Absolute demonic front of blades

by davido747

After foreseeing the terrible calamity humanity was facing, King Gilgamesh summoned several servants to assist his people in the demonic front. But this time, he ended up summoning a certain nameless hero. Now, the King of Heroes and the King of Fakers will have to put aside their differences to defeat the Gods and save humanity.

9. Chapter 8: The path to the future

Here it is, my friends. It took a while, but since I decided to not chop the climax, you have here the massive final chapter of the Seventh Singularity. Buckle your asses, because this over 30k words chapter is literally a roller coaster of pure adrenaline and epicness without breaks.

I won't keep you long with a long rambling, just prepare any kind of epic OST to enhance the experience. As a side note, I'm happy that the OST "Pavilion of Falling Flowers" got re-uploaded, and it fits this chapter so well. "Everything is in her hand" is a really good theme for Nero, especially the CCC remix, but that one is just a masterpiece.

Now then, let the chapter begin!

Disclaimer: I don't own any right over Type-Moon or the Fate Franchise.

---

"Hmm..." A certain black-haired master mussed as he scrolled through the data displayed holographically from his wristband. He, and the purple-haired Shielder sitting beside him, were so absorbed in it that they never noticed the blonde Goddess approaching them.

"What a diligent boy are you, Ritsuka. But you should leave the strategy stuff to the Golden King and your comrades back in the future and get some sleep."

Her soothing managed to pull the two of them back to reality. "Oh, Quetzalcoatl... No, actually, this is my way to try and get sleepy. Rereading all the parameters, skills, and noble phantasms of the servants accompanying me. It helps get my mind distracted and memorize them at the same time."

"Senpai does it quite often, even back at Chaldea. I have to be around so he doesn't end up falling asleep on a couch or his desk."

"I see. I see. Even after going through many hardships, it's only natural for you two to feel nervous about tomorrow's battle." The Goddess's emerald eyes shifted to the Shielder. "Especially you, Mash. I can say you still charge into the battlefield with fear in your heart."

"That's... true, I guess." She answered with a little bit of shame, yet she made sure to not let her gaze waver. "That's something I've talked with a lot of people. King Leonidas said that, when he went into the Hot Gates, he replaced his fear with hope, knowing that his foretold death wouldn't be meaningless. Finn- I mean, the still alive Archer we met, said that, although fear can't be overcome with just resolve, as long as I fight for what I believe is right, I shouldn't have trouble. And Sir Bedivere said that, as long as my heart doesn't falter, my shield will be invincible. I'm still getting the hang of it... but I do want to honor those invaluable words... and the faith they put in me."

A soft chuckle escaped the Goddess's lips. "And here I thought I would be able to give you a pep talk as the reliable big sister I am. I see that department is already well covered."

That of course extended to the other servants. Well, at least to the few that were also in the living room of the embassy. There was the red Counter Guardian, the Holy Sword Wielder, and also that pest. At least those two somehow managed to keep her shenanigans somewhat contained.

But even regarding those servants that she could detect in their rooms or outside the building, there should be no problem regarding morale despite the grim odds. Even in the case of a certain black-haired Rider that entered the room absorbed in her thoughts to the point of not noticing any of them.

"Ushiwaka? It's everything OK?"

The master's words put an end to her directionless steps. "Oh, sorry for not noticing you, Ritsuka-dono, Mash-dono, Goddess Quetzalcoatl. Everything's fine, I was just looking for Souji-dono and Archer-dono."

"They are outside, right side of the building. I think my sister, Jeanne, Nero, and Tamamo are with them."

"I see. Thanks, Ritsuka-dono." Despite those parting words, she didn't take a step to leave the room. Instead, her blue eyes drifted between the master and Kohai's. "By the way-"

"You're still troubled about Benkei's situation, aren't you?" Ritsuka didn't even leave her finish, and judging by the way her eyes widened, he was right in the spot.

"A-am I really that easy to read!?"

"I mean, we all saw him "die", and then he showed up all corrupted. If it was shocking for someone who just spent a month with him, I think it would be way worse for someone who knew him in life."

"More than shocking, well... seeing his only heroic deed being trampled upon in that cruel way..." That got her a couple of raised eyebrows, but she ignored it. "At any rate. I just wanted to ask you to let me handle him tomorrow."

"Are you saying you want to stall him on your own, or..."

"No, I have a way to deal with that annoying multiplication... sort of, Mash-dono. Just focus on Tiamat and leave the rest to me."

"Okay..." They couldn't tell why she suddenly seemed so resolute, so they could only put their faith in her. "I'll trust you, Ushiwaka."

And it seemed to be the right choice as her usual smile finally returned to her face. "Thanks, Ritsuka-dono! I won't fall behind to the me at Chaldea!"

The only one who realized her intentions between the lines, or could afford to do so given the desperate circumstances, was the Sun Goddess, but she kept it to herself. What kind of Onee-chan would she be if she went and ruined the atmosphere?

On the contrary, the atmosphere right beside the building was quiet and solemn. Ai, Nero, Archer, Fou, Okita, and Jeanne were offering a silent prayer to the makeshift graves in front of them while Tamamo was performing a simple rite with her wheat straw, and Ishtar just stared silently.

The graves corresponded to each of their fallen comrades. Amakusa Shirou, Fuuma Kotarou, Leonidas, Benkei, and the most recent ones, Ana and Merlin.

From a pragmatic point of view, it looked kind of silly. They were all servants, transient shadows summoned from faraway lands and times. Yet, the bonds and camaraderie that came to be in this journey were undeniable. It was inevitable to still mourn and honor their sacrifices. Even the Mage of Flowers, who always got under everyone's skin, and wasn't even technically dead, deserved at least that much regardless of the reluctance of some of them.

Once it was over, Archer pulled out a certain wreath of flowers while he stared at the grave representing the little girl that was once afraid of humans. A part of him knew this outcome was obvious, yet the other still hoped for her to return and claim this beautiful present...

Even if the gentle lady that entrusted it and her daughter weren't amongst the few ones that made it alive from the last slaughter.

"Darling, that's..." The Empress of Roses noticed it and asked in a gentle tone.

"A gift from a kind soul to another. Ana entrusted it to me, though, thinking herself inadequate to accept it until she'd dealt with Gorgon... But we both knew that was a one-way trip. Now... I honestly don't know what to do with it. I'm not used to this kind of situation..."

His bride hummed in understanding. She knew perfectly well that the red knight was a self-imposed loner precisely to avoid this kind of situation. And if anything, it would most likely be the other way around on most occasions given his disregard for his life.

"I know... It feels wrong to leave that kind of present as a memento..." Okita spoke with an aggravated tone.

Of all of them, she was the closest one to Ana. It started just as her love for children, just like she always did with the ones at the orphanage near the dojo she studied at. But she couldn't deny that she ended up considering her like a little sister or even a daughter she never had.

"You should cling to it then." The local Goddess spoke up with hints of warmth in her tone that betrayed her neutral expression.

"Huh? What do you mean, Ishtar?" The orange-haired master got ahead of Archer and voiced the question. "We can bring things to Chaldea when rayshifting back, just like the catalyst Fou brought that let us summon white Nero-chan, but Archer will inevitably return to the Throne of Heroes."

"Master, what I think Ishtar means is that Goshujin-sama should keep it as a symbol of their bond, and hope it is strong enough so they may reunite again."

"It isn't that farfetched." The Holy Maiden chimed in after the divided spirit. "Although we servants aren't meant to remember things from other summonings, if the bonds and memories formed are strong enough, they can transcend space and time. Chaldea was able to achieve no small amount of such reunions."

"Umu! Their actions even led to the creation of a new possibility for me! A true happy ending in every sense, which finally led to this reunion! We, for once agree in something."

"Hmph." The Mistress of Heaven just snorted as the Empress of Roses. "Something like that. I mean, that's what the name Chaldea entails." That only brought her several sets of questioning stares and quirked eyebrows. "Huh? Don't tell me you guys don't even know the meaning behind your organization's name."

"I never thought it had a special meaning to it, nor my brother for that matter... Just some weird mage terminology or something along the lines."

The master's answer got the Goddess caressing her forehead. "No, it isn't about magecraft. Chaldea was an observatory. The one used by the first stargazers way before even this point in time. In your case, though, I think it means you guys observe the planet, just like the stars in the night sky. There, you can see the life of another person who shined in the distant past. The story of the stars in the sky, and of this land. Weaving it together is what you, what Chaldea does. Or at least that's my interpretation. Who knows what the founder of your organization thought while choosing the name."

"Mikon... That was really insightful of you, Ishtar?" That remark got Tamamo quite a glare from her. "But I have to agree. Your way of reaching out to us for help with honesty rather than seeing us as tools is what caused even anti-heroes like me to answer your call to help. Unless..."

The red knight could only offer her an apologetic smile upon finding himself on the receiving end of a stinky stare.

"Case in point, I guess I'll be keeping this then. Whether you, Souji, or I meet her, we'll have to deliver this to Ana, even if it's just a replica in another summoning."

The Shinsengumi's first unit captain hummed in agreement, her smile returning to her face. "I'll definitely make sure of it, even if I have to entrust the task to the me at Chaldea. Now though, we really should get some sleep before tomorrow's battle."

The red knight agreed and the two reincarnated servants walked back into the embassy, followed by an Ishtar who looked like she wanted to tell him something but didn't find the right moment.

"Master, you should do the same," Jeanne advised Ai in a tone that wouldn't be out of place for a caring mother.

"Actually, I've got one last stop without hitting the bed. And Onii-chan and Mash think the same..." Those words were said while her golden eyes watched said couple walk out of the embassy. And it didn't take the servants that much to guess what their master meant...

---

"No, the Dingir can stay where they are. Keep them on walls in all directions. The Dingir on the south and east gate can intercept Tiamat. Deploy the remaining soldiers there. Humph..."

There was a pause in the seemingly endless stream of orders from the Golden King as his red eyes stared in the direction of the courtroom's door.

"Leave us for a moment. The Chaldean messengers are here. This is a good time for a break anyway. Sleep for three hours or so. I'll handle the rest."

With that, he dismissed the remnants of his court, or what remained of it, and focused his attention on the trio of teenagers entering the room.

"You three are looking a little better. That means I can work you harder tomorrow. "His gaze bore the same suffocating intensity as always, but there was a lightheartedness in his tone, which they could only answer with nervous chuckles. "So what is it tonight? Come for a final goodbye, I presume?"

"Something along those lines, yes."

"You on the other hand look busy as always, King Gilgamesh."

The King snorted at that. "There aren't enough people. I never thought I'd have to run around to the temples or talk to the priests myself. If Siduri were still... No, I shouldn't have said that. She fulfilled the duty heaven set for her. Still, hmm..."

His red eyes scrutinized the three teenagers one more time in silence, which prompted the Shielder to ask with some reservation.

"Is something wrong, King Gilgamesh?"

"Nothing. I just thought you still looked so frail after living a month in Uruk. The way you look, no one's going to believe your incredible stories once you go back to Chaldea." He just dropped that on them with a carefree grin. "But don't worry. I'll think of something for you to tell about Uruk. At any rate. By the look of your faces, something is clearly bothering you. Don't tell me you mongrels feel responsible to some extent about Uruk's current predicament."

Their silence was more than telling, soaring Gilgamesh's mood by an order of magnitude.

""Tiamat awoke because we killed Gorgon. A lot of people died and we could do nothing" That's what you idiots are thinking, right? Fools. No one's interested in your repentance, and your misunderstanding is embarrassing. Even the pacifist Faker knows better than that. You think you only managed to save five hundred, but in reality, it is the great number of five hundred!"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

The King almost chuckled upon seeing their confused looks. "This present is different from the one I saw in my vision. In that vision, I was the only one left in Uruk. Not even the servants I summoned were there. Now, even if it's true that the end can't be changed, five hundred survived before it, even if they will most likely die tomorrow. That I consider a great achievement. Acknowledge the deeds of those who struggled against certain death, and made it past to the terminus point."

That managed to get them to start connecting dots in their heads.

"Right... You said you already saw Uruk's destruction... Yet you chose to still fight."

"Right, but not just that, Fujimaru Ritsuka. I told my subject about it, too. I told them about their impending doom, and offered them the choice to just enjoy what little time they had. I don't think I have to tell you what their answer was. You saw it yourself."

Their eyes widened in realization. "All this time... they were aware..."

"But it barely mattered for them. Down to the last one, they fought their hardest to survive..." The thought brought smiles to their faces, albeit a bit bittersweet. It was sad, but at the same time, definitely encouraging.

"That's right. I like those smiles. If you were to take pity on them, I would have to kill you right here and now."

And just like that the atmosphere was completely destroyed by the King's brutally honest words.

"R-right! Sorry, King Gilgamesh-"

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't apologize, Mash-chan! Where did that come from!?"

The King ignored Ai's question, although he was clearly amused. "On the same note, even if my plan to use the Faker to persuade the useless sisters remained the same, my original plan was to just let the Goddesses destroy themselves. After all, Tiamat would have eventually appeared one way or another. But you took compassion on this land, fought the Goddesses, and protected the citizens. This was the result. All the choices that were taken in the last month had a meaning. Be proud of it."

That finally lifted their mood, and the black-haired master voiced it. "Thanks for your praise, King Gilgamesh."

"I'm just stating facts." The King took a pause, and the teenagers took it as their clue to leave, but- "Wait. Since Romani seems to be either occupied or sleeping, I'll give you unsolicited advice."

"What kind of advice? Don't tell me you actually know a way to stall Tiamat-"

"No, I'm talking about the Singularities you've repaired thus far. "Once the Holy Grail is retrieved and the foundation of humanity is restored, all the damage done in the Singularity will be erased." Was that what you were told by any chance?"

"Yes? Once we stop the mess that is the Incineration of the Human Order will be undone and no one will remember it, right?"

"Not exactly, Fujimaru Ai. Your stolen future will indeed be recovered, but no damage done in the past will be restored. That was a white lie, but a lie at the end of the day."

Their expressions took a one-eighty as a pit started to form in their stomachs. And judging by the King's somewhat serious expression, he wasn't fooling around.

"B-but Singularities are distortions in human history! Once erased, they shouldn't affect it! If the changes remained, it's bound to... cause changes..." Mash's weak attempt to deny the wise King's proclamation started to die as she uttered those words.

"You did realize, Mash Kyrielight. That white empress is undeniable proof. If history changed because the Faker didn't die as he was supposed to, the same applies to those who died even though their time had yet to come. For instance, if someone was killed by let's say a wyvern, once the Singularity is solved, history will just make adjustments and everyone will remember them as having been killed by a wild beast or something like that. The same applies here. Uruk will fall. The only thing that will change is the cause."

"Then... it really was for nothing-"

"Of course not!" The King immediately cut Ritsuka with a threatening tone. "You did save lives. Lives that wouldn't have been restored magically once the Incineration of the Human Order is prevented. Your choices have meaning. Don't make me repeat myself. You might have not asked the empress, but I'm pretty sure she and the Faker didn't die at the same age they were supposed to due to history correcting itself. Even I would find that unjust. And the fruit of that choice will definitely tilt the scales."

"Hehe. Here, you go in your "prophet mode". Is that another divination?"

"Take it as you will. Nothing is set in stone. Even I almost destroyed my country once due to lapses of judgment."

"What- Oh, you mean when you left in your quest for immortality?"

"That is correct. When I came back, there was only Siduri waiting for me, and the city was just a bunch of ruins. The only reason she stubbornly waited was because she wanted to give me a piece of her mind. You could say I took my duty as a King a little more seriously from then on. Even if I just ruled them for my own entertainment, I think I did good enough."

"Only "good enough"? No offense, but compared to what I envisioned after meeting you at Chaldea, you did way better than "good enough"."

Ritsuka's words actually brought a smile to the King's face. "Who knows? Now, you should get a good rest for tomorrow's fight. I'm looking forward to it, you know?"

After the Chaldeans left the Ziggurat, the King rose from his throne silently and steadily walked with a destination set. The bounded field surrounding the city brought to his attention another issue that he will apparently have to deal with before tomorrow's battle.

After reaching to roof of the Ziggurat, the familiar figure of a green-haired, anthropomorphic weapon entered his sight. They were barely clinging to life, unable to heal the massive hole in their chest where their heart should be.

It was... a pitiful sight. One that certainly brought back painful memories, and with them came an unbearable sense of irritation.

Leaving them to die would mean an eyesore less to deal with tomorrow, but even if they were just someone else using his friend's body...

He couldn't let them die in such a pitiful way again.

"What are you doing? Why don't you stand up, fool?"

---

The next day, just moments after the first sun rays made their way into the courtroom, the Chaldeans and Uruk's servants were already walking into it.

"Well, aren't you all eager? In that case, I'll start with the debrief immediately!" The Golden King proceeded to snap his fingers after greeting them, activating a series of magical formulas that culminated into a big hologram displayed in front of them. And the contents of it were easy to recognize.

"That's Tiamat's real body... and all those parameters..."

"Wow... You really analyzed the hell out of her."

"Hehe. Witness the culmination of the joint effort between Uruk's priests and Chaldea's erudite! I had to rush putting all the information in an understandable format." Romani's voice was obviously proud.

"A magnificent effort indeed. To make everything simple, you should focus on only a couple of assessments. "Tiamat is always walking on the water." "It doesn't seem like she can control her own weight distribution". The general consensus we reached is that those tiny legs can't hold her weight, and thus she needs the mud to move through a landmass. We thought the mud's only purpose was to destroy, but it also serves as her only way to reach Uruk."

"To put it in mother terms, it's like a set of rails. There's a margin for error, but we believe this to be dead-on. In other words, your target priority is no longer Tiamat, but the mud itself. Just like the Lahmu, we decided on a name for simplification purposes. Encroaching Ocean: Chaos Tide. Ever since then, everyone's been feverishly looking for a way to revert it to regular water. If we make it, we might just have a way to delay her arrival enough-"

"King Gilgamesh!" As if fate had decided to destroy Romani's enthusiasm then and there, a soldier stormed the courtroom with ragged breath. "We have an urgent report from the south observation post! Tiamat has resumed her advance! Three hours till she reaches the ruins of Girsu City, and we estimate eight hours until she reaches Uruk!"

"YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING!" Several exasperated voices united to form a loud echo that almost destroyed some of their eardrums.

"Damn it! She's an early raiser, isn't she!? That's half a day sooner than we expected. Even if we find a way to revert the Chaos Tide, it will be too late!"

