much weaker than ours. If your boyfriend continues, we will simply win because he will no longer be able to fight."
Ishtar was fulminating.
"Stubborn? That's too nice a term for this moronic idiot! Even before he was turned into a Berserker-like replica of himself, he was already pushing his Magic Circuits far too hard, overloading them and damaging them to Trace weapons faster, or pushing his own limits. Why do you think I told him not to fight? He doesn't care about his own life! Since the fire that killed his biological parents during the Fourth Grail War, he has suffered from Survivor Syndrome (3). He always pushes his limits further, and further. He never listens to my warnings... as if... as if... he was running to his own death! "
The goddess had begun to speak under the effect of anger but, gradually, her voice had become hoarse due to anxiety. Her last words sounded like a sob.
It is obvious that in the case of a conflict of attrition, the two goddesses would inevitably end up triumphing. A mortal -even with the support of Magecraft- was only a fragile being of flesh and blood. Divinities were much more than that.
But even in his 'normal' state (at least if that word made any sense in his case) Shirou would never have given up fighting until the end. He was not one of those who practiced strategic retreats or carefully weighed the risks before embarking on a fight. Emiya Shirou threw himself headlong into the battle and knew only one form of combat: 'all or nothing'. Either he won or he died.
Under the influence of Lancelot Authority, Insane Rush, Shirou had lost the little self-preservation instinct that he ever owned. He would continue the fight until his death...
Realizing this, Ishtar felt overwhelmed by a mixture of despair and grief, the urge to scream in anger, cry, and break something. Simultaneously. Goddess of Love and War, Mother Goddess, she was all women, a choir by herself.
While talking, the Goddess of Venus realized that she had only one chance to save Shirou. She had to strike hard enough to seriously injure him... enough that even he could not continue fighting... but without killing him.
Except that nothing could guarantee that Ishtar properly doses her strength... especially in the very middle of a battle involving Gods and Campiones!
Ishar was an impulsive goddess, a daddy's girl who was not used to being told 'no'. She was not the kind of person who explained or took the time to think when she was turned upside down.
Without a word for Hakuno or her sister, Ishtar took off from the ground in an elegant movement and leaped towards the sky at high speed, stopping only for a moment to call Maanna. The Boat of Heaven materialized next to her in a flicker of prana. Immediately, the goddess loaded the magazine of her strange bow-boat with a first arrow and fired towards Shirou in the same move.
Maanna was her most useful Noble Phantasm, both ship sailing in the sky - and up to the planet Venus- and bow firing destructive arrows. Even without channeling the power that allowed her to destroy mountains, it was a divine weapon.
Even 'ordinary' arrows created a powerful detonation.
Must I specify that it was a new and superb demonstration of Ishtar's quick temper? She easily convinced herself that violence was the solution to all problems. More than once the Mistress of Heaven had broken into a thousand pieces what she coveted.
A blue ball of flame was born where the 'moronic redhead' stood. But the Goddess of War and Love bit her lips in frustration at the result. Hakuno's telepathic message did nothing to calm her down.
[He used Rho Aias!]
[I have eyes to see!] replied the goddess without hiding the fury she felt.
From the sky, Ishtar saw, in the form of an iridescent flower, the Seven Rings that Cover the Burning Heavens.
Shirou also looked toward her... Actually, at no time had the moronic moron attacked Ereshkigal or Hakuno. Despite the difference in power, the Queen of Venus shivered... being targeted by Shirou tied the goddess's stomach; it was never pleasant to be chased by a rabid wolf...
Shirou let the shield of Aias the Great dissipate before using his signature Magecraft to Project a long dagger. The next moment, the redhead became invisible... His image had first fluctuated before becoming translucent and disappearing completely the next moment.
Without torturing herself trying to remember the list of Noble Phantasms capable of making someone invisible, the Queen of Heaven called Hakuno telepathically.
The Last Master of the Moon replied immediately.
[Shirou flees, to the east. He is already three hundred meters from his last position! ]
Obviously, Shirou wasn't running away. Even if he fought only by instinct, his ability to 'read' the history of his weapons was enough to make him a cunning foe capable of setting up a simple, but effective, ambush. Ishtar understood that he was moving away just to have time to Trace something new... The goddess rose far above the ground to see in the distance. She did not pay attention to the other fights that were taking place on the battlefield, just trying to see a redhead with a red coat running away in this devastated and smoky landscape.
But she found no trace of him...
On the contrary, Shirou had never lost sight of the Goddess and prepared again for the attack. The only warning was the flight of a projectile.
A supersonic red bullet!
What can go faster than Hrunting: Hound of the Red Plains?
The projectile of red light reached Mach 10, pursued its target tirelessly, and always took the shortest route to catch it. In theory, a real nightmare to get rid of...