"In that case, we will destroy those legs as impossible as it sounds!" The Golden King's voice roared through the entire Ziggurat as he rose from his throne and extended his hand to give his command. "Ushiwakamaru! Take Souji, the Faker, and fifty elites from the walls and ride to battle-"

"Wait, that won't be necessary." Just to be stopped by Quetzalcoatl's calm voice. "The soldier's job is to intercept Tiamat when she reaches Uruk, and Archer, Okita, and Ushiwakamaru have their part to do. You can leave this to me. I said I can't deal with an entire ocean's worth this Chaos Tide, but if it's just the area below her, my Piedra del Sol should be enough."

"Oh right! You have that! We'll finally see Kuku getting serious!"

"Now that you mention it, isn't that..." Ritsuka caressed his chin while he remembered when he heard that name, and the realization hit him like a truck, causing all the blood to drain from his face.

"Yup! My noble phantasm back at the Eridu's altar. Had you destroyed it, we would have been certainly hopeless."

"It seems senpai's "Operation: Plancha, not destruction" did really save us!"

"Onii-chan's dumb luck is a force to fear."

His sister and Kohai's remark didn't help alleviate the chills running down his spine. That decision had some crazy ramifications...

"In that case, can I trust you to do it, Quetzalcoatl?" Gilgamesh cut to the chase so as to not lose more precious seconds.

"Si. But it's still a tricky solution. I'll have to be right there above Tiamat, and that noble phantasm requires even more magical energy than Arturia's Sacred Sword to fuel it, so in my current state, I would need Ritsuka to be the closest possible to me so he can constantly provide the energy to me."

"In other words, you say we need to blitz through all the Lahmu and Lancers surrounding Mother, and then project you while one of the masters has to focus on supporting only you."

"Right on all accounts, Ishtar! It's really dangerous, yes!" Her tone had a little too much enthusiasm while she proposed that kamikaze plan.

"Well, if no one has a better idea, I guess we'll have to go with that..." Ritsuka begrudgingly conceded, and his sister nodded along.

"Yeah, the only alternative would be doing the same but just throwing everything we've got at her legs to at least make her trip..."

After leaving some seconds of silence and receiving no objections, the Golden King spoke up. "Fine! If you are all willing to do it, then commence the operation at once! All soldiers to their posts! From now on, the only one at the Ziggurat will be the King! Once you're done, return to me and I will listen to your report of victory to kill some time!"

And with that said, everyone was immediately on the move. All preparations had been done in advance already, so they set straight for the southern gate. No sooner than they were out of the city, Quetzalcoatl started summoning a group of winged serpents for everyone. A process she didn't rush in hopes of saving her energy.

Meanwhile, the three remaining servants summoned by the King took some distance from the group at Ushiwakamaru's request. And so, she was the one to break the somber silence.

"As I already told Ritsuka-dono, I'll be taking down Benkei with me. It will be up to you two to lead the Chaldeans to victory."

She was way more direct, even if they could already start to imagine why she was way more serious than usual. And while Archer just closed his eyes and silently conceded, Okita still showed her grieving expression.

"Are you sure you want to do that? We can just... keep him at bay like the Lahmu-"

"No. He's way more dangerous than a Lahmu. They might evolve and turn into more powerful demons, but that man, without any cowardice holding him back, will be worse to deal with."

The Rider's serious expression slowly mellowed as she rested a tender hand on the Saber's shoulder. "We might have lived in completely different ages of our land, but I'm glad I was able to fight alongside you, Okita Souji. From now on, even if it might sound silly since we're just three, I hand the captain position to you."

"No, it's been my honor, Ushiwakamaru. No matter what, this time I'll see this through."

The two swordsmen exchanged a hug for a moment before the Rider's blue eyes shifted to the red knight. "You too, Archer-dono. It's still a little bothersome that you don't want to go by your name even after remembering it, but it was a pleasure to fight alongside you. If I'm being honest, you showed me what it is to enter the battlefield with a new emotion. Hope."

A repressed chuckle came out as a soft snort as he accepted her handshake. "Don't mention it. Fighting alongside others who shared my beliefs was new for me. We might have been the most dysfunctional team, but I enjoyed it."

Their shared smiles quickly became bitter as they turned to look at the Chaldeans. They knew more than everyone. Their job as Uruk's servants has always been just to lay the path for the real stars.

"Oh, look! King Gilgamesh is standing at the top of the Ziggurat!" Mash's sudden observation put on hold any kind of activity as everyone looked in the direction she pointed.

The figure of the King, almost divine, also attracted the attention of all the remaining citizens of Uruk. His red eyes combed the entire city, and once he was sure it was time, Gilgamesh filled his lungs before shouting with all his might.

"I declare to all remaining citizens of Uruk!" Without any kind of magecraft helping him, his thunderous voice was strong enough to reach even the Chaldeans outside the city. "I commend you for surviving till this day. First and foremost, I am overjoyed at our success! Over six months ago, when the Demonic Front was set up, I told you all. No matter what we do, Uruk will fall. I will not determine how you should meet that end. You can flee. You can drown yourself in pleasure. You can throw yourself into the Underworld out of despair. However, despite everything, you chose to fight! Truly... Uruk was a fortunate city. Its story, its life, its people, myself included."

After a brief pause in which the King's face was filled with genuine pride, one that esteemed from a very different reason than the one at Chaldea, it was quickly replaced by sheer resolve.

"I hereby declare! The protection of the Gods is no longer needed in the world of man! As proof, I built a fortress, and you all answered my call! I know now, with certainty, that it was not a mistake! And now this final trial will test it to the utmost! Now is the time to deny the primordial Gods and truly start the Age of Man! Mind yourselves, my elite warriors! This battle is the true separation from the Gods! Give your lives to me, the King! Pass on the glory that is Uruk to generations to come, to the last man!"

After such a speech, as impossible as it seemed, the entire city erupted in cheers and battle cries, as if every single citizen was still there, ready to fight against the Gods and fate.

"Heh, so he does know how to give a motivational speech." It was EMIYA who finally spoke amongst the Chaldeans.

"I guess he truly is a different man from the tyrant we have back at Chaldea." And Arturia chided with a snort.

"Yeah, I have to admit it as well. That troublesome King is most definitely one of our pioneers. Now, we have finally calculated the best route that'll lead you to Tiamat with the least risk. I'll ask this one last time. There is no turning back at this point. This battle will push you to the absolute limits. Are you prepared?"

"What kind of question is that, doc?"

"Ready as as we can, Doctor Roman."

Ritsuka and Ai answered his question without missing a beat and turned around to look at all the servants, receiving nods with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

"Good then. In that case, as commander of Chaldea, I order you to commence the operation. You are to use everything at your disposal to remove the Chaos Tide below Tiamat's legs. Proceed at full strength!"

"Yes, sir!"

---

It took them two hours flying at a considerable speed until they entered Tiamat's range of sight, which was still quite a long distance. Taking into account the speeds of both parties, the final clash would take place near the ruins of Girsu city, which had been already engulfed by the Chaos Tide.

However, while the primordial Goddess paid them no mind, some of the Lahmu encircling her started to rush at them, eager to finally find prey after seemingly hours of inactivity.

"About time! I was starting to get tired of waiting!" A certain Mistress of Heaven mirrored their eagerness with a grin as she commanded her Heavenly Boat to speed up. "Master, don't mind if I go ahead!"

The only answer she received was several sighs that she didn't wait to listen. The barrage of golden arrows filled the cloudy skies seconds later and met the horde of Lahmu head-on. They resisted more hits than the last time, it seemed they really evolved their body structure and magic circuits at a fast rate. But nothing Ishtar couldn't handle with some support from the other two Archer servants.

Things changed completely when they hit the one-mile mark. It wasn't just some battle-hungry individuals anymore, but the entire colony started to launch their assault.

"Everyone, hold your positions!"

Ishtar immediately retreated, and they took a simple spear formation with the Sabers, Riders, and Mash at the tip, the masters, the Archers and Tamamo at the core, and the two Jeannes and Jaguar Warrior bringing the rear.

The initial clash truly felt like a projectile hitting a concrete wall, and seconds later, the situation was reversed and looked more like gushing water hitting a rock and splitting. Slow but steady, the group started to push through the Lahmu at the cost of burning through their energy reserves at a considerable pace.

"Kuh! They are way tougher than we expected..." The two masters started to feel the pressure way sooner than they would have liked. And things were just getting started.

"Watch out, master!"

"Trace, on!"

Amidst the chaos, Archer and Caster had to halt their support fire and redirect their attention to an incoming barrage of projectiles threatening to take out the masters. It was fended off successfully, and the sparks would have filled the sky, had it not been already filled with explosions, curses, and bursts of light and fire.

Tracing their trajectory, they were met with the sight of several darkened Benkeis riding atop the Lahmu and throwing their weapons at them with disturbing grins.

"Your defensive formation was impressive."

"But now that its form shifted, it will crumble like a house of cards!"

Just as the darkened servants said, the light difference that made not having Tamamo and Archer's support caused some Lahmu to start slipping through their first line. More so now that some Benkeis joined the assault directly as well

"Damn it! There's too many of them!"

"Senpai!"

The situation worsened by the minute as a group of Benkeis made it dangerously close to the masters, forcing EMIYA to drop his black bow and confront them with his twin blades alongside his fellow red knight, leaving only Tamamo to take care of the raining weapons and Ishtar of the support fire.

"Follow me!"

"You don't get behind!"

Their synchronization was sublime despite how they often barely tolerated each other's presence. The four married swords repelled the assault seamlessly despite the numeric disadvantage. The two red knights moved as if they were one, covering each other's weakness and balancing attack and defense perfectly, leaving the multiplied Benkeis stunned.

However, while that group met defeat, more of them kept coming despite the efforts of their vanguard.

"Hnn!" But then, a ray of hope made its way through the dark clouds in the form of a salve of javelins that either managed to pierce the Benkei and Lahmu, or at least distracted them enough for one of the servants to take them out.

"Who?" The two masters snapped their necks in the direction they came from, and their eyes widened in surprise. Atop the seemingly desolated ruins of Girsu City, there was...

"There are people there!"

"There are living humans in Girsu!"

Most of the servants took a moment to assess their affirmations, and they were right. There weren't more than ten, but those valiant warriors were still fighting till the bitter end. And the reason why, despite the distraction, the Chaldeans weren't overwhelmed, was because a considerable number of Lahmu shifted their attention to them, too.

""Humans, humans, humans!"" Their disturbing voices filled the place as they rushed towards the obviously easier prey, much to their horror.

"No! We can't let them die!"

"Jaguar!" Quetzalcoatl roared in response to Mash's terrified voice. "Run interference! Show me your speed! We're saving as many of them as we can!"

"Okay, leave it to me!" The response of the Lancer servant came just a beat after. "As the beautiful beast of the wasteland, Jaguar Warrior, I'd run a thousand miles to help you, Kuku! This is going to hurt quite a bit, but I'm going to go crazy and draw their attention!"

Her divinity spiked up as she propelled herself into the swarm of Lahmu and started to wreak havoc like an authentic mad woman. They could even hear real Jaguar roars.

And now that the pressure was reduced to half, there was only one thing left to take care of before reaching their destination...

"Hehe. Even if most of those mindless monsters were lured away, you still can't defeat me."

"Just give it up and join me and Mother. Only then you will reach true Nirvana."

"No... It's time for me to take responsibility for my subordinate's failures!" A single voice rose to the challenge, and all the Benkeis widened their eyes upon seeing the white blur racing towards one of them using the few Lahmu around like springboards without a care in the world around her.

"Ushiwaka!"

Even Ritsuka's worried voice fell on deaf ears. The black-haired Rider kept jumping through the swarm with her eyes set on the Benkei who spoke last, with her katana at the ready to unleash a single strike, aimed solely at him.

"What are you doing, Yoshitsune-sama!" Even the darkened servants couldn't help but feel confused. She was recklessly shrugging off all damage, fully committed to a single, suicide attack she knew was pointless.

"Go back where you came from, Yoshitsune-sama! There is no grave for a fool like you to be found here!"

"Right back at you! For this sea of mud to be my Dan-no-ura this time... but I, unlike my brother, need to make amends for your stupidity!"

She marked those last words as she thrust her katana into Benkei's open chest. The darkened servant didn't even flinch and just looked at her with a mixture of pity and disappointment.

"Your Dan-no-ura, huh? In that case, I'll humor you. Let's go to hell together!"

On his command, he grabbed her katana to pin her down while the other six Benkei ran her through with different weapons. Ushiwakamaru didn't attempt to escape either, as if she were accepting the attacks, and blood splattered all over the place.

None of her allies could do anything to help her. She was too deep inside the enemy lines. However, despite her desperate situation, the raider showed her subordinate a bloody smile.

"Heh... Naive fools... What could a Benkei... hope to accomplish... stabbing me?"

Her words caused confusion to return to the darkened servant's face, and when he realized what she meant, it was already too late.

"No-"

"The Wandering Tales of Shana-oh: Benkei Fudou Ricchi!"

A noble phantasm that she never used all these months because Musashibou Benkei, or at least someone impersonating him, had already been there fighting by her side. And now that she released it, rather than manifesting a Benkei, all the Benkei desperately withdrawing their weapons had all their muscles completely rigid, leaving them unable to move.

"Tsk. They won't even budge... But what does that accomplish? You're spirit core is still in tatters, and even if your comrades destroy these bodies, I'll just make more of them-"

"No, it's over. If you want to deceive me, you'll have to do better." Ushiwakamaru took the time to calmly pull out her katana from Benkei's chest. "The fact that my noble phantasm affected you is already telling. You might have lost your cowardice, but you're still the same at heart... and that body is special judging by how you're struggling the most compared to the others."

"What nonsense are you spouting, Yoshitsune-sama?"

"I may have been a fool completely oblivious to how everyone felt, but you were a fool completely preoccupied with them. Your immovable stance was always rooted in a deep concern for the weak and helpless... But to be honest, your best quality, and the one I even envied... was that cowardice that made you run that day..."

Those words, accompanied by a soft smile prompted Benkei to struggle even harder against his own body. "Stop! Please stop, Yoshitsune-sama!"

But she continued nonetheless. "You survived thanks to your foolishness and cowardice. Even if it made you look awesome for a moment, why would you throw away the former? But now that it's come to this... let's get things wrapped, shall we?"

As the Rider started leaping around using the frozen Benkeis as footholds, the main one stopped struggling, accepting his end too.

"Ah... I see... The ultimate technique among the Wandering Tales of Shana-oh..."

"Dan-no-ura, Hasso Tobi!"

Every bit of strength in her crumbling body of ether was put into that last swing. Benkei's body was cleanly sliced in two diagonally, and the two looked at each other one last time before their bodies faded away.

"I'm sorry I am so late, Hitachibou..."

"No... You've never been late, Yoshitsune-sama, we were just too slow to catch up to you..."

After leaving behind those words that were quickly carried by the wind and the sounds of the Lahmu, both Ushiwakamaru and Benkei, alongside all his bodies, quietly disappeared.

That simple attack wasn't able to pierce through the authority of the Goddess corrupting the monk. However, it seemed her honest words did lift the proverbial veil from his eyes, and his hatred and will to fight disappeared.

No more bodies were created from the Chaos Tide.

"USHIWAKA!"

"Confirming that both Ushiwakamaru and Benkei's spirit origin disappeared..."

Meanwhile, a certain black-haired master couldn't bear to witness the conclusion of their battle. "Why did she..."

"It was her decision and resolve," Archer spoke calmly, even if he was clearly affected by it, too. "Do not let her sacrifice be in vain."

"Quetzalcoatl, this is your chance! Don't waste the opportunity!"

The Mesoamerican Goddess looked at the two remaining servants from the King. Seeing their determination to act as the stepping stones for Chaldea's victory, she couldn't help but answer in kind.

"Of course! Everyone, pull back a little! If you are too close, you might end up getting burned along with everything!"

Having said that, Quetzalcoatl commanded her winged serpent to fly high into the sky, above Tiamat's head, taking advantage of the gaps in the enemy formation left by Benkei's disappearance.

After reaching the desired height, the blonde Rider looked at the Primordial Goddess directly in the eye. Despite all the chaos, explosions, and all her children being slaughtered right in front of her, she still had yet to even spare them a glance. Her starry eyes were completely focused on Uruk's figure in the distance.

"Tiamat, the primordial sea that wove the base of all life. To see that you, of all beings, seek to destroy mankind and create a new world... My heart breaks for you, Tiamat. However... This world belongs to the humans! Without reason, without will, without soul... You elect to destroy your own children blinded by hatred! This I cannot allow!"

She made her declaration, shouting at the top of her lungs. Her voice could be heard at a distance even further than the Golden King's. Yet, no reaction from Tiamat whatsoever.

"In that case!" Quetzalcoatl raised her hand into the sky, and her divinity started to be unleashed without any restraints. "South America's Goddess lives with the forest and beasts! The sun blesses with life and creation, not destruction!"

A magic circle with Aztec symbols was drawn over the palm of her hand, and an instant later, her noble phantasm was summoned in all its splendor.

That managed to force the entire battlefield into a pause. All the Lahmu turned their attention to her, most likely deeming her a threat now rather than some plaything. But most importantly...

"AAAAH..." Those massive starry eyes finally set on her, acknowledging her presence for a second.

"The past is here! The present is here. The future is here! Come winds, come lightning! When the morning star shines, let all know the sun's light reaches every corner of the Earth! PIEDRA DEL SOL!"

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!"

With its true name released, the sky covered with dark clouds was instantly cleared. Light filled the entire place for a moment before the solar winds reduced all the nearby Lahmu to cinders, and more importantly, all the Chaos Tide in the vicinity was evaporated. Not just that. The ground beneath it was turned into a hellish landscape, successfully bringing the primordial Goddess to a halt.

"Wow! That's definitely a hell of a noble phantasm." Ritsuka remarked as he literally felt his energy being drained by the second and his face turning paler.

"Hothothothothot! Mash, Jeanne, block those winds, or else we'll be charred as well!"

Answering to Ishtar's desperate plea, the two servants deployed a limited release of their noble phantasm to block the heat coming their way. Now that the Lahmu weren't attacking them, they could use the moment to take a brief respite.

It was brief. Quetzalcoatl ceased her noble phantasm output for a moment to not leave Ritsuka completely drained. But a frown immediately appeared on her face.

"Figures... The mud comes from her, so just wiping it one time will just buy us some seconds..."

Much to their dismay, more Chaos Tide was being produced to flood the scorched land. No, it was worse. That was going to advance as a literal wave rather than just water pouring into the land, and...

"Quetzalcoatl! Tell me you can fire your noble phantasm again! If that wave advances, it will destroy the Fangs of Napishtir, and Uruk will be raced to the ground before Tiamat gets there!"

"There's more from where that came from, yes! Sorry, Ritsuka, but we'll have to keep it up until Ereshkigal finishes her preparations!"

At her command, another wave of solar winds was unleashed, resetting the battlefield once more. And of course, Tiamat started producing more Chaos Tide and Lahmu. The new generation of Lahmu managed to resist the solar winds to some extent, and started to throw themselves at her in kamikaze attacks like burning spears.

However, despite some of them even grazing her after avoiding being shot down by twisted swords or golden arrows, what truly caused Quetzalcoatl's face to lose all its color was an entirely different matter.

"What the..." The massive horns growing from her back started to shift their position, and most of the energy she was putting into her legs to produce the Chaos Tide and to walk over it was now redirected to the horns. "Don't tell me... It's almost as if they were... wings..."

From everyone else's perspective, Quetzalcoatl suddenly canceled her noble phantasm and hurried towards them like an exhalation.

"Quetzalcoatl, what are-"

"Hi, I'm back!" She just ignored Romani's voice while giving them a deceptively cheerful salute. "Forget about about our plan. That thing isn't just absurdly strong, but also a cheater. If we continue this, we'll get dropped to the mat muy rapido."

"Well, yeah, Onii-chan seems like he's gonna faint at any moment, but where did all your motivation go!?"

"Apparently, that thing can fly."

Those simple words were more than enough to plummet their morale six feet under. The sheer absurdity of it was already shocking but given Quetzalcoatl's dead serious tone and all the absurdities the primordial Goddess pulled off already...

"You have to be joking! Mother is an earth Goddess! How can she fly, let alone with that huge body!?"

"No... Quetzalcoatl is right. Analyzing the structure of her horns, they are literally turning into wings. Burning the Chaos Tide will be useless, and we have no means to take her down as we are."

"Then we should retreat to Uruk and-"

"You know that's not an option, Ishtar." Archer's words took down Ishtar's proposal before she even finished. "If we don't buy more time, all the preparations taking place at Uruk will be for nothing."

"And what do you propose!? Trapping her in your reality marble as you said and throw your life for some minutes!? Having Quetzalcoatl here burn herself for one last attack with her noble phantasm!?"

The fact that neither the red knight nor the Aztec Goddess denied her words only made things worse. The Mistress of Heaven's red eyes then shifted towards all the other servants in a desperate attempt to find an alternative.

"You, deluded empress who thinks herself as my reincarnation, didn't you say you had a miraculous trump card!? Now is a really good time to use it!"

"Slander! You're just an impostor! Besides, we already agreed that won't work until she's dropped into the underworld!"

Her eyes then landed on an identical face. "Then what about your Sacred Sword!? If we power you up enough, it should be enough to destroy one of her horns, right!?"

"Ishtar, I'm afraid by the time we gather enough energy for that, Tiamat will be already flying away."

"Then-" Whatever she was about to say next was caught in her throat when Quetzalcoatl patter her shoulder.

"My way is way faster, Ishtar. I'm going first. I'll be leaving the rest to you then."

The black-haired divine spirit bit her lower lip, but after some seconds, she ended up conceding. "In that case... show us a truly spectacular Lucha Libre move."

"Of course."

"Is it really the only option?" It was Ritsuka who asked this time, not wanting to lose another comrade so soon.

"This isn't a question of being able to do it, Ritsuka. but rather, prioritizing what comes after." EMIYA voiced the thoughts in all the servant's minds bluntly. "We might be able to break those horns if we throw everything we've got at them, but there's no point in doing that if it leaves us exhausted for the real battle once Tiamat is dropped into the underworld. Quetzalcoatl's plan, as crude as it sounds, is more efficient."

"I wouldn't put it that way, but in essence, sí! But first, let me..." The Goddess suddenly invaded the master's personal space, grabbing his head by his cheeks and pulling him for a kiss.

"...!"

"WHAT!?"

No one was left indifferent by her sudden stunt. The master was so surprised his eyes almost rolled behind his head, the Shielder servant was so flustered she seemed to be about to have a heart attack, and his sister and a good amount of female servants let out an "Oh my" with either knowing looks or shocked ones.

"Wow. Leave it to a Goddess to not give two shits about reading the room. But I guess that got her more points in one go than a lot of people here thus far..."

That comment Alter thought would go unnoticed gained her several glares.

"Th-that's what you m-meant by... having me close?"

"Okay, that got me a decent amount of energy back, yes! Now then, without further ado, bear witness to my ultimate attack and engrave it into your mind, master."

After leaving those parting words, alongside a cheerful wink, the Mesoamerican Goddess shot to the skies once more.

This time, however, she didn't stop just a hundred meters above Tiamat, and continued to ascend until she became a dot in the cloudy sky.

"No weapon in Mesopotamia can hope to damage Tiamat... That's what I said, but fortunately, I'm a foreigner, a divinity from a distant land! Primordial Goddess, you are nothing to me!"

Making her declaration, she summoned her Piedra del Sol once more. Instead of pumping magical energy into it, she took it into her body, causing it to be enveloped by a coat of hellish flames that made her look like a miniature, scorching sun.

"Kuh..." As a part of her authority, the assimilation should have gone smoothly, but in her current situation, it was exerting a huge pressure on her damaged Spirit Origin.

She could hear the ten countdown in her head as pain filled it. Her own flesh and Spirit Origin were getting burned from within. Success or not, this would be her final attack.

"Witness the power of our own underworld, Xibalba, and the cataclysmic impact that annihilated countless lives! I shall burn everything away and become the shooting star that killed the Earth! Here I go..."

Having reached the point of no return, the Goddess of the Sun and the wind used her flames to propel herself in the same way a luchador would jump from a corner of the ring. She performed a flip that ended in a flawless drop kick aimed at the Primordial Goddess.

"ULTIMO TOPE PATADA!"

The flaming kick truly looked like a meteor impact that divided the skies, seeking to end every sentient being on Earth. Rather than a Noble Phantasm, it appeared as an invading force from outer space, imparting judgment with complete impartiality.

The distance was crossed in less than a bit, with the suddenness befitting of a calamity. The Primordial Goddess didn't have time to react before the flames of the shooting star engulfed her titanic body, and then... all senses of every living being in Mesopotamia were shut down for a second.

Eyes were blinded. Eardrums shattered by the visible soundwaves. The winged serpents were almost flung away by the shock wave, and the entire landscape was rewritten by sheer force.

After excruciatingly long minutes that almost ate away at the psyche, the Chaldeans finally recovered their senses and eagerly sought the result of Quetzalcoatl's final gambit.

But then, their hearts reproduced a feeling that, despite having experienced it several times in the span of two days, they couldn't shake off as of yet.

Sheer disbelief and horror.

"You have to be kidding... Doc, tell me I'm just seeing things..."

"No... Our scans are confirming it, Ai... Tiamat's body structure is... completely intact. If Quetzalcoatl's final attack caused any damage... it is completely inconsequential to her flying capabilities... The only thing she achieved was making the Primordial Goddess stumble a bit..."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" As if to defy Romani's already pessimistic observations, the primordial Goddess screamed with enough power to shake the entire battlefield and started to produce more Chaos Tide and Lahmu even faster than before.

"Damn it! I don't know how much will the winged serpents last without Quetzalcoatl around, but you have to get out of there! Even if it were just some seconds, those are already precious!"

"Master, your orders!" Mash asked while all the other servants waited for their response. They were prepared for whatever they decided, be it withdrawing and regrouping with Gilgamesh at Uruk, or struggling until the bitter end to buy more seconds.

However, before any of the two siblings could answer, a certain red knight had already made his decision as he commanded his winged serpent to move ahead.

"Well, this is way sooner than I expected, but I guess it's my turn now." He turned around slightly to look at his only remaining comrade and give her a reassuring smile. "I'll leave the wrapping up to you, Souji. Take good care of the Chaldeans and Goldie."

The Shinsengumi's first unit captain was struggling to hold back her tears as she stared at his golden eyes. For the first time, she was having trouble suppressing her emotions and donning her cold mask

Many times she wondered how things would have been if she never succumbed to her illness and was able to fight alongside her comrades, and maybe even be the one to send them off...

Now she was starting to realize it was just as horrible.

However, she swallowed her sorrow as best she could, and showed him her best smile. "Farewell, Archer-dono... I hope we meet again one day."

"Haah..." A sight escaped the lips of two servants who shared the Archer class.

"Geez, I give up with you thick heads. Tell me you at least got a plan."

The red knight couldn't help but chuckle at Ishtar's resignation. "I'll improvise something once I got Tiamat inside my reality marble. The ideal outcome would be destroying one of those horns, but seeing that even that nuke wasn't able to pull it off, settling for just stalling sounds good enough."

"You are aware that Ereshkigal will get disappointed if you don't show up for the final battle in her realm, right? Not to mention..."

Her red eyes shifted to a trio of servants, but to her surprise, only one of them seemed worried while the other two looked at the red knight with complete trust.

"What is the matter, fake Goddess of Beauty? In cases like this, a bride's duty is to send off her husband with a big smile and, of course, her blessing."

Upon saying that, the empress bestowed all her cheat skills upon him, and the holy maiden did the same with her own blessings.

"May the blessings of our Lord be with you, Archer. You can leave the rest to us."

And lastly, the fox maiden begrudgingly joined in giving the auburn-haired servant her blessings.

"Have a safe trip, Goshujin-sama. But make sure you come back, even if it's by getting summoned to Chaldea, you hear me?"

"Fou Fou!" And at last, a certain white fur ball jumped out of Mash's shield and landed on his shoulder to give the red knight one last licking before the Shielder forced him inside once again.

"Haah..." Another sigh left Ishtar's mouth. "Okay then... In that case, as your mistress, I'll send you off with the most awesome blessing of all!"

Upon making her declaration, the Mistress of Heaven brought out a gem brimming with magical energy and proceeded to smash it over Archer's head.

"I order you by my command seal, Archer, give Mother the beating of her life!"

As the energy of the makeshift command spell flowed into him, the red knight sent a glance to a certain Wrought Iron Hero, which was met with indifference.

"What? You've already made up your mind, and at least this time are aware of the consequences."

"I just wanted to say I'd be leaving you the spotlight this time, but I'll take that too."

"Whatever you are about to do, do it now! The next generation of Lahmu is already there!"

All pleasantries were shut down the moment they heard Romani, and a pair of golden eyes focused on the proverbial tsunami of otherworldly monstrosities.

"Well then, buddy, ready or not, here we go!"

The winged serpent answered with a resolved roar, or the closest thing a reptile could manage, before setting off to their final charge against Beast II.

"I am the bone of my sword!" The red knight immediately started uttering his unique spell, not just to deploy his reality marble, but he also used it to summon his most reliable defense at its strongest.

The Seven Rings that Cover the Burning Heavens came to life in front of the winged serpent just before ramming against the swarm of Lahmu. It was debatable whether those things counted as "thrown weapons", but they kept with their tactic of coiling their bodies and threw themselves at him like arrows.

"Steel is my body and fire is my blood."

By the time he uttered the second line, he was already closing one eye to keep his focus as he felt all the brutal impacts on the flower-shaped shield. At the same time, he started firing swords back at the incoming Lahmu in hopes of taking some of them down, or at least deviating their trajectory to alleviate the burden on Rho Aias.

"I have created over a thousand blades."

Normally, he would be able to defend properly while casting his unique spell, but aside from having nowhere to dodge, deploying his reality marble in this instance was probing to be way harder than usual. The grimace on his wasn't because the rate at which he and the winged serpent navigated through the swarm was way slower than the speed at which all of Rho Aias' layers were being demolished.

Whether they made a point to destroy Rho Aias after resisting so many attacks, or they could actually sense what he was about to do, all of them were focusing on him rather than going after the Chaldeans. There were shrieking laughs and annoyed yells that supported both assumptions.

"Unaware of loss, nor aware of gain."

"Kuh!" A pained groan made its way up to his mouth. His shield was already falling apart, and although the winged serpent had taken most of the brunt of the impact, the vibrations still shook his bones.

Yet, the main reason was that he was finally making it to Tiamat. It wasn't just her Chaos Tide that destroyed and reformed everything in its path. Due to her nature as an Evil of Humanity, her very presence was corroding the space around her. If it wasn't for all the blessings pilled upon him, he wouldn't be able to power through it to rewrite reality.

"Withstood pain to create many weapons, chasing an ever-distant dream."

By the fifth line, the last layer gave in to the onslaught. With the closest of timings, he jumped away from the winged serpent before the Lahmu slaughtered it in less than a second. Kanshou and Bakuya were summoned in the next beat just in time to start fending off the Lahmu that managed to redirect their trajectory just in time. He just needed to buy some seconds more to finish his aria.

Easier said than done. With all his magical energy permeating the entire area, he was basically a walking, or flying in this case, target. Even Tiamat must be aware of his presence, even if she wasn't doing much to hinder him-

Or yes.

"I have no regrets. This is the path I chose."

The moment he shouted the sixth line of his aria, the concern that he had been putting away to not get discouraged became real. Coincidence or not, Tiamat finished deploying her wings at that exact moment and started taking off. He didn't have the luxury to expand the limit of the bounded field that far from Tiamat's figure, so it wasn't going to take her that much to fly away from the limit. Even if just a part of her head made it out of the border, that would completely mess up the spell.

"My whole life was..."

He wasn't going to make it by the fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second... and there wasn't going to be a second chance. Either he fell right into the Chaos Tide, or the Lahmu turned him into cheese, but his end was going to be quite pitiful-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"...!"

A shout filled with confusion came from Tiamat, completely overshadowing Archer's. Despite her wings batting at full throttle, the Primordial Goddess's figure wasn't elevating in the least. It was as if she had been bound to the ground with a rope or something-

No, now that Archer looked at her legs there was something massive wrapped around them, pulling her back to the ground as if to remind her that she was a Goddess of the Earth and not a Goddess of the Heaven like Ishtar.

That didn't just stop Tiamat, but also got the attention of most of the Lahmu, who immediately went to attack the unexpected enemy, just to get destroyed by some kind of purple beams. That coupled with the reptile appearance of the "rope" holding the primordial Goddess helped Archer to figure out what was happening.

A smirk made it to his lips. He didn't know how this miracle came to be, but now there was only one thing to do.

It was time to make sure that the Heavens would no longer be the domain of the Gods.

"Unlimited Blade Works!"

With the true name casted, the ring of illusory fire shot forth in all directions, now looking more like a proper dome, and created the border. At that moment, reality was broken down before being reformed into something else.

The scorched Mesopotamian grassland and the Chaos Tide corrupting them were no more, replaced by a land devoid of life, with only steel filling it. The dark clouds announcing the end were replaced by a never-ending twilight clogged by rust.

The entire place was shaken by the act of Tiamat falling to her knees now that there was no mud to keep her up. However, she wasn't attempting to produce more Chaos Tide, and instead seemed completely perplexed as she looked at the lonely hill of swords she suddenly found herself in. Even the Lahmu were joining their mother in her confusion.

"Who would have thought..." The eerie silence was interrupted by the sole voice of the owner of this world as he walked up to the top of the hill to rest his hand on his noble phantasm. "...That the mother of all living things could be surprised by one of her own children's inner world. Then again, reality marbles are all about defying any kind of expectation."

He really doubted Tiamat could even understand human language, even as old as the one he was currently speaking, but it would have been rude to not properly greet her into his domain. The root of her confusion, rather than the reality marble itself, most likely was that the landmass she was trying to destroy suddenly disappeared, but it was still amusing that her reaction was still the same as many others who gazed upon his inner world.

Now that there were only servants in this world, there were some chances that she could be defeated as long as the border held out, but there was still the problem of the firepower. He didn't have anything as powerful as Quetzalcoatl's last attack, and that barely scratched Tiamat.

Honestly, that guy would have been a way more fitting choice. The black sword would have done a number on her, paradox or not. But beggars can't be choosers, and with Fou still holding the title of Beast IV in this timeline, summoning him is almost impossible and would only lead to a brutal rematch.

"Now then, I thought this would be a solitary dance between you and me, O' Goddess Tiamat, but someone decided to join the party."

His golden eyes sent a side glance to the unexpected ally towering more than ten meters over him.

"Hmph. I just came here to take revenge for what Tiamat and Kingu did to me. Don't get in my way or I'll destroy you as well."

Her deep voice reverberated throughout the entire hill. The vengeful Goddess that once swore to eradicate all humanity out of scorn, was now standing beside him. However, if you asked Archer, the ominous and menacing presence was nowhere to be felt.

Her appearance was mostly the same, but there were a few key differences. Her face was still filled with just rage, but there was none of the sheer contempt she exuded upon gazing at a human. And her once pitch-black clothes were now pure white, giving her an almost regal look.

But the most noticeable detail must be... the way she spoke. Again, there was no contempt directed at him, just indifference that bordered... familiarity. It was almost as if...

"Well, do as you please. But if you manage to bust one of her "wings", that would definitely screw her good."

The only answer he received was a grunt. The snakes growing from her hair stirred as magical energy was poured into them in preparation, and Gorgon's pupil shifted to their original square shapes, indicating that she was pulling all stops.

In tandem, Archer drew his golden sword, emitting a blinding flash that drew the attention of all the Lahmu, if they weren't already focused on the vengeful Goddess. Avalon's utopia was projected upon the hill, but that didn't make this world more peaceful for the "new humanity", as thousands of blades started to come out of their resting place.

The entire Unlimited Blade Works soon became filled with screeches and hisses when the countless Lahmu finally shifted to attacking mode and corrupting mud finally started to flow under Tiamat's legs.

With a roar of her own, the monstrous Goddess rushed towards Beast II while blades of all shapes and origins rushed to meet the swarm of Lahmu. Not that Gorgon needed to be protected, as the Lahmu could barely scratch her skin.

Her hair snakes had a mind of their own, so she just had to focus on rampaging her way to Tiamat while they either atomized the Lahmu with their beams or outright devoured the ones that got close. The few ones that miraculously managed to close the distance were either swept away by her claws, turned into stone by her eyes, or crashed against her to barely make a bruise.

For Archer's part, there was little teamwork to have in this situation, so he just advanced to burn away the Chaos Tide on Gorgon's path with his golden sword, alongside all the Lahmu that got in the way.

It didn't take them that much to reach their objective, flanking Tiamat who had yet to throw a single attack. However, the worst-case scenario happened when the seemingly unstoppable force met the unmovable object.

Explosions permeated the entire battlefield. The vengeful Goddess literally threw everything at her disposal at one of Tiamat's horns. Beams, mana bursts, her petrifying eyes, and even hitting it with her claws and tail. That assault would have been able to decimate Uruk alongside several servants.

There were no stops. This was the full might of a mythical monster that had to be bested by strategy rather than brute force even with the help of the Gods. But there were no results. The cracks Archer managed to spot were more likely already there, a result of Quetzalcoatl's noble phantasm.

"Haah... Haah..." The sight of a monstrous Goddess like her panting as she withdrew to regroup was terrifying in an entirely separate sense. "Tsk. A mere avatar won't cut it as I thought. I will have to unleash my full true form..."