Unless your name was Ishtar and you were floating in the sky next to Maanna.
Even Gilgamesh reluctantly admitted that the Goddess of Venus' bow-boat was a faster vehicle than anything he owned in his treasure vault.
As Hrunting flew towards her, Ishtar opened a stargate and disappeared... only to reappear several kilometers away.
She held out her finger. Grandrs of golden light appeared from a point behind the goddess and leaped into space. Having already tracked her down, Hrunting disappeared in an explosion of red light just before hitting the goddess... the unstable weapon couldn't stand the curse of the Finn Shot.
[Attention] says Hakuno telepathically.
Ishtar obeyed the warning without wasting time identifying the danger that threatened her. Opening a new stargate, she teleported away... The location where the goddess where was held was now crossed by a red bullet with turned right, continuing in pursuit of the Mistress of Heaven.
Carrying Hakuno like a princess, Ereshkigal ran as fast as she could. The road she was following was far from straight. She first had to make a wide detour to avoid the fight between the Great Sage Equaling Heaven (in the form of a giant monkey) and... a Luong, a Chinese dragon with huge whiskers, snake body, and green goatee... Maybe Luo Hao?
The Luong suddenly spewed out a pearl of fire, but Old Sun swirled his Ruyi Jingu Bang at such speed that the weapon seemed to metamorphose into a wheel of gold.
The pearl of fire disintegrated into multiple frags that went in all directions, bombarding the ground and digging new craters to the horizon.
Even if Sun Wukong trampled the ground with feet as big as a barge and would disembowel the soil for hundreds of meters each time he attacked his opponent... the two monsters were fortunately visible from afar and the Queen of the Underworld had little difficulty avoiding flames and rocks that fell randomly all around.
However, things could have gone wrong when the two girls met Rama and Salvatore Doni. The Campione with the silver arm chased the Strongest Steel fiercely, exchanging blows. Nevertheless, the Italian had to stop regularly to throw his broken blade and take a rock or branch to the ground... which he turned into a weapon. Indeed, even the 'invincible' weapons that his Ripping Silver Arm Authority created did not survive very long.
Ereshkigal had to jump back to avoid the duelists and saw them disappear to his right, weaving between them a steel wall where their swords collided.
Before they were out of sight, Ere heard Doni shout: "There is nothing I cannot cut!"
The goddess shook her head with disbelief. These insufferable mortals! At such a time, they still thought of stupid things! Maybe wanting to slice the Sword of Divine Salvation was a bit overambitious... even for Lord Salvatore Doni. Wasn't it the Authority at the origin of the legend of Excalibur, the most powerful sword... at least the Campioneverse version of this legend?
Holding the Seer Crystal Ball in one hand, Hakuno Kishinami pointed in a direction.
"Shirou is here."
Ereshkigal nodded and changed direction.
Obviously, she quickly discovered the redhead; his signature red cloak was not exactly discreet. On top of a hill, he held his Great Bow in hand and had just placed on the rope a black sword with a hollow center. When he stretched the rope, the sword thinned, and lengthened, turning into a kind of long thorn bristled with pins.
Before they could intervene, the thorny arrow flew toward the sky in the form of a red bullet.
Focused, Hakuno warns Ishtar, helping her avoid and then destroy this dangerous projectile.
Simultaneously, the Goddess of the Netherworld went on the attack. Releasing her friend, she materialized several of her red spears. Falling from the sky, they locked Shirou in their circle.
But the Faker did not hesitate even for just a moment. He Projected an elegant black sword having a white stone in the pommel. Durandal: Ultimate Unbroken Hallow sliced three spears in one move!
But before Shirou could jump out of the circle, Ere attacked again. The ground lifted, trapping Shirou's ankles. Simultaneously, she extended her finger forward.
"Call_Gandor (64)"
Several black projectiles haloed with red struck Emiya. The projectiles - the variant of 'Grandr' used by Extraverse Rin- briefly stunned him.
At that moment, a stargate opened above them. Descending from Maanna, Isthar stopped above her 'boyfriend' and dropped a handful of gemstones.
The stones fragmented into a sparkling rain that fell on Shirou. As soon as the first fragment landed on his shoulder, the young redhead seemed to make a brutal genuflection while the ground cracked under his feet digging a bowl-shaped crater into the ground... as if a fantastic weight suddenly weighed on him. At the same time, the first fragment of gemstone turned into a crystalline layer that covered half his back.
In a few moments, Shirou Emiya was swallowed up by a glittering prison, so hard and heavy that he could not move. Only his head was free!
Proud of her, Ishtar sticks out the chest.
"We did a great job! We managed to capture Shirou alive... Now all I need to do is deliver him from the curse that has been cast upon him."