She deactivated her mystic eyes before turning to look at her comrade. The question went unsaid, and the red knight caught it despite still being in the middle of halting the Chaos Tide from corrupting the Reality Marble.

"Do what you must. Unless your attack is space-shattering, you won't destroy this place. I'll make sure to do the cleanup after it."

"Hmph, you can just leave this to me and run back with the Chaldeans. It's not like you were making much of a difference anyway. I'll make sure to wreck her for good this time."

Despite her harsh words, the tender smile on Archer's lips as he spoke never wavered. "Thank you then. For everything you did despite your fear. Still, if you'll be going too, then let me give this back to you at least."

He pulled out something from one of his pockets and had it delivered right into one of her hands by shooting it stabbed by a mundane sword.

The vengeful Goddess stared at the seemingly insignificant parting gift in her hand, and her expression became... complicated.

"Heh, I guess trying to fool you was a waste of energy. At least this time... I'll get to say my goodbyes properly."

Determination returned to her face with even more intensity as she began to harness all her remaining magical energy. Her signature magical circle was deployed beneath her and Beast II, and the Blood Fort Andromeda was instantly deployed.

The life force of all the Lahmu was starting to be drained, but the principal effect of the deployment of her noble phantasm was...

"Farewell, Archer. Now, I shall become the Great Snake and bring the Earth Dragon down to the ground!"

Her regal form, the last vestiges as a Goddess, disappeared once and for all, and the true Monster of Gorgon was manifested. Now, the only thing that remained in front of him was a terrifying, amorphous monster that cursed everything in its sight.

But Archer didn't take his golden eyes off of her. She- no, Ana became the very monster she hated so much just to give humanity a chance to reclaim their future, and he was going to witness it with pride.

"Melt everything away! PANDEMONIUM CETUS!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Her final attack was released, and Beast II once again made no attempt to defend herself, taking it head-on. The entire reality marble was shaken, and the red knight had to reevaluate his affirmation as he had to put more magical energy into it to sustain its existence.

After all, it seemed as if the very space itself in front of Gorgon was petrified and then liquefied.

In the end, he had to cover his eyes from the impact and brace himself to not be blown away. The only thing he was able to feel was another huge tremor as if someone had dropped an aircraft carrier in the middle of the reality marble.

Once he opened his eyes again, he was unable to spot any Lahmu, only some statues. The Chaos Tide had been also turned into a stone slate.

But, as he somewhat expected, Tiamat's figure remained standing menacingly in front of him. However, for the first time, her figure didn't cause him a deep sense of fear. After all, there was pain in that otherwise uncaring expression.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

A voice of pain and confusion left the Primordial Goddess. There were no wounds on her body, yes, but the horn that Quetzalcoatl managed to crack now lay in shatters beside her. It was taking her an active effort to keep her balance now that her weight wasn't distributed symmetrically.

She didn't just lose her flying capability. Even with the help of the Chaos Tide, her pace was bound to be slower for a while until she managed to adjust her posture.

His grip on his nameless sword strengthened. He could finally see light at the end of the tunnel. Now what's left...

"Now then, will you dance with me until my body gives in, O' great Goddess Tiamat-"

BABUMP!

His one-liner was interrupted when an oppressing feeling invaded him. There was no incoming attack, at least not physical, but the feeling of something going horribly wrong filled his mind.

"So you got tired of my humble world, huh?"

He could sense it. The distortion around her became more pronounced. She was trying to corrode his reality marble with one of her Beast Authorities. He couldn't get the specifics, but if he had to haphazard a guess, that skill was literally negating any kind of noble phantasm or attack that originated from the "History of Man".

"Well, forget about stalling..." Now that his Reality Marble's time had been cut short no matter what he did, it was better to use that few time he had thanks to the numerous blessings to make a difference.

As much as he didn't like it, he would have to take a page of that guy and put his entire being into this single attack.

"Sorry, but as rude as this might be..."

The red knight's voice echoed with power, accompanied by sounds of words getting stabbed around him. Countless blades concentrated around and behind him, and the sounds of steel scratching against steel became almost unbearable until a literal wall of swords rose to cover the heavens.

The red knight closed his fist as a signal, all his magical circuits glowing in overdrive, and every weapon in his world pointed its blade towards the Primordial Goddess.

"I'm gonna pay you back with everything I've got!"

And then, the sea of steel met the sea of life. The thunderous sounds produced by the clash would have left completely deaf a regular person, and Tiamat's figure became buried in blades.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

She emitted a voice that blew away most of them, but more of them kept going. And amongst them...

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" The Nameless Sword of Promised Salvation and the Original Sin were brought down on Tiama with all his might. Not just them, but also a couple of swords whose shadows managed to even cover Tiamat's figure.

"AAAAAAAAA-"

A couple more thunders shook the entire world as Beast II's figure disappeared into the sea of steel.

---

""Huh!?"" Several voices of surprise filled the silent plains in unison.

With all their winged serpents having faded away due to Quetzalcoatl's disappearance, the Chaldeans plus Okita and Ishtar had to make an emergency landing. After that, they decided to watch from afar the outcome of whatever happened inside the Unlimited Blade Works.

Their surprise was caused by the dome of flames starting to collapse. After all...

"No way... It hasn't been even two minutes! How was Archer-dono defeated that fast!?"

"Hmph... So much for his "heroic sacrifice", but at least-"

Alter's sarcastic remark was derailed the moment her pale yellow eyes managed to discern the figure that emerged from the Reality Marble. Not only her. Every one of them couldn't help but widen their eyes the moment they were met by such a view.

Beast II was still fine, that was to be expected. However, that "fine" now became quite relative. She was still "immortal" and had no really serious injuries, whatsoever.

However, she was no longer standing, nor was she kneeling due to the lack of Chaos Tide.

Tiamat, the primordial Goddess and Mother of all Living Creatures... had been taken down under tons and tons of blades. Her right horn had been completely shattered, and the left one had some serious cracks.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

But most importantly, the real reason she wasn't able to shake off the sea of steel covering her was the two behemoth swords pinning her to the ground by sheer virtue of their weight. An unrefined, black, mountain-felling sword, and a jagged sword that seemed to be made of pure, hellish fire. Both swords were positioned as if a giant had performed a cross swing on Tiamat, completing a picture that seemed straight out of the most ancient retellings of the battle against that very Primordial Goddess.

"Wow! Since when did he have those ginormous swords and why didn't he use them before?! They are giving the Axe of Marduk a run for its money!"

"Those are... from Goldie's armory, but... they are..."

"Divine constructs." EMIYA completed Ishtar's wavering words with the same sense of bewilderment. "Which should make them impossible to reproduce by our gradation air, no matter how much more advanced is his. The result, at best, should be a hollow replica that would by no means be able to hold Tiamat. How did he..."

"Well, remember that after some really long convincing from Siduri, King Gilgamesh let Archer-dono take a look at his armory? I think now I know why he spent most of his days off studying it..."

"Don't mind the details!" The Bride Saber interrupted her Sakura counterpart with an ear-to-ear smile. "What's important is that Darling kept his promise and even outdid himself! In fact, he must be-"

"No, I'm afraid to tell you, Empress Nero, that both the signal that was somewhat similar to Gorgon's and Archer's can no longer be detected. They either died or exhausted themselves until disappearing." Now it was Romani's turn to rain in her parade, and this time, she was visibly affected if the way her smile faded was anything to go by.

Her eyes drifted towards the Mistress of Heaven, who, for once, didn't answer her with a glare. "Don't look at me. That idiot severed our contract right before his final attack. Seriously, there should be a limit to how much considerate one is..." Those last words were whispered with a serious amount of frustration.

"The question is, what should we do now?" Arturia put all that drama aside to determine the next course of action.

"Can we do something to prevent her from getting off bellow those swords?" And Ritsuka posed a pretty good question.

"Any attack might, in fact, help her in that endeavor. Also, from what I'm picking up, the flaming sword is burning her Chaos Tide seconds after she produces it. However, it seems another batch of Lahmu is about to be born."

"In that case, we don't have that much time. As convincing as those projections are, they are bound to be flawed."

"Then let's-"

"No, don't be hasty, Mash." The Shielder's most likely proposal to protect the swords was stopped by Ishtar's soft voice. "If what the Counter Guardian says it's true, we can't waste the precious time those two bought us. Without Quetzalcoatl's winged serpents, you're gonna need every second to get back to Uruk in time before Mother gets there."

"Besides, you two could use some rest. You're already bordering the necrosis around your magic circuits."

Tamamo's comment was the straw that broke the camel's back, and begrudgingly, the two masters gave the order to retreat.

As the Chaldeans' figures disappeared in the distance and Tiamat's children attacked the reproduced Ig-Alima and Sul-Sagana relentlessly to free her, only a certain Mistress of Heaven was able to spot a certain anomaly in the battlefield.

In the middle of the scorched plains soon to be corrupted by the Chaos Tide, a certain flower crown rested, unperturbed by all the destruction around it.

---

The arduous travel back to humanity's last bastion on foot took several hours, and by the time they made it, a horde of Lahmu had gotten ahead of them and was already wreaking havoc. There were very few soldiers left defending the city, and the Golden King himself was snipping the abominations with his limited Gate of Babylon from atop the Ziggurat.

"Doctor Roman, how many people are left in the city!?" Ritsuka asked hurriedly as they cut their way towards the King through the apocalyptic city.

"In total, excluding King Gilgamesh and you, the only life signals I detect in Uruk are the eight soldiers you saw on your way..."

Romani's somber words would have felt like a splash of cold water, but at this point, they got that feeling so many times in a single day that, as perverse as it sounded, they managed to put it aside quickly.

"Uruk won't fall until Gilgamesh does! Let's see what the King has in mind!" Okita proposed, her face having set on her cold mask from the moment she parted ways with Archer.

As per usual, the King met them with unimpressed eyes after climbing all the way to the top of the Ziggurat. "You're already back? How long has it been, half a day? Funny, it seems like it was just a moment ago. No need to put me up to speed. I was able to see everything from here. To think all our strength was worth just 15 minutes. But that in itself is impressive."

His red eyes returned to the city after those casual comments. "Alright. Take a look at the city. One more step, and it will be wiped off the land. The end of the world."

As they looked in the same direction, some hearts skipped a beat. The Chaos Tide had already made it into the city, effortlessly destroying all the buildings on its path.

"Even our embassy..."

Six months of memories were gone in an instant, but worst of all, they didn't have the luxury to worry about that as they had to fend off the constant attack of the Lahmu. To put it into perspective, the situation was similar to those zombie movies where the protagonists were atop a bus desperately shooting at the horde of undead trying to swarm them.

"This is just terrible... Even I didn't go that far when I was venting my anger. Does Mother truly hate humanity that much?"

"Who knows? It's up to debate if that thing can even think. In other words, ever since she became Beast II, she is most likely no longer the Tiamat you heard of from your father. A mechanism that only acts to destroy the world."

"And how's the Underworld Goddess doing!? Is she ready!?"

The fact that Alter's question went unanswered was quite a bad omen. But the reason seemed to be another. One pretty big.

"Look at there. She's finally here. Our mother."

Tiamat's figure was finally visible from the city of Uruk in all its splendor. Just the vibrations of her steps were already shaking the foundations of the Ziggurat despite being still some miles away. Looking at her now, she truly looked like a doomsday device, and the broken horns only made it even more menacing.

"Ishtar, take to the fly! You can fly, so there's no reason for you to remain here! Stand by above the dark clouds. I'll issue the instruction."

"Got it. Ai, Ritsuka, take good care of Goldie. He's too confident for a human. Keep a close watch in case he does something stupid."

Things really looked bad if Ishtar was obeying Gilgamesh's command with just a slight jab, and the latter just snorted at it.

"You fool. They aren't sticking with me. I'm sticking with them. Wait, no, that's not- Aargh, I'll think about that later!"

"King Gilgamesh, this is not the time to be having a mental breakdown."

The Golden King looked at the Shinsengumi's first unit captain as if he hadn't noticed her up until now.

"Oh, so you decided to see this through, Souji. Sit back with the Chaldeans then and watch closely."

The King's gaze finally turned serious as ancient runes spread from his spell book and floated around him. His in-commensurable magical energy as a Demi-God started to fill the place, overshadowing even Arturia and Tamamo's.

"This shall be Uruk's final stand!"

After his daring proclamation, the Chaldeans were left confused as nothing happened immediately. But that quickly changed as the roaring sounds of cannons started to assail them from all sides. The gloomy skies filled with vicious Lahmu were suddenly filled with mighty steel that pierced their bodies and continued to hit directly the looming form of the Primordial Goddess.

This was it. The very moment he anticipated six months back, and one of the reasons he decided to open his armory and trust his treasures to his people. What stood against Beast II as the final line of defense of Uruk wasn't a King two-thirds God, but the collective might of humanity's power and wisdom!

"The Dingirs!?"

"But how? There's no one-"

The two masters were the only ones who could afford to voice their thoughts but were quickly interrupted by Gilgamesh.

"Fwahahahaha! Don't underestimate my magical energy, plebe! Who do you think created, controlled, and supplied with magical energy all 360 Dingirs from the start!"

"But we saw the soldiers use the lapis lazuli to detonate them-" Mash managed to get that out just in time before a group of Lahmu crashed into her Shield, which in turn were obliterated by a combination of Tamamo and Alter's flames.

"That was just a substitute! If I work this body to death, I can control and detonate them all like this!"

"Wow... the Gil back at Chaldea has never done something remotely like this..."

"Unlike my young foolish self, I am the supreme King! The blood of the Gods, as much as I despise it, runs through my veins. Moreover, if the Faker managed to stall Tiamat for five minutes all by himself, then I shall show you how I can hold her for five minutes and one second!"

His words were accompanied by the sounds of the explosions caused by multiple weapons crashing against Tiamat, and her piercing voice. In her expression, although remaining mostly the same, there could be seen hints of annoyance. After all, the Mother Earth Goddess and dragon was subjected to being on the receiving end of humanity's power in the form of endless steel for the second time in a day.

The scene itself would have been awe-inspiring, if it wasn't because his bordering childish competitiveness with his natural enemy didn't show at the end of his speech. As much as it seemed to be fueling his motivation into new highs not even he knew.

Conversely, in the face of Uruk's valiant counterattack, the Lahmu that had been just causing destruction at random shifted their focus to the Ziggurat. And in a matter of seconds, even the remaining eight servants found themselves overwhelmed.

"Jeanne, quick, use your noble phantasm!"

"O' flag of mine, protect our comrades-"

It was at that precise moment that things started to go south. In that exact moment were most of the servants were focused on the swarming Lahmu and one of their defenders had to stay still to charge her noble phantasm, an ominous glint appeared in the distance, almost like a star prophesying certain doom.

One of the few people who was able to spot it in time was the orange-haired master... who found herself on the receiving end of it. With Mash protecting her brother and Jeanne in the middle of releasing her noble phantasm, her brain instantly drew a single conclusion.

She was dead.

No matter how fast she tried to move her fragile body, the incoming attack would cross the distance even faster than EMIYA's Hrunting.

"Fooouuu!"

"Ai-sen-"

Things happened so fast that she wasn't able to register anything. But by the time she did, she noticed that she was now sitting flat on her butt, no longer in the attack's trajectory. And when her golden eyes drifted to figure out what happened, shock assailed all her system.

"King Gilgamesh!?"

The Golden King paid no mind to her panicked scream, his blood-red eyes fixed on the gaping hole in his chest. The part in which the human heart is located to be precise.

"Tch! How dare you try to snipe me!? But you have a good aim. Impressive, you dammed Tiamat!"

After saying that, the King resumed his self-destructing casting as if nothing happening, making the horror on the two masters and their kohai's faces grow further.

"But you need treatment immediately! Why are you-"

"Worry not, this is just a mortal wound. Or what? Are you saying it's impossible? That I'm at my limit? That Uruk cannot fight anymore!? Is that what you are saying, Chaldeans!?"

Those questions might as well have been hammered into the masters' chests. They wouldn't have been able to put it into words had they been asked, but something inside them got flipped, and the growing despair in their expressions faded away completely.

""NO! We aren't done for! In fact, we're just getting started!""

Those words spoken in perfect sinch as if they were twins brought a smile to everyone else in the vicinity despite the overall hopeless situation.

"Well said! Now I'll be showing you all my power! Not that I wasn't doing it already, but I have a King's vanity!"

"Umu! As Darling likes to say, the word "impossible" is for losers who didn't try hard enough!"

"Those two ended up being truly cut from the same cloth."

The Empress of Roses and King of Knight's words almost killed the King's momentum, but he managed to pull through.

"Guys, Tiamat has finally entered Uruk! Three minutes until she reaches the Ziggurat! And I'm also detecting a massive discharge of Lahmu! 8000 in total!"

"Wow! That doesn't look good at all! Mash, use your noble phantasm too-"

"Wait, hold on, Ritsuka!" The red Archer suddenly cut the black-haired master with urgency filling his voice. "They aren't coming to attack us!"

"What do you mean-"

"Emiya is right! They are launching a massive attack on the Ziggurat itself! Get out of there!"

"Master, stick closer-"

"Luminosite Eternelle-"

There was no time to react when part of the structure beneath them crumbled violently after a mass of Lahmu forming a sledgehammer hit its center. All their figures were lost in the rubble, much to Ishtar's surprise and horror.

"What in the- When did those things learn complex maneuvers like that!?" However, her red eyes managed to spot two figures that had managed to stay out of the rumbling. "Wait... Goldie is still hanging in there, and the samurai girl too. Then I'll clear the Lahmu!"

The Mistress of Heaven pulled out a considerable amount of jewels for a massive barrage, but someone beat her to it. Once again, steel rained down on the "new" humanity, exterminating them efficiently.

"...!" Ishtar's heart skipped a beat, hoping to see a certain servant when she turned around, but the surprise quickly turned into a mixture of disappointment and confusion the moment she recognized the figure tearing apart the Lahmu with machine-like precision. "Kingu!? What are they doing here!?"

She wasn't the only one. All the Lahmu were sharing their feelings and ceased their rampage.

"Kingu!? How. You alive!?"

"How you. Still moving!?"

"No. Ask why. Reason."

"Why you ally? With the humans?"

"SHUT UP!" Their scream was followed by several chains of heaven that bound and torn apart the nearby Lahmu. "I haven't sided with humanity. I am a new type of human entirely. I am Kingu, the one and only member of the new humanity! And I told you, now that I have a heart again, you mass-produced trash are no match for me! Hah! To think those humans had the gal to talk back to me when they are struggling so much against filth!"

The slaughter continued, with all the Lahmu being exterminated without pause. However, Kingu's expression began to soften as they made their declaration.

"But I guess that's the thing, isn't it. They couldn't do anything on their own and they knew it. The moment I thought I could do everything on my own, I proved to be flawed..."

At that moment, the conversation they had with the Golden King that night crossed their mind. It wasn't something life-changing, just them being on the receiving end of Gilgamesh's frustration and disappointment upon seeing his friend's pitiful state. However... he did make a really good point.

"Forget about everything... Mother and my origin. Do something I truly want to do... That's not what I am... That's not who I am, Gil... However, when you get down to it, there was something I wanted to do... I wanted to see you. To talk to you. Even if that wish wasn't mine. Even if these feelings I wanted to share aren't mine, but something engraved in the machine called Enkidu. Yet, even if that's not possible, my wish remains the same."

Their magical energy started to spike up, causing arks of electricity to feel their surroundings and their long hair and clothes to dance with the wind.

"Just like that machine, I too was born into this world to preserve it! It has nothing to do with old humanity or new humanity!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Their roar seemed to have been the only thing thus far that managed to reach the primordial Goddess, who was now literally meters away from the Ziggurat. "Kinguuuuuuuuu!"

The child looked at her mother with tenderness, yet their resolve remained unchanged.

"Farewell, Mother. You chose the wrong child. I didn't really get what he expected of me, but... this body remembers what it is supposed to do! Great Grail of Uruk, lend me your power! Thought I'm not Enkidu, I, Kingu, will show you the power of the Chains of Heaven!"

Their magical energy, powered by the Grail he had been gifted on a whim, reached its zenith, ready to finally unleash the ultimate attack of that body. A true countermeasure of the World itself against threats to all life in it.

"Mother's wrath is a thing of the past! Now, I will awaken the breath of the stars!"

On their command, countless chains emerged from the earth and wrapped around the weapon of the Gods as they soared into the sky above Beast II. As they reached the optimal height for the dive bomb, their body emitted a blinding light as all the chains fused to reveal their true form. The real Chains of Heaven once meant to bind Gilgamesh which later turned against them.

"ENUMA ELISH! Humans, let us bind the Gods!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

The only thing Tiamat was able to do, was emitting a confused voice as her first child attacked her with the power of the world she was trying to destroy.

The world itself was shaken by the first impact, followed by the sounds of countless chains wrapping tightly around every corner of Tiamat's body, and then ominous tremors and crackings as she tried to shake herself free, to no avail.

Such an incredible sight was what met Okita Souji after climbing her way up to the top of what was left of the Ziggurat. Gilgamesh was already there, observing the scene worthy of being recorded in the epics that would be preserved in the future, with an expression full of pride even as blood continued to flow out of his chest.

"My King! I know this is kind of late, but shouldn't we try to fix that wound!?"

"No. Only when Mesopotamia is well and truly destroyed that Tiamat's rage can be quelled. You who chose to be the last witness of this story, Okiya Souji, will be the one to accompany the Chaldeans to the final fight. For now, take this moment to rest and enjoy the view."

Begrudgingly, the Shinsengumi's first unit captain tore her eyes from her master and looked at the Primordial Goddess.

"As you can see, she's literally at our doorstep. One step more, and this Ziggurat will be reduced to ashes. That's why these moments must be incredibly frustrating to her. With those chains, even taking a single step is a daunting task. It might be just a momentary restrain, but to her, a mind-numbing eternity."

He made a pause as his expression turned solemn. "Goodbye, celestial orphan. This feat, here, was equal to any in your life before. The Chain of Heaven held back even the strength of a God of Creation."

Just as he said that they were almost startled when a beam of golden light tore the debris behind them, revealing the battered figures of the Chaldeans.

"King Gilgamesh, what's the situ-" Ritsuka's voice was stuck in his throat the moment his blue eyes processed the view in front of him.

"Those chains are holding Tiamat back? Where did you even get those?"

The Golden King snorted at the Kitsune's question. "That is of no concern. Pay close attention. The final judgment is finally upon us."

As if on cue, the golden chains binding Beast II finally collapsed under her immense strength as a dragon. However, it truly seemed fate had everything planned because it was at that very heart-wrenching moment that they heard a voice they'd been waiting for the entire they.

"King Gilgamesh! The phase transition between Uruk's underground and the underworld is complete! We just need to dig a hole!"

Ereshkigal's voice was like music even better than Mozart's concerts to their ears.

"Ishtar, do I even need to tell you what to do!?"

"Heh, as if I hadn't been waiting for this exact moment!" The Goddess's riled-up voice came from the heavens with unexpected clarity. However, her momentum died for a moment. "But before I do it, are you really sure about this, Goldie? Have you no regrets?"

"Of course not! What regret is there to be when I was able to send off my friend for a second time? Now though, rather than mourning, I have their valiant figure burned into my memory for eternity!"

"Oh c'mon! You know that's not what I mean!" Her sigh was also heard in the distance. "Even now you don't even acknowledge me. But I'm not even bothered now that I'm not only Ishtar. Alright! Enough melodrama! The future will take care of itself! I'll scatter every regret to the wind! Brace yourselves, 'cause I'm gonna punch through the ground beneath your feet with no mercy! Maana, gate open!"

As the Mistress of Heaven finished preparing her noble phantasm, Gilgamesh's expression relaxed.

"At last, the true split with the Gods is here."

"Why are you so set in sacrificing yourself? We can heal you with my scabbard, you know?"

"That's not the point, King of Knights. Even if I were to survive this battle, once you humans have truly parted ways with the Gods, I won't be necessary. My only concern was how I was going to die, but as luck may have it, I was mortally wounded thanks to you, Fujimaru Ai."

"That's a weird thing to thank me for... but you're welcome?"

"That excessively easygoing personality is sometimes bothersome. Don't make me say more than I need. Etch this into your minds, Chaldeans. Even if everything in this era had been called into service, I have a feeling things would be already over. But as a foreign factor in this era, you tipped the scales. Now, you should get ready if you don't want to accompany me."

As he said that, a huge vibration shook the world. With that last step, Beast II's looming form was in front of them, raising her other leg to crush the Ziggurat with all of them along. However, they could already see the massive glint produced by Ishtar's planetary arrow already being fired at them.

"Fouuuuu!"

"Master Ritsuka, grab my hand!"

"Grab mine, Ai!"

"Crouch down and anchor yourselves to the ground!"

Both masters took Mash and Jeanne's hands respectively and followed EMIYA's instructions to get ready for the impact just in time. Ishtar's "arrow" slipped throw the narrow gap between Tiamat and the Ziggurat, hitting its foundations directly, and so, their world was turned upside down.

During the few last moments the masters were able to keep their consciousness, they were able to see an unbelievable image.

As the figure of the Golden King who refused to kneel in his last moments faded away, a smile was present on his lips. However, unlike his usual amused smirks, that was a genuine smile of satisfaction.

---

By the time they regained awareness, they found themselves in another free fall, just like the very first moment after having been rayshifted to this Singularity. Fortunately, their servants this time were prepared to handle it. Or more exactly... something was slowing them down as they approached a cold, lifeless land.

"I can't allow my first official guests to die so easily, can I? Here, I've granted you all permission to float in the underworld. Just concentrate magical energy bellow your feet."

A familiar voice greeted them with manners and grace befitting a queen, the complete opposite of the one they knew well. In that case, the identity of that Goddess was obvious.

The Mistress of Kur was already waiting for them when they landed smoothly, with her red lance at the ready and a confident smile plastered on her face.

"I'm glad to finally meet you all, but pleasantries will have to wait. And..." Her red eyes scrutinized the group as if they were searching for someone in particular. "Wait, where are Archer and Gilgamesh?"

The only answer Ereshkigal got was a collective, dead silence, but whether she was dense enough to not get the hint or she did but didn't let it deter her, she continued without missing a beat.

"It's a pity but we'll have to start without them. Now, look and behold!"

She spun around and pointed ahead with her spear. Meanwhile, she seemed to have finally let the light coming all the way from the surface reach her realm, allowing them to see better the landscape around them.

The land of death was certainly impressive despite its general dullness, but the fact that now they could see the sky through the hole that Ishtar blew made it even more.

"So that is the underworld of the Age of Gods, huh? You fell 2000 meters, but given the measurements I'm getting now, I'm no longer sure of anything. But more importantly, is that thing ahead of you Tiamat? But why is she set on fire? Does Ishtar's noble phantasm have that capability?"

"I'm pretty sure that isn't the case, Doctor Roman," Mash answered his question absentmindedly as she took in the spectacle before her eyes alongside her comrades.

Tiamat's figure was, in fact, some miles away from them, and her body was set aflame as Romani depicted. What he wasn't able to see, though, was that her body was being pressed against the ground by some kind of force, as if gravity around her was exponentially augmented.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

"That's one of the underworld's countermeasures against uninvited guests. This is a law enforced by the world itself, so not even a being like Tiamat can survive once it's activated."

"That's... way more brutal than I expected, but I guess it isn't that different from Enma-sama's hell," Tamamo commented with a bit of reservation. As a divided spirit from the Goddess of the Sun, this eerie place was affecting her the most.

"So, the plan is hitting her now that she's weakened?" On the contrary, Jalter felt invigorated in such a place, her eagerness dripping from her voice.

"Wait, shouldn't we wait for Ishtar to come down? We will need everything at our disposal-"

"There's no need for Ishtar or Gilgamesh!" Ereshkigal suddenly cut Okita mid-sentence, and her red eyes turned golden as she started exerting her divinity. "You can leave this to me! I'll finish her for you in no time! Hear me, o' Gallu spirits, the spears of the rotting flesh and death!"

Upon hearing her command, thousands of spirits like those they encountered in Kutha started to manifest above Tiamat, readying lances of magical energy. The Mistress of Kur herself started to summon spears above her head in tandem with them, and the force holding Tiamat seemed to get stronger as massive arcs of electricity joined the flames.

"Feel the wrath of the iron hammer of Kur! Everyone, attack!"

At once, all the spears were released upon the defenseless Primordial Goddess. Even though the attacks themselves didn't look that impressive, their blades managed to pierce through Beast II's steel-like skin that had managed to withstand all kinds of mighty noble phantasms thus far.

The Primordial Goddess shed blood for the first time after manifesting, and her form was quickly overshadowed by the explosions and chunks of flesh and blood getting blown away. Even her pained cries were lost in the one-sided slaughter.

The attack was astonishingly effective compared to everything they had thrown against Tiamat despite Ereshkigal's obvious overconfidence.

"Wow, I thought you just pulled a massive red flag on us, but you really did it..."

"It's hard to believe things to be that easy..."

The Mistress of Kur puffed her chest in delight at the masters' reaction. "Well, you better believe it. Even I too find it easy, but nothing can survive an all-out attack from the underworld itself."

"No... no offense, Ereshkigal, but something feels off..." Arturia remarked with a frown, and her Japanese counterpart agreed.

"I don't have Arturia's instincts, but I don't think King Gilgamesh would have been so preoccupied if things were this easy."

"Right!? I didn't even get to show my super awesome ace!"

"Empress Nero, I don't think that's a real concern..." EMIYA's words fell on deaf ears, but he did agree that he was having a bad feeling about the situation. More so knowing Ereshkigal's vessel's identity.

"I know it's only natural for you to be so cautious after battling Tiamat for so long, but there's no... need..."

The Goddess's words started to die and her face turned so pale she looked sick. Most likely, she finally caught what was triggering Arturia's instincts, and she had a way better grasp of the situation in her realm.

Her reaction was already a bad omen, but as she was still in shock, Tamamo-no-Mae's face became also a grimace. "Mikon... The divinity of this place is being corrupted..."

"Yeah... this place is being profaned. In the same way, the cult of the Dark Lord likes to use our Lord's symbols in twisted ways as mockery." And Jeanne's comment was pretty much the final piece to know what was happening.

"Don't tell me she's still-" Mash's words were interrupted by an even more hysterical Romai.

"You guys are right! I'm detecting a surge of Chaos Tide inside the smoke, and it's starting to corrupt the underworld! Moreover, Tiamat's Spirit is growing... wait... what in the world are these readings!? It's reversing even further, it's reaching the Jurassic Age! That's no longer a servant with an absurd amount of divinity! That's a complete God!"

"W-w-w-what is h-ha-happening!? What did I do!?"

To complement the absurdity of Romani's words and Ereshkigal's mental breakdown, the blue glint that permeated the underworld was forced into a blood-red one, and the Chaos Tide started to quickly spread through the place.

"It's coming! Her reactor core has finished rebooting, and all her wounds have been healed! This is the true form of Beast II!"

And as if on cue, a pair of massive, bizarre wings blew away the smoke covering her form, revealing a sight that put to test their mental fortitude as human beings.

There was no longer a trace of the former femme fatale appearance. She didn't even look remotely humanoid, with the only thing indicating that she was the same being were her starry eyes, her motherly bosom, and her damaged horns. Standing on her four limbs now turned into bestial claws, a massive tail growing from her rear, feathered wings, and monstrous jaws that defied the very concept of anatomy by reaching down her neck.

Now, she truly looked like the Earth Dragon she was often depicted as in legend. And she wasn't wasting time to produce Chaos Tide and Lahmu in overdrive.

That sight easily induced despair in any kind of witness, no matter if they were human, renowned heroes or Gods. In fact, the most confident figure of them was the one to first give up.

"Y-you have to be kidding! T-t-there's no way we can defeat her!"

"Where did your courage from just a minute ago go, Ereshkigal!?"

"I-I mean, I'm losing more and more authority over the underworld as her mud spreads!"

"Quit yapping already! What kind of Goddess of the underworld are ya, meow!?"

An unexpected voice interrupted them, and everyone looked around to see the battered figure of a certain Jaguar Warrior. Her ridiculous tiger pajama was replaced by a formal suit some of them would relate to the Japanese Yakuza, her eyes now turned red, befitting her status as a Goddess, and her "pawn pole" was now a proper naginata.

""And where do you come from!?""

"I was busy with some matters aside from evacuating the people from Girsu, and came here after seeing Ishtar blow up Uruk! You don't have to concern yourselves with how I feel about you guys leaving me aside for this! What matters is that, even if she looks more intimidating, Tiamat's undoubtedly at her weakest here! We need to attack now! I don't need to tell you what will happen if she gets outta here!"

"Jaguar Man is right! It won't take her even a day to cover the entire world with her mood. You have to defeat her at all costs before she climbs back to the surface! If you manage to kill her here, she shouldn't be able to pull off her paradoxical resurrection!"

"That's easier said than done! Can we even get close again with all that mud and Lahmu!?"

"Wait, something is happening." The King of Knight cut in right after her orange-haired master, her expression far from hopeless. "This essence... don't tell me-"

"What the! Are those... flowers? Flowers in my underworld?"

"Flowers blooming from the Chaos Tide..."

Looking at all those flowers absorbing the Chaos Tide and halting its advance out of nowhere, a figure popped into everyone's mind. And being that mage they were talking about, even if it was still surprising, it didn't come as a shock when they heard his carefree, dream-like voice.

"All right, it seems I made it in time before you guys began. Don't be so surprised though. When faced with an ocean that births life, the best way to counter it is to turn that life into something harmless, don't you think? In that case, as the Mage of Flowers, you have the right man for the occasion here!"

A torrent of scattering petals carried his voice just before condensing into his figure right behind them.

"Merlin!? How- Did King Gilgamesh summon you again!?" Okita approached him with renovated joy, causing the half-incubus to smirk.

"Of course not. That man barely had anything to spare right before his death. The explanation is way simpler. I just popped here from Avalon."

"FOUUUUU!"

"What the hell!? That doesn't make any sense!"

"Ignoring Cath Palug and Romani's distaste and your lackluster explanation, it's good to have you here, Merlin." Arturia greeted him casually, no doubt having been expecting something like this from the moment she saw him "die".

"With the Earth in such a disarranged state after the Human Order Incineration, Avalon's laws might have been weakened enough for him to escape momentarily."

EMIYA's explanation shed some light on the mystery, making the surprise on the trio of teenagers fade and a grimace form on Merlin's expression.

"Ouch. Why do you have to flex your knowledge as a Counter Guardian and spoil my surprise? But that's mostly right. I hate partings and goodbyes, so I bent the rules a liiiiiiittle to come here for the final battle."

"That's all well and good, but do you have something else for Tiamat? Her mud might have been halted, but if we don't do something, she will just fly out of the underworld!"

"For that, let me address the main issue here. Two Goddesses tried to pin her down. An infinite creation of swords stood in her way. The Chains of Heavens bound her. She was dropped into the underworld using Uruk as bait and faced the wrath of Kur. Not to mention you Chaldeans and all your Heroic spirits. You literally threw everything under the sun at her, but to no avail. She still has yet to know fear. She has yet to meet something that could be called her natural enemy. Or should I say, he whom I call "Death"."

"Merlin, there is no time for riddles. Get to the point."

"I'm getting there, Arturia. What I mean is that there's still an ace up the proverbial sleep of humanity. Someone who wasn't summoned by Gilgamesh or the King of Mage's Grail, but you, Ritsuka, and Ai. Someone who came here to repay a debt, and is ready to cast away his title of "Grand". After all, from the very beginning, all the conditions for his manifestation were met."

The color seemed to finally return to everyone's face as they slowly made sense of what the Mage of Flowers said.

"To sum it up, you say a Grand Servant has been actually summoned here all along?"

"That's right Ritsuka. Now..." Merlin walked up to the front of the group to stare directly at Tiamat and raised his voice enough for her to hear. "O' primordial sea look up in the sky! Look up, Goddess of life, and know "Death"!"

"All that begins must end. So, too, all that lives dies, and in dying, value finds."

Right after Merlin finished his proclamation, another, deep voice came from above them. There, standing on the border of the pit leading to the underworld, they were able to see a figure that matched the description given by Archer of the man calling himself Ziusu-dra.

"Thy vaunted eternity is but hollow slumber. Beast of Disaster, evil born from mankind's folly, thy desperate wish that thy love not go unrequited shews thy rejection roots."

"AAAAAAAAAAAA- AAAA- aaaaahhh!" His words, or more exactly, his very presence were already able to cause a new reaction from the primordial Goddess. She seemed to be getting distressed just looking at him.

However, the image of the decrepit old man started to fade away, revealing a real appearance that the last masters of humanity were familiar with.

"Of rank, nor station, nor title of Grand have I need. Bear witness, Goddess of Life, to the testament writ with mine own blade."

An imposing figure towering over two meters, clad in dark armor and clothes, and a helmet shaped as a skull whose eyes emitted blue flames. His hands rested on the pommel of a black sword with little ornamentation, and his presence inflicted fear and enticed reverence.

"Thou fallen god, to beasthood turned, if Primordial Mother be thy title, attend and hear mine. From the mountain abyss, I come, and only death do I bring. I am the Old Man of the Mountain, the first Hassan-i-Sabbah."