Ereshkigal nodded with a little annoyance. She had already forgotten that she ran here to save her sister and was already preparing for their next fight. As soon as the two goddesses stayed together for more than five minutes an argument would inevitably break out.
Rin Tohsaka - whatever the universe considered- had the unsurpassable talent to go from 'absolutely adorable' to 'absolutely unbearable' in less than a 1/10th of a second. So if you have two Rin in the same place...
Without paying attention to her two arguing friends, Hakuno looked at Shirou. He was much too quiet for an imprisoned Berserker. In fact... he seemed to focus.
"Be careful, it's not over yet!"
But even the Victor of the Moon Grail War could not foresee everything and certainly not the cracks that suddenly appeared, all around Shirou. A dazzling white light came out of these openings. Blinded by the increasingly bright light, the Japanese teen girl raised her hands to protect her eyes.
When Hakuno regained normal vision, she shivered.
Ishtar, Ereshkigal and she were standing in a desert whose dunes stretched to the horizon.
Everywhere swords were planted in the sand. King swords covered with gold and jewels; swords used by saints to fight demons, pure and immaculate; hideous weapons made of bones bleeding constantly; old blades, Japanese katana, Persian yatagans, Aztec macuahuitl, European rapiers, and American cavalry saber.
In an incredible exhibition that randomly combined all eras and continents, swords were planted like crosses in a cemetery.
The place was sinister and desolate.
But the most impressive was the sky, clouds of smoke drifted in a very blue sky. There was no sun or moon but... huge gears completely jammed by rust.
Ishtar was the first to recover from the shock.
"Unlimited Bladework!"
"Without incantation," Ereshkigal replied. "How did he manifest his Reality Marble without incantation?"
They were all amazed and it was easy to see why.
Author's note: Ereshkigal asks a good question... but makes a slight mistake. Shirou said the first two lines of his aria when he TracedCaladbolgII. But those first two lines aren't enough, are they?
Well, you are wrong.
In fact, Shirou can very well use his Noble Phantasm with a single thought... in theory, because the cost in prana would be extraordinarily prohibitive. Because Unlimited Bladework is not a 'real' Noble Phantasm, it's Magecraft. And in Magecraft (except in Runecraft, of course) incantation is just a way to hypnotize oneself and focus one's will. It is therefore quite possible to cast a spell without moving the lips.
But as I said, Shirou would be bled dry if he tried to use his Noble Phantasm this way because he would need much more prana without reciting the eight lines of his aria.
Except Insane Rush (Lancelot Divine Authority) allows one to fully exploit his latent abilities.
This Authority breaks down the barriers that inhibit the will of an individual, and since Unlimited Bladework is the manifestation of Shirou's inner universe, without his inhibitions he can invoke his Reality Marble of a thought.
But... this is Archer's inner universe, not Shirou's.
Indeed, it is a universe that EMIYA created after having lived a lifetime of sacrifices and accepted to serve Alaya... before being used post-mortem as a simple pawn without will, a slave of an inhuman power that forced him to kill.
Until then the inner universes of Shirou and Archer were too different for the redhead to manifest EMIYA's Unlimited Bladework.
Except that 'enslaved by an inhuman power' and 'forced to kill' recently became topical for Shirou too.
Do you understand?
To manifest Unlimited Bladework, Shirou had to make a sacrifice... and that's what I prepared for... an event that I have woven into the fabric of my story, patiently, thread after thread for over a year and a half. Everything that the Faker has experienced since the first episode of Moonchild was only meant to bring him to this very moment.
Death (in the first episode)
Slavery (with Ishtar then Lancelot)
Sacrifices (Sakura)
I even put on his way people (Erica and Liliana) to teach him the Alteration Magecraft.
I put Shirou through everything Archer went through... but in a speeded-up version. After all, he didn't have to learn the whole lot Archer had learned... only to become aware of what was 'sleeping' in the Archer's soul fragment he had acquired.
(1) Archaeologists have found inscriptions that explain that one of the tasks of Ereshkigal is to prevent ghosts and other undead from roaming in the world of the living. To be exact, this is a task assigned to minor deities (Anunnaki) subordinate to the Queen of Kur... because Ereshkigal may not leave the Netherworld. The most famous mention of this Divine Authority is given in the myth of the creation of man. During the Anunnaki strike, the minor deities threaten the major ones to let ghosts wander forever in the world of the living.
(2) Battle that took place on September 19, 1356 (during the Hundred Years' War). The French army was mostly defeated by English archers. According to some historians, 1.2 million arrows were fired throughout the campaign (the battle of Poitier but also the siege of some towns and many skirmishes).
(3) I am talking about post-traumatic stress disorder. After surviving a traumatic situation where many others have died, the survivor feels not relief but the shame of having survived, judging himself guilty of his own survival and seeking by any means to pay his debt... including by his very sacrifice.