After announcing his name, the Grand Assassin unceremoniously jumped all the 2000 meters towards Tiamat and readied his nameless blade.

"The bell of evening tolls thy name. Touch not the sky, for by heaven's will I shall strip thee of thy wings!"

And with a single swing infused by his noble phantasm, both wings were cleanly severed, as if it didn't take a meteor impact and a mythical monster to destroy just one of them. But the repercussions of his actions didn't end there.

"Unbelievable! Tiamat's Spirit Origin pattern has changed! That sword didn't just damage her physically! The very concept of "Death" has been forced onto her! She's no longer a true Goddess, but a regular servant, albeit Beast class! You can finally destroy Beast II!"

Romani's enthusiasm was shared by everyone. The morale that had been plummeted for the umpteenth time now reached its peak after finally hearing good news.

"Way to go! I knew King Hassan was scary, but damn that's awesome!"

"You weren't the one was forced to being clinically dead for almost an our, you know?"

"So that is the guy that stole my and Darling's big role this time, huh? It was an incredible performance I must admit."

"By the way. Now that you can finally damage her, I'll tell you something I've found out after analyzing her Spirit Origin. Her spiritual core is located in the head. Target it if you want to defeat her."

"Nice one, Da Vinci! Ritsuka, Ai, I don't think I need to tell you what to do!"

""You bet!"" The two masters immediately injected themselves with a vitality ampule in preparation, and all the servants readied their weapons.

And there was no time to waste. Now that the Goddess recognized her newfound mortality, she was desperately birthing Lahmu and scrambling up one of the walls to escape to the surface.

"This is truly our last chance. Is everyone ready!?"

Upon receiving multiple voices and affirmations, there was only one thing to do.

"Mash-chan, say your thing!"

"Yes! Commencing Grand Battle of the singularity!"

"Ahem!" Hearing that, Ereshkigal seemed to have finally gotten out of the shock of seeing so many flowers in her underworld and regained her regal demeanor. "I've regained my authority over the underworld. As a one-time deal, I will grant you permission to act in the underworld and even give you a boost in power. The Mistress of Kur, Ereshkigal, asks you a favor. Heroes of the surface, crush that evil dragon! The connection between Earth and the Heavens must be severed by human hands! By humanity continuing far in the future!"

Her command had an immediate effect on everyone, even the masters. All of them felt invigorated as if they had just woken up from a good night's sleep.

"If that's the case, let me provide even more firepower..." To their surprise, Okita sheathed her blade and instead pulled out a flag just like the Maiden of Orleans. However, its appearance and the kanji written on it were easily recognizable for the two masters and EMIYA.

"Don't tell me- Is that the Shinsengumi's flag of sincerity!?"

Ritsuka didn't receive an answer, not that he needed it. Instead, the Sakura Saber was focusing all the magical energy gifted to her into this noble phantasm, and began chanting in a similar way a reality marble user would to manifest it.

"My wish is to swear an oath together, live through the times together, fight this war together."

"Even if it leads to a meaningless death, I will not change my wish."

"Before the flag, covered in warm light, I do not dare to look up."

"To the end, the word 'sincerity', I wish I had it."

"But, now is the time."

"Here... will I raise the flag!"

She did as she said and waved the banner. To everyone's surprise, including hers, over a hundred figures manifested, all wearing the same representative haori as hers. And by the looks of it, most of them were already riled up for the upcoming fight.

"It's just like Iskandar's Ionioi Hetairoi! Just on a smaller scale. Senpai, were you already aware of that?"

"No, I just recognized the logo, but wow... I don't recognize them all, but there are big names..."

"It's as you said, Mash. They are manifested as lesser spirits, and the more renowned ones most likely won't have access to their noble phantasm."

"Listen, everyone!" After walking to the front of the group, Okita raised her voice to get everyone's attention. "I'm glad to see so many of you answered my call despite the arduous task ahead. A battle to decide mankind's fate will be fought here alongside illustrious figures from another organization working to take back humanity's future! I ask of you, will you lend us your strength!?"

"What kind of question is that, Okita." A grumpy voice came from a man wearing a black version of the Shinsengumi haori as he walked up to her. "If that Goddess wants to destroy the world, then she's as bad as the dissidents. We'll make sure to kill her. Step aside, I'll lead the charge."

"Wait, Hijikata-san! The masters of Chaldea will be the commanders and their servants will lead the charge."

"What are you saying, Okita-"

"Don't hear him, Okita. We'll follow your instructions." Another figure, a man wearing a characteristic bandanna walked up and made Tojizo aside. "If you say they are the ones qualified to lead the operation, then I trust you."

Relief filled Okita's face. "Thanks, Kondo-san. After all, we'll have King Arthur as our spearhead."

It was then that they noticed the knight bearing a striking resemblance to the Sakura Saber taking the lead, with her awe-inspiring Sacred Sword in full display.

"Warriors from the far East who answered humanity's call at the last hour, let us fight to save the world together."

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH!"

Just that brief speech from her was more than enough to make most of the rowdy group immediately follow her to the end of the world. That was the power of her charisma now that her Spirit Origin was the closest to her time as King Arthur with a recently unified Britain.

"SHINSENGUMI, ADVANCE!" Of course, Tojizo just ignored it and ran by her side like a madman.

"Hurry master! We can't get behind!"

The Chaldeans plus Merlin and Ereshkigal hurried themselves to Arturia's side. Using the trick shown to them by the Mistress of Kur to float in the air, they ran diagonally, aiming straight at Tiamat's head as she climbed the wall.

Of course, the Lahmu didn't take long to get in their way, and now that there was nothing to ravage, their brutality was completely focused on them. Furthermore, as Romani put it, those Lahmu seemed to be mutated putting them some levels ahead of all the ones thus far in terms of raw power.

Compared to the swarm, their little army seemed like a dot, but that small dot clashed fervently against the inhuman monsters. The battle that broke between the Shinsengumi and the Lahmu was something one would've never been able to see during their period, but rather in the Sengoku age. Despite having very limited Spirit Origins, even the nameless soldiers managed to stand up to the monsters, albeit by helping each other in pairs.

Of course, Ereshkigal's blessings were helping, and to that, they had to add Tamamo's blessings and Merlin's support spells as well.

"We must hurry! It's better if we go ahead as they act as a distraction!"

"I was thinking the same! Arturia, Nero, Jaguar Man, do the honors."

"Understood/Umu/'kay!" The three servants in question started to pierce through the Lahmu with all their might. They no longer had the luxury of conserving energy, so to everyone's sixth sense, they were like stars with all the energy they were emanating.

"Okita, go with them! You can leave this to us!"

"Right! Thanks again, Kondo-san!"

The Sakura Saber joined the elite squad, too, having complete trust in them to handle the Lahmu. And to add even more gas to the proverbial.

"Heh, I see you're finally hyped up! I hope you didn't forget about me for this party!"

The arrows of light from the Mistress of Heaven rained from above, joining the spears of the Mistress of Kur to melt away any resistance on their way. That, inevitably, caused Ereshkigal to grimace.

"You could ask for permission to enter my realm at least once!"

"This is for the old time's sake, sister! Don't be so uptight now of all times!"

Some of them couldn't help but roll their eyes at their Shenanigans. Not that they could afford more than that. They were literally going full offense, with Mash and Jeanne also joining the fray with the masters, who were spamming every support spell in their mystic codes. Even Merlin was begrudgingly fighting, wielding his personal image of Excalibur.

"Huh!?"

"Kihihihihi!"

But after closing in so much they were finally able to see Tiamat's form beyond the swarm of Lahmu, the King of Knights let out a surprised voice as her Holy Sword had trouble slicing a particularly beefy Lahmu.

The same applied to the Empress's Aestus Estus, Okita's katana, and Jaguar Warrior's naginata, and they suddenly found themselves being pushed into a stalemate by this new kind of Lahmu. They were managing to resist all the projectiles thrown at them, be it EMIYA and Ishtar's arrows, Alter and Ereshkigal's lances, or Tamamo's curses, and were pressuring Jeanne and Mash's defense to an alarming degree despite attacking while laughing.

"What's the deal with these things, Doc!?"

"The magical energy of those Bel Lahmu surpasses even that of a Demon God Pillar! Think of them as Beast II's direct familiars! Like the original Eleven Offsprings!"

"We can't be intimidated by enemies of that level! Bring it on-" Just as Jaguar Man was saying that, the Lahmu she was fighting broke her stance, which led to a brutal strike that blew her away. "Wait! Don't bring it on! They are really tough!"

They were able to hear her pained voice in the distance, and albeit a bit comical, it was still concerning that they just lost a member so easily.

"Then we break the big gun's already! Alter-"

"Wait, Master!" Nero suddenly interrupted Ritsuka's command much to his surprise. "The timing is perfect now! Allow me to show you something that will definitely leave everyone baffled!"

"Okay... Go for it, Nero!"

"Umu!"

The Empress of Rose jumped back to the rearguard and lifted her flame-shaped sword in front of her. Its flames ignited once more, but their intensity was something they'd never seen before.

"Rome is a nation of love, connection, and affection! Ally to everyone who seeks to forge ahead a new path towards the sky and dreams of a better tomorrow! For all roads lead to Rome! And so, I call upon thee, O' light that illuminates the road to the stars!"

The flames grew in intensity so much as she prayed, that they outright became golden. No, they were no longer flames, but a beautiful light that enticed a familiar feeling of warmth.

"Together, we shall reach our happy ending! Per Spem ad Astra!"

She released the true name of her new noble phantasm as she swung her silver sword, and all the light condensed around the blade was fired in the form of a massive beam. All the Lahmu in its way, even the ones with Spirit Origins that qualified as fragments of Beast II, were instantly atomized by the light much to their astonishment.

"What the! That seemed even more powerful than Archer's!"

"Those readings are on par with the ones we got from the final battle in the Second Singularity! It has the power to take down Demon God Pillars in one blow. Way to go, Empress Nero!"

"Did you seriously have that kind of trump card and never bothered to use it up until now!? The Fifth Singularity could have been solved in an instant!"

"Keep the praises coming! And I already told you, Darling and I prepared this specifically for the big villain! We honestly didn't remember what you told us during the Singularity, but we had a feeling that something would threaten humanity's future, so we made our own preparations! Namely, we reforged and refined our swords!"

With each word, she kept swinging her sword, tearing through Beast II's offspring all by herself.

"And of course, I was the one who came up with the name! Now you could say it's a complete noble phantasm!"

"Tsk. Don't get too mixed up and end up exhausting yourself, child emperor." Out of pure sentiment of rivalry, Tamamo shed her regal clothes, returning to her original outfit with more mobility, and rushed to the empress's side to support her better.

The sight was strange as it came, seeing those two fighting in complete coordination, and things got even weirder.

"This proves a worthy battle. A single horn cannot slake my sword's thirst, and disuse ends only in disrepair. Children of Chaldea, Bride of the Stars, wouldst thou welcome an Assassin's aid?"

The menacing figure of the first Old Man of the Mountain suddenly appeared beside them, his sword slicing through the Lahmu like paper maché.

"Oh hell yeah!"

"All kinds of help is welcomed right now!"

"This sword is meant to be wielded alongside Darling, but right now I'm feeling magnanimous, so I'll make an exception!"

"Very well. Henceforth, my sword shall create your destiny and your will shall create my body."

With the help of the now former Grand Assassin, the remaining distance was cut quickly.

"Finally, you're in attack range! But she's already 300 hundred meters away from the surface! She'll get out of the underworld in five more minutes at that rate!"

"Understood! Emiya, Tamamo, Alter, deal with the Lahmu as best as you can!"

"Everyone else, we'll face her head-on literally! Even if we can't defeat her that fast, maybe we can push her back!"

With the orders issued, the servants immediately took their positions and commenced the final offensive. However, things weren't as simple, as per usual. Now that Tiamat was literally fighting for her life, she acknowledged their hostility and fought back with all her might.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

"Incoming!"

Dozens of beams like the one that put an end to the Golden King's reign assailed them from all directions, forcing them to halt and stay put behind Mash and Jeanne's protection.

Their time ran even shorter then. Even if the waves of Chaos Tide coming at them were neutralized by Merlin's magecraft, Tiamat herself started to climb towards them with her jaws open, no doubt with the objective of swallowing them whole.

"Damn it! We need an opening!"

"Leave that to me!"

Without waiting for an answer, the Sakura Saber rushed into the barrage of beams. It was almost impossible for even the servants to see her as she sailed through Beast II's attacks at divine speeds.

Now that she could literally use any point in space she wanted as footholds thanks to Ereshkigal, her flash-step technique became a godly asset. The best they could see were several after-images between the beams.

However, when she was finally reaching her destination, she realized in horror that those starry eyes were, indeed, able to track her, and the Primordial Goddess was now aiming to swallow her-

"AAAAAAHHH!" Her head was suddenly forced down by a huge impact, exposing her forehead.

Another figure had managed to sneak through Tiamat's attacks using his supreme Presence Concealment and delivered a swift strike with their nameless sword. Just in time for...

"Mumyou Sandan-dzuki!"

The ultimate technique of the Shinsengumi's peerless prodigy was unleashed, and the three thrusts hit simultaneously the place she roughly calculated was Beast II's core. The defense provided by her dragon skin was ignored, and her Kiku-Ichimonji dug into the core.

The first blood was shed. The pained cry Tiamat released was the most powerful they've heard so far. Even with all the layers of defense between them and the Primordial Goddess, the masters felt like their heads were about to burst, and chunks of the stone wall started to fall.

That, in turn, caused Beast II to lose her grip on the wall, falling several meters before she managed to cling to it again, and most importantly, even if the damage to her core was most likely surface level, her attacks stopped for a moment.

"Take this!" Not wasting a second, a huge arrow of light was fired from Ishtar's Heavenly Bow, striking true at the exact same point Okita's blade pierced.

Another agonizing scream and another rumble. Beast II's forehead now sported burns and bleeding, but they could tell that, although more powerful, the attack didn't cause that much damage in comparison to the first one. But they were far from over.

The sound of a bell filled the place before the massive skull of a T-Rex surged from the wall and bit Tiamat's neck, holding her in place for the next attack. And that came in the form of the Blue and Bride Sabers.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

The two swords whose light carried mankind's wishes and dreams were swung in tandem, causing another massive impact right on Beast II's brain. And seconds later, they retreated, covered by twisted arrows and flames from the emerging Lahmu.

Yet, while the secondary objective of pushing her back was being achieved, it was becoming apparent that they wouldn't be able to truly damage her core without using a proper noble phantasm.

"We aren't getting any anywhere! Who wants to throw the first banger!?"

"Wait, Master! Something is happening to Tiamat's eyes! That-"

"Master, get close to me! That's-" Tamamo's words arrived too late.

A mysterious pulse was unleashed from Beast II's eyes that caused each of them to feel drained and lethargic as if all energy had been drained from them.

"What's this... I can barely keep my eyes open..."

"I don't think... I can even use a Command Spell now..."

"Damn it... On top of everything... She has mystic eyes as well? Caster, do you have any idea what in the world did she do to us!?"

The kitsune could only grit her teeth. Just answering the red Archer's question was taking a considerable effort. "I'm not sure... It feels like a massive curse... but I don't think it comes from within her..."

"You are mostly right, Tamamo-no-Mae," Merlin interjected, his face also twisted in a grimace albeit looking better than the servants. "That feels like a curse from Gaia itself... manifested using those eyes as a medium. Can you do something about it."

"I can dispel it, but I'll have to go one at a time... Or I can use my noble phantasm..."

"You'll have to use the faster one, Tamamo! I'm detecting a massive magical energy signature from Beast II! It's condensing on her throat! That has to be the biggest mana burst I've seen! Or perhaps, that is the true form of a mana burst, harnessed by a real dragon that can generate magical energy just by breathing!"

The sight of a massive light coming from within the Primordial Goddess's jaws was more than enough to send chills down everyone's spine. In their current state, none of them could release their noble phantasm in time.

"In that case, dispel it from Mash and Jeanne first so they can block the attack!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Ritsuka! After analyzing how your attacks are faring against her, I can say for certain that the reason they aren't as effective as they should be is because of some sort of skill! It must be a skill from the Beast class, as it seems to literally negate powers derived from the History of Man! Defenses that have the same origin might be less effective as well, and that beam is going to be as powerful as Goddess Rhongomynia's judgment!"

"What should we do then!? If you aren't sure even my Lord Camelot can't take it harmlessly, then-"

"Tamamo. Quickly, dispel my and my sister's curse." In those seconds of complete hysteria, the calm voice of the Holy Maiden forced the entire battlefield into silence.

The divided spirit and the fictional spirit looked at her, but just seeing how her hand was resting on the hilt of the sword strapped to her waist was more than enough. In front of such a sigh, complaining about Jeanne calling her "sister" didn't even cross, her mind, and just grunted as she made her way toward her.

"Jeanne, what are you- wait don't tell me-"

"There you go! Give them hell!" By the time the masters connected the dots, Tamamo had finished dispelling the curse from them. Or more exactly, absorbing it into her body so she could process it just like all her other curses.

"Now then, are you ready, sister?"

"Tsk. You really are gonna insist on that up until the end, woman? But oh well, at least we'll definitely go out with a banger."

Despite her reticence, the Holy Maiden and the dream shaped using her as a model clasped their hands and readied their flags. It was an unprecedented view, made even more ephemeral by the blinding light produced by Beast II finally releasing her attack.

"Luminosite Eternelle!"

"La Grondement Du Haine!"

Both their defensive noble phantasm combined perfectly before receiving the mana burst head-on. After all, they were pretty much the same noble phantasm, just that one of them had been twisted a little by her different image of her death.

Just as Romani predicted, the conjunct barrier started to collapse under the pressure after the initial impact. But that was perfectly fine. The fact that the attack had been stopped, even for a second, was more than enough to activate the counter-attack function of Alter's noble phantasm.

And to power it even further to make sure the attack was completely halted and then some, another condition that they would never consider in normal conditions... would be met in this instance.

"O' Lord, I entrust this body to you... La Pucelle."

"JEANNEEE!"

With the true name of the noble phantasm those kind masters would never allow her to use, the figure of both Holy Maidens disappeared in crimson flames, reenacting their final moments.

Beast II's attack wasn't blocked. The crimson flames born from the Ruler and the Avenger started to push it back so fast it caught Tiamat off guard. Her starry eyes widened when she suddenly found herself engulfed in a sea of crimson flames that not even her Sea of Life could extinguish.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

"The disappearance of Jeanne d'Arc and Jeanne d'Arc Alter's Spirit Origin has been confirmed... In consequence, all the Lahmu around Beast II has been burned, and her core has sustained considerable damage. Another attack on the same scale should be enough to finish the job."

Those good news didn't do to sway the sorrow in the two masters' hearts. Even if they could summon them again, it still wasn't a good pill to swallow having people close to you throw their lives away for your sake.

"... as this mirror becomes your sacred treasure... Eightfold Blessing of Amaterasu!"

But they had to keep pushing on, and so, Tamamo had been already casting her noble phantasm. Using it for something closer to its original purpose, namely nation-building, the blessing was distributed to all of them, and aside from the power boost it also sundered the curse.

"Arggh! That's it! Arturia, start preparing your Sacred Sword! It should be able get the job done this time!" Ai shouted her order while washing away her tears.

And the same applied to her brother. "Everyone else, either use any kind of support skill on her or help cover her!"

The two Sabers jumped back to start pouring magical energy into their words alongside the two Casters, will all the other servants jumped to the front. The flames covering Tiamat's body were already starting to fade away, and they could already see the next wave of Lahmu springing from her body.

"WHAT THE!? Everyone, be careful! Every single unit of the next generation seems to be a true offspring of Beast II!"

"You have to be kidding! There's hundreds of them!" Ishtar started firing her arrows at them, but the difference was clear to see. It took several arrows just to damage one.

"This is worse than America! That was just a few dozen of Demon God Pillars!"

"Brace yourselves!"

As much as all of them started to fire everything at the incoming swarm, be it arrows charged with several gems worth of mana, spiral swords that ripped space itself, or all the lances of the underworld, they were quickly swarmed by the Lahmu.

Mash couldn't block every monster, and their formation was sent into disarray as each of them separated to avoid being picked apart. With Mash and Ereshkigal staying with the masters.

The tide of the battle was changed, and once again they were desperately fighting to survive. And to make things worse...

"Crap! Beast II's wounds are beginning to heal! Way slower than other occasions, but she seems to be using her own Chaos Tide to fix herself! If nothing is done, she will be as new in five minutes!"

"Shit! There's just too many of them-"

"Watch out, Ai!"

Her heart stopped for the second time when a Lahmu slipped through the Mistress of Kur's guard, aiming one of its sharp limbs at her heart. But the scare was short-lived as a black sword sliced the monstrosity in too.

"Yikes! Thank you, gramps!"

The former Grand Assassin nodded and started helping with the hyperbuffed Lahmu. However, while most of them had their ways of handling themselves in close combat, that wasn't the case for the Mistress of Heaven and Amaterasu's divided spirit.

They could fare against some opponents, but their hand-to-hand combat definitely wasn't refined to fight an entire army on their own. Well, in Ishtar's case, she would have had an opportunity had she been summoned as a Lancer with her spear in its full glory, but the Heavenly Boat wasn't created with this kind of fight, and the same could be said about Tamamo's mirror.

"Gah!" An unladylike voice escaped the kitsune's lips when a bladed limb inevitably slipped through her guard and pierced her shoulder.

After that, you could say the situation started snowballing. They were definitely playing around, as their next attacks were avoiding vital points and sought to cause as much pain as possible. But that very twisted nature played against them as a silver sword covered in light cut them to ribbons.

"Fumu, to think I would be the one to save your grace, burglar fox."

"Tsk. I was expecting another kind of miracle, but I guess it wasn't meant to be."

The two rivals pressed their backs against each other to cover each other. The blood-staining Tamamo's clothes started to dye red Nero's bridal dress, but that was hardly the first time that day.

Unfortunately, that kind of miracle didn't come to the Mistress of Heaven, as she had been floating a considerable distance from the rest of the group.

Her beautiful form was now covered in crimson, with her back pressed against the rowdy wall, and surrounded by laughing Lahmu that were taking their sweet time to finish her. They were circling around her cautiously, like wolves waiting for a prey to succumb to exhaustion, or a spider stalking a bug caught in their net.

"What's the matter- ugh... You don't have the guts... to finish your date with a Lady..."

The only answer she got was more shrieking laughs, but behind that, she knew they were pissed off by her tenacity and her defiant smile. Hidden in her closed hand, she held all her remaining gems. If she was going to die here, she would go out with a banger.

"Not. Funny. Anymore."

"Toy. Broken."

"Kill. Kill. Kill."

They finally lost their patience, so Ishtar readied her final attack-

"Heh, so in the end you fools fell sort in terms of firepower. I suppose you leave me no choice. I will help you out!"

A boasting voice pierced through the rampaging chaos caused by Beast II's direct offspring and forced most of them to stop what they were saying just to gaze upon the figure above them. An unmistakable, yet impossible figure that surely didn't leave anyone indifferent.

"The. King!"

"The. Useless. King!"

"Why. Not. Dead!"

"Just. Like. Kingu!"

"Kill. Die. Kill."

The Lahmu erupted in bloodlust for no apparent reason and threw themselves at the figure like moths desperately seeking a flame. Which only caused the figure's expression to turn into a smirk.

"So-called "New humanity", you turned into mindless beasts the moment I brought out some incense! Now then, you are up, Ea. Let us teach them the "truth"."

The moment those words were uttered, many Lahmu were obliterated by a raging storm of crimson winds. From the carnage emerged no King, but a Golden Exterminator, looking way younger than the wise man that led the Demonic Front. With his hair combed backward, wearing only the lower part of his favored fancy armor, and wielding his sword of rupture with his right hand, and the Chains of Heaven with his left one.

"Servant, Archer. Gilgamesh, King of Heroes. You mongrels were making such a ruckus that I couldn't help but come here to see. What's a little rule-breaking for the King anyway?"

Not just that. As he continued his advance towards the Chaldeans, the Gate of Babylon opened behind him to an extent none of the present had ever seen. It literally seemed like the entire sky was filled with golden ripples, and thousands of the King's treasures were raining on the Lahmu. The slaughter that started suddenly, was finishing even more abruptly by virtue of overwhelming power.

"King Gilgamesh!?"

"You somehow survived?"

"No, you said you are now a servant?"

"First Merlin and now King Gilgamesh? Why is everyone materializing here on their own!?"

"Well, this is the underworld. Is it that weird to see dead people here? There's still room for compromise."

"And what did take you so long for that matter!?"

The red Archer's words gained him a laugh before the King pointed upward with his gaze. "The King always arrives at the last second, counterfeit. Besides, I took the trouble to bring someone who refused to die."

While the Chaldeans regrouped, the Mistress of Heaven sported a sour smile. "Geez, Goldie... You didn't just ruin my noble sacrifice, but now you're ignoring my existence again..."

"That's funny to hear. I thought you said you put your past romances behind."

"Huh!?" A choked voice escaped Ishtar's lips upon hearing that voice. A voice she, and apparently a certain pair of Empress and Kitsune, had been waiting to hear again for half a day.

Her neck was craned in its direction slowly, and then her red eyes met golden ones. "Archer..." The familiar red knight was standing beside her, although his figure was far from heroic with how roughed up he was. In that sense, the two of them were in quite a messy state.

But it was then that she noticed a single detail that changed everything. The weapons that had annihilated the Lahmu surrounding her were now collapsing into specks of magical energy rather than being retrieved by the Gate of Babylon.

"Uhm... As embarrassing as this sounds after severing our contract, will we continue to work as master and servant?"

He made that question in the most awkward tone possible by reaching out to her to help her stand up. The Goddess remained there, looking into his eyes completely mesmerized for more than ten seconds which made the red knight feel even more embarrassed. But then...

"Wh-buh!?"

The Mistress of Heaven quickly took his hand, but instead of just using him as a crouch to get on her feet, she also pulled him closer and sealed his lips with her for no more than a second. It was but a flitting moment, but it was still more than enough to send the nameless hero into disarray.

"What the- Why-" After letting out some incoherent words, a finger sealed them for the second time.

"What? I'm just taking my reward for all the trouble you caused me today. As for the master-servant relationship, I don't feel like it anymore. There are better masters here, and I want something more intimate, Archer-kun~"

She topped those last words with a wink before floating away, leaving him there with furrowed browns and unable to retort. Not that he had time to do it the moment he approached the Chaldeans to help them clear the remaining familiars of Beast II.

"Daaaarling! I knew you would come back!"

"Fou! Kyu!"

"Welcome back, Goshujin-sama!"

"Kuhum! Welcome back to my underworld, Archer. Of course, you have permission to ask as you may please."

"I would like to say I'm here for the final battle, but I'm honestly running on fumes. I have one or two shots more before disappearing at best."

"In that case, form a temporary contract with me!"

Without even waiting for his answer, Ai took his hand, and he quickly accepted her proposition, creating a temporary bond. The comfortable feeling of the master's magical energy reaching him and slowly healing his wounds felt as if he had been a man who found an oasis after wandering the desert.

"If you are all done with the reunions, this is bad! Beast II seems to have forfeited healing herself and is preparing another titanic mana burst!"

That had been hard to notice with all the chaos ensuing, but now that the area was clear, they could see Tiamat charging another beam in her throat.

"We won't let her..." Without missing a beat, the orange-haired master raised her right hand, and one of her three seals started to emit a blinding light. "Arturia, I order you by my Command Spell, use your Sacred Sword to smash Tiamat's core to pieces!"

"As you wish, Master!" The King of Knights readied her stance once more and started pouring the energy Command Seal into her Sword of Promised Victory. Its light illuminated the dark underworld like a beacon of hope. The planet's hope.

Beast II seemed to notice the danger, and her starry eyes emitted a familiar ominous glint. The next moment, another barrage of beams was already crossing the distance towards humanity's final defense.

"Hoh? You're running out of new tricks, Tiamat!" The King's Gate of Babylon opened once again and started pouring weapons like a literal waterfall of steel.

The problem was that it took dozens of weapons to deflect one of those beams, and Tiamat wasn't sparing a single bit of energy if the way her fire rate started to increase by the second.

""Trace, on!"" Both red Archer and red Knight intoned their trademark two-word aria, adding way more weapons to their barrage, and Ishtar and Ereshkigal too joined with their divine bow and Lances.

Yet, Mash, Nero, Okita and the First Hassan had to block no small amount of the stray beams that managed to make it past their defense.

The struggle only lasted some seconds though. With Tamamo and Merlin's help, the Sacred Sword of the Planet had reached its zenith, at least as a copy reproduced by the Throne of Heroes.

"EX-"

Just as Arturia took a step forward, Beast II opened her horrifying jaws, revealing a malevolent glint that stood in equal ground to hers.

"-CALIBUR!"

"NAMMU DURANKI!"

Hearing Beast II yell something that resembled words instead of just shouts was definitely chilling, but their brains had to put it aside as all their senses were overwhelmed when the golden and crimson lights clashed.

They could feel the entire land of Kur being shocked. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that space itself was being torn apart by the clash of the two dragons. It was hard to say to which side were the tides going, but there was someone with better measurement tools who could tell.

"It's working! She's backing down! Beast II seems to be struggling now that her core is so damaged! Just a little push!"

"In that case, I'll let you have the spotlight, my distant descendant!" The Empress of Roses shouted before switching all her skills towards the Blue Saber, and the effect became immediate.

What formerly looked like a really tied clash with only Tiamat's side losing for the smallest of margins, now looked like an assured victory. The light of the planet forged to defend against threats to humanity started to quickly push back the Primordial Goddess's attack.

After some excruciatingly long seconds, especially for Beast II, the distance had been almost closed, with Excalibur's light being just meters away from her.

""GOOOOOOOOO!"" The masters were releasing their adrenaline by inviting and swinging their fists, and everyone else found themselves at the edge of their proverbial seats.

Just a little more... Just a couple of meters more...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

A desperate cry came out of Beast II's throat in her fateful hour. It truly looked like a sign of their victory. But then, some eyebrows twitched and eyes widened, sensing a pretty bad omen.

A cornered beast is at its most dangerous, or so they say. Others would say that the most dangerous kind of people were the ones who had nothing more to lose. Case in point...

"Wha-"

Something expanded from within Beast II. It looked like a bounded field, but there had to be more to it. After all, it didn't just repel Excalibur's light inches before it could burn the Goddess's core. It completely nullified it, much to their collective horror. It was a sight that was able to make their hearts forget to beat to keep them alive, and with that, their faces became so pale one might as well have been able to see their skull through.

Only one of them unexpectedly managed to react in time.

"My heel is the wrath of Kur itself. Appear, O' scorching shrine! Kur Ki Gal Irkalla!"

The Mistress of Kur tapped her crimson spear against the wall, causing a torrent of flames to quickly spread from her position to Tiamat's. The moment it reached its target, a massive explosion surged from below, one similar to Ishtar's noble phantasm.

That weird barrier surrounding Tiamat seemed to block it with little effort, but it managed to halt its quick expansion. At least for a moment. And it also managed to knock everyone else out of their shock.

"What in the world is that!? How could she have one last ace up her sleeve!?"

"That, Fujimaru Ritsuka, is her Nega-Genesis skill. Haven't you noticed that any attack whose power originates from the History of Man is less effective against her? Well, that was just the surface. This is the true form of the power that negates everything that came after her." The Golden King's calm explanation was enlightening and terrifying in equal parts.

"That's nuts! What can we even do against that!?"

"Whatever you plan, do it quickly! I won't be able to hold her for long!" And Ereshkigal's desperate cry wasn't helping to quell the growing panic.

"If what Gilgamesh said is true, then that is most likely something akin to a Reality Marble that rewinds space around her to a time before she birthed life." Merlin surmised before giving them a reassuring smile. "In that case, we just need to turn this place into something not even she can change. A timeless utopia, if you know what I mean. As fate might have it, all the necessary pieces have been reunited here."

While his words were deliberately vague, that was more than enough for them.

"Emiya! The scabbard!"

"By my Command Spell, I order you, Mash, deploy your noble phantasm!"

Before they even voiced their orders, a replica of Avalon was already starting to take form on the red Archer's palm, and Mash quickly gathered the magical energy to release her shield's true name.

"Manifest yourself, Lord Camelot!"

The pristine, white walls of the mythical castle were manifested in front of them, and just below, the Sacred Sword of the Planet was reunited with its scabbard. And to top it off...

"...Only those free of seen may pass... Garden of Avalon!"

The Mage of Flowers waved his staff and a storm of petals covered the entire place before revealing a mesmerizing sight.

An image of the Land of Hope was imposed on the underworld. It was way more than the illusion projected on that very same place some days ago. They could already feel the overwhelming density of mana in the air, characteristic of the Inner Sea of the Planet. Moreover, it resonated the with scabbard that acted as the paradise's proxy and the shield created from the famous Round Table, making it the closest thing a human had been to the ever-distant utopia.

"Kyaa!" Just in time as the Mistress of Kur's strength finally gave out and her legs collapsed under their own weight.

It was only the presence of her sister that prevented her from falling down to the abyss below.

"Leaving aside the mind-blowing implications of you guys managing to manifest a portion of the paradise, it's working. The expansion of Beast II's Nega-Genesis can't go further. However, needless to say, you're once again at a stalemate."

"But if no attack from a servant will work, what can we do?"

"Well, that barrier will annihilate anyone whose time has already come and gone, but it should still be possible for the living to make it through." Gilgamesh's proposition came as outrageous as it sounded.

"What are you saying, Goldie? Mother's skill might not kill them, but don't you see all the Lahmu spawning around her?"

"If you don't want them to be the ones to settle the score, then what do you propose, Inanna?"

"Defeating her might not be possible..." The one who spoke up to the Golden King wasn't the Mistress of Heaven, but the nameless red knight with the Empress of Roses by his side. "Our swords can definitely cleave a path towards her."

"Umu! If that thing denies the future to cling to the past, then our light will reject her to move on! A true parting as you put it, King of Heroes. We'll unfortunately need someone else to bring down the curtain though."

A smirk appeared on the Golden King's lips, almost mirroring the Bride Saber's. "Very well. That isn't the parting ritual I envisioned, but this too is fate. Let us begin then!"

The couple sent a glance to the two masters, and no words were needed as they all took their positions for their final bet. The red knight and the Empress of Roses stood side by side, symmetrically readying their swords, Ritsuka and Ai stood behind each servant respectively, raising their Command Spell hands towards them, and finally, the Golden King stood at the back of the formation, his Sword of Rupture held aloof with its "blade" in a horizontally to the ground and its cylinders starting to spin.

From a modern perspective, the plan wasn't that different from the mechanism of a rail gun.

""By my Command Spell, I order you, Nero/Archer, cleave a path towards the future!""

The two masters delivered their commands with utmost trust in them. The impossible couple of lovers they turned into a real possibility that ushered in a new era, defying all of fate's expectations.

"Behold, the beautiful dream everyone thinks of..."

"The hope to reach a better tomorrow, where no one has to cry!"

The two started chanting as one, and their twin swords started to emit a blinding light. For any onlookers, it seemed as if both blades were resonating with each other, amplifying their power beyond any threshold the nameless sword of promised salvation ever had.

It definitely was something more than the fact that they were in a replica of the Land of Hope was already boosting them, nor was it a matter of just taking in all the mana in the atmosphere.

"Unbelievable... What in the world are these readings? It's just... way beyond even A-rank servants can hope to output..."

"It isn't that strange, Romani." The Mage of Flowers replied to the baffled doctor with a cheeky smile. "Now that all conditions have been set, they've managed to activate those swords' function that was lost upon being summoned in the container of a regular servant, just like Arturia's Sacred Sword."

"Don't tell me... The Counter Force itself is siphoning magical energy into those noble phantasms!?"

"Exactly. Let's sit and have a small taste of the power of the Grand Sword."

They weren't able to hear Merlin's last words as the two finally finished gathering magical energy. Their swords now were glowing like twin stars, and the feeling they conveyed was finally equal to the ever-distant utopia. It was impossible to harbor any kind of uneasiness or fear about their odds in front of such sight.

""Together, our light shall cut the path to the to the stars! PER SPEM AD ASTRA!""

The true name released in unison revealed the true form of the noble phantasm they spend a significant part of their lives devising. Years upon years of honing their skills as smiths, using the help of their entire prosperous nation, and combining the Mount Vesuvius' massive spiritual vein, as well as its symbology as the Greek and Roman God of the Forge's lair, with Archer's ultimate forge.

The two swords swung in complete synchronization unleashed a single, hyper-condensed attack in the form of a massive blade of light. The same technique Arturia used with her Sacred Sword, just that its cutting power went way beyond the physical realm. Or in other words, the power to defy fate and perform the miracle of "saving everyone" had been perfectly weaponized against evil.

"Aaaaaaaaahhh..."

Beast II let out a short voice of surprise the moment that warm light crashed against her Nega-Genesis.

Something stirred inside her. Something way deeper than her newly discovered fear of "Death". She instinctively knew the reason why her authority couldn't reject that power born from her children.

The original fear that started everything. The real reason she became Beast II and tried to destroy the world. She was being left behind again.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

A shout filled with a mixture of wrath and fear as she quickly gathered all her energy for another titanic mana burst. She didn't even wait for that light to start cleaving through her authority. She knew they would achieve it.

Even if... she knew that too was futile. It was a completely illogical action from the point of view of God. But this was a feeling shared by all mothers in the world. The horrible fear of one day having to let them go on their way.

The crimson beam containing all her paradoxical feelings and grief was released against the light that had been already piercing through her Nega-Genesis. But there wasn't a grandiose clash or anything remotely similar. It was like trying to protect yourself with a book from a tank-piercing bullet.

The mana burst was bisected, and the golden light ended up hitting Beast II right in the head.

It was painful... Unbearably painful... But not in a physical way. After all, she wasn't an irredeemable evil. As an Evil of Humanity, she was trying to destroy them out of misguided love.

No. What hurt the most was the feelings conveyed by the light. Humanity's will to move forward, inevitably leaving many things behind. That was the feeling of not just the two firing the light, but of everyone around them.

But of all those feelings, the ones that could be said to have "settled the score", would definitely be those of the two mortal children standing beside all those legendary figures. A couple of regular humans that didn't quite fit in that group.

And that was the precise reason their feelings were simpler and easy to understand. Something so simple that it could be said any other human in their position would have shared them.

"Aaaaahhhh..."

Strength left Tiamat's claws, letting herself be pushed back by the light. All her driving force disappeared, and the only thing left was to accept the final stroke.

"Goddess Tiamat, you and humans were fated to not understand each other." The Golden King declared with solemn eyes and a calm voice. "You give life and nurture. We grow up and leave. No matter how much love children receive, they must eventually leave their mother's embrace. And now I shall demonstrate that truth with this final blow as a parting gift! Roar, Ea!"

The Sword of Rupture erupted at full throttle, its three cylinders already rotating at full speed due to the prior preparation. The winds of destruction started to tear apart the space around them, starting to reveal the "truth" at its epicenter.

"I shall tell you about the beginning."

"Heaven and Earth split, nothingness congratulated creation, and my Sword of Rupture cleaved the world!"

"Mortar of the stars, heaven's hell on the eve of creation's celebration."

As he finished his chant, the first hero pointed the weapon meant to be used only by the supreme ruler towards the light of hopes and dreams.

"Now you shall die and be silent... ENUMA ELISH!"

The hurricane of destruction that allowed no life was fired directly into the light. However, unlike that time those two forces clashed and rejected each other with all their might, and now they reluctantly accepted each other.

The vortex containing the first memories of the planet traveled through the light, using it as a literal path to traverse Tiamat's Nega-Genesis, and quickly found its mark. With an eardrum-shattering thunder, Beast II was hit dead-on, without any kind of resistance on her part, and moments later, her figure disappeared among the light of salvation and winds of destruction, falling towards the abyss bellow the underworld.

That was the last thing the last masters of humanity saw before all their senses shut down due to the sensory overload and fatigue catching up to them.

---

"...!"

Upon regaining their consciousness for the second time that day, the two masters took in a deep breath as if they had been holding it for minutes. No, it almost looked like they had forgotten the act of breathing and were now experiencing it a new like a newborn.

Their blue and golden eyes observed the landscape around them and surmised it was the ruins of a familiar Mesopotamian city. However, there was no longer a sea of corrupting mud, nor a swarm of creepy, inhuman monsters. Above them, the sky was no longer covered in dark clouds, but the sunlight was still absent as the Moon hung there in its place.

There was a sense of calmness. The same one people would feel after coming out from a basement to see that the hurricane that had been racing the town to the ground had dissipated. And that feeling was amplified by the sight of their remaining servants around them recovering from the dizziness.

"We... we're alive?"

"Did we... did we win?"

"I'm honestly still wrapping my head around all the crazy stuff that happened at the end, but yeah, you won. Beast II's core was fatally damaged by Gilgamesh's noble phantasm, and her Spirit Origin collapsed as she fell into the abyss. I can confirm that the Singularity is starting the repairing process."

Any attempt at getting up was forfeited at the moment, and the place was filled with sighs, ragged breaths, and sounds of butts hitting the floor.

"Thank Goodness... We barely did it this time, senpai... But... what about the Grail?"

"Actually, the Jaguar Onee-san seems to have taken care of that problem." Merlin's casual answer to Mash's question caused everyone to address the elephant in the room.

"Hehehe..." Said Goddess was puffing her chest while letting out a proud laugh. "No need to thank me, nya~ After those Lahmu beat me away, I decided to lend a hand to those Shinsengumi folks. But then Tiamat started falling in our direction and literally spat this cup, so I decided to catch it, just like I did when Kuku was falling like a meteorite. You can have it now."

Yes. The elephant in the room wasn't the Lancer pseudo-servant, but the blonde Goddess standing beside her. She was now wearing no armor and had seen better days, but she was by no means burned alive as they thought. And her emerald eyes were now fixed on the Mage of Flowers.

"Putting aside the disgrace of having been saved by Jaguar, I told you, didn't I, Merlin? I'm going to kill you~"

The face of Arturia's court mage immediately paled upon finding himself on the receiving end of Quetzalcoatl's killing intent.

"Waitwaitwait-" He tried to pull his special move to escape from women, but it didn't work against her. His shouts quickly turned into pained screams as his arm was trapped in a joint lock.

"Arturia, won't you help him?"

"He's ripping what he sow, Mash." The King of Knight's answer was direct, and the Red Archer beside her nodded along.

The slaughter didn't go on for that long, as the Spirit Origin of both Mesoamerican Goddesses started to collapse and Merlin was released in agony.

"Oh? What's with all this sparkles!? I feel so prruty, but I'm disappearing from my feet up. I'm finally gaining another star as a Divine Spirit?"

"Of course not. We're just leaving, Jaguar. It's the World's way of telling us that our job here is done. It was an unnatural summoning to begin with, only because Mother Tiamat was here. Now that she's gone, it's our time to follow her."

The unwittingly comedic due stopped their antics, and Quetzalcoatl looked directly into Ritsuka's eyes.

"We helped you as much as we could, but I'm afraid your battle is only beginning, Chaldeans. However, I have full faith in you making a splendid comeback that will rouse the audience, my cute Master."

A soft smile appeared on the boy's lips. "Thanks, amiga Luchadora. It's been really fun having you by our side."

"Of course! Big sister loves farewells like this, yes!" The two Goddesses finally disappeared with smiles on their faces, leaving the baton to humanity's final masters.

"Good riddance. Even with her Spirit Origin already falling apart, she's a boisterous Goddess 'till the end. Not that I'm one to talk, though."

All eyes drifted to the Mistress of Heaven. Despite their victory, her expression was set in a deep frown that stood out like a sore thumb on her of all people.

"Wait... Where's Ereshkigal? Did she stay in the underworld?" The red knight asked her upon realizing the missing figure among them.

The Goddess didn't answer immediately. The images of their last conversation before Merlin's spell pulled them out of the underworld crossed her mind, and it became incredibly difficult to hide her vexation.

"So what if it's not this me the one who gets to meet him next time? I just liked that human's way of thinking. Plus, I was able to see so many beautiful things in my underworld, especially those swords. With that, I know his shine will never change. I'm more than satisfied."

The Mistress of Kur said those last words as she disappeared. She had been naively putting a front, and failing horribly at that. Her smile was sorrowful, her voice was on the verge of cracking, and tears had been already pouring down the moment she saw the Land of Hope and those swords that vowed to one day lead humans to that happy ending.

But it couldn't be helped. She broke the taboos of allowing the living to act freely in the underworld and helping humans directly. That, added to that final effort she made to stop Beast II's Nega-Genesis for some seconds, inevitably caused her Spirit Origin to collapse.

Ishtar knew the red knight, while often coming off as naive regarding certain matters, was undoubtedly perceptive and most likely could infer the real answer. However, she did her best to put on her best smile before speaking.

"Yes, Ereshkigal is resting in the underworld. She told me to give her thanks to you all."

"Fou..." Even Fou could say that was a white lie, but no one called her on that in pose to not ruin the mood.

"Wait, you aren't disappearing like all the other servants summoned in this singularity, aren't you?"

Okita's question finally brought a genuine smirk to Ishtar's face. "Well, I wasn't summoned by a Holy Grail, so I'll take my time and wait for Uruk's fifth dynasty to finally collapse after this Singularity finishes repairing itself. I might not be able to keep Archer with me, but I still can enjoy that twenty percent of Goldie's jewelry you gave me."

The Sakura Saber just gave her a blank stare, while the Bride Saber laughed and the Kitsune bit her lips, bidding her time.

"That reminds me... how in the world did you survive against Tiamat?" EMIYA shot the question with squinted eyes.

"You should know more than anyone that clinging to life is our specialty. But honestly, if Jaguar Warrior hadn't picked me up on her way to bury Quetzalcoatl, I would most likely have disappeared before making it to Uruk despite my Independent Action skill. I still took my time to gather some strength, and then Goldie popped up in that new getup."

"That "getup" was me when I went to the underworld and fell into the abyss seeking the mystic herb. My true Golden Age."

The King of Heroes spoke up with amusement. He was back in his wise king outfit, but the sight of his body starting to disappear was a sign that this was still his servant version.

"You came all the way to Uruk, so I thought it would have been unbecoming to let you return without getting a glimpse of the King of Heroes' true form. A far cry from the young fool you summoned. With this, you can finally go back to Chaldea and sing the song of your victory... Wait..."

His farewell was suddenly cut, and through sheer willpower, the collapsing of his Spirit Origin was halted.

"There's a couple of things I have to do before disappearing. First, I must ask, how was Uruk?"

The question caught the three teenagers by surprise, but they immediately answered with confident smiles.

"We've been to all kinds of places but..."

"This was definitely the best city we've been to!"

A chuckle escaped Gilgamesh's lips while the other two rulers among them threw stinky stares at the siblings. The Holy City they visited ended up being the lair of the Singularity's final enemy, but the Empress felt betrayed.

"I see. In that case, as a matter of kingly dignity, if travelers are able to leave the city with smiles on their faces, then the country should send them off with an appropriate souvenir. Oh, and now that I mention it, I do have a little something here."

His Gate of Babylon opened to reveal a golden cup filled with wine, and the Golden King proceeded to toss it to Mash, who barely caught it.

"A specialty of Uruk, some wheat ale. Take it with you."

"Huh? But isn't this-"

"Some ale my ass, Goldie! That's your Uruk Grail!"

"A befitting cup! I know you were always saying that you are underage and don't drink alcohol, but I'm pretty sure the cup alone will be helpful. In any event, I bid you farewell, warriors of Chaldea! Our battle was a truly gratifying victory! With your return, I declare operations at the Demonic Front concluded! Do not fail to prevent the Incineration of Humanity!"

Just as the King bid them farewell, rather than him starting to disappear, it was the Chaldeans who started to fade away.

"Oh, we're already returning then? No problems on your end, Doctor?"

"Yep, Mash. We're already receiving you. For once, we can take our time with the Rayshift. So you can take your time with the last farewells. Right, Merlin? Aren't you gonna say something before you return to your tower in Avalon?"

"It is my turn then?" The Mage of Flowers popped back as if nothing happened, causing some giggles. "You don't have to worry. Since I'm not dead, I won't go anywhere, so I'll be watching your final fight. I wasn't supposed to help directly, but you could say I was so excited that I made an exception."

"Why then?" Ai asked without beating around the bush, forcing him to stop being vague.

"You could say I'm a big fan. I'm a man that can only watch. I'm not fond of humans, but I very much enjoy their stories. Your case is a little different though. You're travelers that go from story to story, just like me. Yet, instead of being passive observers, you use those stories to save everyone and weave together a better ending. It is a pity the only one who will truly remember your story once the Human Order Incineration case is solved, so I wanted to help you at least once, and Beast II's manifestation created the perfect opportunity."

"Well, it was also funny to have you with us."

The girl's words left the mage and the King he once guided a little perplexed.

"Funny, huh? I must be becoming a little more human... Hearing that from you before wouldn't have caused any reaction..." He faked a cough before starting to speak in a solemn tone. "In any case, I'll be taking my leave. Chaldean stargazers, pioneers that no one will remember. I honor your battle. The stars are in full circle. You will fight evil at the end of the era of humanity. Have a good journey until the end. I pray for clear skies at the end of your travel."

With those last words, the image of the Mage of Flowers finally faded away.

"Wow... He has really changed. He was only that serious the moment I drew the Sword in the Stone."

Meanwhile, a certain Kitsune had completely ignored Merlin's farewell, and was working up the courage to approach a certain red knight before returning to Chaldea. He was bidding farewell to his bride, including a goodbye kiss, and talking about something about leading the masters to finish for sure the Age of Gods.

"Goshujin-sama, I- Huh!?"

The moment she finally decided to take the first step after those two were done, all her words died in her throat the exact moment her yellow eyes saw another figure get ahead of her and seal the man's lips. And the empress's laugh wasn't helping.

The Sakura Saber withdrew from the kiss with burning cheeks, but she never tore her eyes from those golden orbs. "I-I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep these feelings until next time, b-but I wanted to at least convey them before we parted ways now that I was given another chance, Archer-dono. I don't even know if this is love but... I really want to fight alongside you again."

The nameless hero gave her a soft smile. "Well, I'm in the same position here, Souji. I guess we'll have to find out properly next time."

The clumsy girl mirrored his smile before finally disappearing, not without turning around and dedicating a final "Okita-san's great victory" to the dumbfounded Caster.

"Did you want something, Tamamo?" Without losing pace, as if he were in a hurry, the red knight addressed her, causing her heart to miss a beat.

"Yes, actually-"

"Tsk." The man suddenly clicked his tongue and brought his right hand to his chest, completely derailing her recovered determination. "I'm truly sorry, Tamamo, but I really can't hold it back any longer. It will have to wait."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Her question went completely ignored as his eyes drifted to the two masters. "Ritsuka, Ai. The moment you face that final evil, just remember the reason that drove you on your journey. If you do it, the stars will definitely guide you to victory."

After leaving those vague words, without even waiting for an answer, his golden eyes locked with red ones before becoming dead serious. The Golden King was also sporting the same irregular behavior,r as if he were having trouble keeping at bay the urge to do something.

The only one who could get a grasp on what was about to unfold was Arturia, who decided to just massage her forehead.

Those two really didn't change in the least.

"For once, we agree, Faker... It's been more than half a year... Every single day has been an arduous ordeal to keep this feeling in check."

The two men fell in silence as they took stances as if they were a couple of gunslingers waiting for a signal to commence.

"What are you two-"

""Onore, FAAAAAAAAKEEEEEEER/GOOOOOLDIEEEEEEEEE!""

Tamamo's voice seemed to have acted as that signal, causing the two natural enemies to spring into action. The distance was closed in an instant, and their fists smashed the other's face in astounding synchronization.

Fresh blood splattered around them, and from then, a clumsy fistfight began. There was no technique or finesse to it. The concept of defense didn't exist in that duel. Just a couple of men who couldn't stand each other's presence and were letting out all the frustration accumulated for half a year. The two were on the verge of disappearing, but that didn't matter in the least.

The only thought crossing their minds at that moment was beating the shit out of the man in front of them. The giggle and sighs from the disappearing Chaldeans didn't even register, nor the laments of a certain Kitsune that missed her chance.

The pointless beating continued for some minutes before the two natural enemies fell to the ground without an ounce of energy left in their bodies. Their eyes looked at the dawn sky as they felt their bodies starting to fade away.

"That was... satisfying..."

"Yeah... It truly was..."

The King moved his eyes to look at the red knight, but it was hard since the top of their heads were facing each other.

"And you call my prophecies vague..."

"If I tell them directly... things might get complicated... The conditions they'll need to fulfill... are quite demanding... and they are better at just improvising on the run... than executing complex plans..."

A grunt escaped Gilgamesh's hoarse throat. "Well... A master needs an appropriate and compatible weapon... Loathe as I am to admit it... that Grand Sword you managed to forge... isn't quite bad... Maybe equal to the other one forged in that mountain by the God of Fire themselves..."

"Heh..." A smirk appeared on Archer's lips. "That barely reached a fraction... If I'm honest... I think the married me went overboard with another goal in mind... Severing his wife's prophesied fate was quite the task after all... maybe on par with this case..."

After some seconds of comfortable silence, the King spoke almost in a whisper. "It wasn't that bad... Faker..."

And he received a grunt. "Yeah... This was a good journey... even if we just saved a hundred..."

The conversation died there, with the two finally disappearing, leaving only the sole remaining witness of their fight with a satisfied smile on her face. The image they left burned in her memory, was the same one depicted in the tablets that would later be translated into the "Epic of Gilgamesh", one after a day-long battle between rivals who became friends.

"Would you look at that... they actually became good friends in the end."

---

And there you have it. The Seventh Singularity has come to a close in full circle, with the King of Fakers and the King of Heroes having grown on each other, even if they will never outright admit it. Some people addressed this with me, that there weren't really that many character arcs unfolding in this story, and I have to agree. Unlike the prequel, where I changed the original theme of "Nero doing fan service stuff" to the love story between her and Finn, here remained as humanity struggling to part with the Gods, so the main focus here was how they were going about that fight.

Still, I think this chapter shows that, slowly but surely, the heroic spirit King of Fakers is assimilating the consequences of Chaldea making reality the impossible timeline in which those two reach a happy ending. You could say the real payoff of that was in this story. As in, if it had been the original Team A, their version of the Second Singularity would most likely have ended with Finn or Nero dead like all the other timelines. And that culminated in a noble phantasm that shouldn't exist.

Yeah, I finally came up with a fitting name, even though I just gave a twist to Grand Lancer's noble phantasm, but I think that's even more fitting given the context. By the way, to clarify, the Sword of Promised Salvation itself remains nameless, Per Spem ad Astra is the name of the attack itself, pretty much like Ea's case with Enuma Elish being the name of the attack and not the weapon. It is a shared noble phantasm that can be activated both by his sword and Aestus Estus and reaches its full potential when they are combined, at least in the case of being summoned in regular servant vessels. The creation follows more or less the same logic as Muramasa and the Tsumukari's case, with Finn and Nero in essence reproducing with their own means the mythical sword Marmyadose. Regardless, I'll add this piece of info to my profile

Now, while the Seventh Singularity is wrapped, to not have to create another story, the Solomon chapter, or chapters if it ends up too long, will be uploaded to this one as I previously mentioned. In fact, since I have a lot of hype still in my body and you probably do too, I'll leave a poll- god, it's been a while since I've done one of those- to decide if you want me to write next chapter of this story sooner in my usual order of updates. And I'll leave my usual end-of-story rant for that chapter.

As usual, I would like to hear your thoughts on this chapter, and I hope I entertained you. Hasta la vista!