As is well known, gods cannot become Heroic Spirits.
Because they have not perished—they have merely departed.
Since the end of the Age of Gods, the connection between heaven, earth, and the human world has been severed. The same applies to fairies, spirits, phantasmal beasts, and dragons—supernatural beings born from the forces of nature. They either journeyed to higher-dimensional worlds or migrated to the Inner Sea of the Planet.
In short, the "Age of Gods" has long passed. Now is the "Age of Man." With no connecting pathways, gods cannot directly interfere with the human world.
However, exceptions always exist. If they cannot interfere directly—what about indirectly?
That's right. Gods cannot become Heroic Spirits, but Servants are not necessarily all Heroic Spirits.
If a god wishes to intervene in the human world, the simplest method is to respond to a summoning and descend in rank as a Servant.
A more troublesome approach would be pseudo-manifestation, or finding a highly compatible vessel and possessing it.
Of course, such cases are rare.
The vast majority of gods have no interest in the evolution of the human era—whether joy or sorrow. To put it more coldly, they even take pleasure in the chaos of the human world, as it serves as one of the few ways to pass their endless time.
Gilgamesh despised the gods, and by extension, all things possessing demonic, divine, or immortal attributes. While his judgment was somewhat biased, the disgraceful conduct of the gods as a collective is beyond dispute.
Don't be fooled by how amiable Ishtar appears when possessing Rin Tohsaka—her behavior merely comes off as a slightly tsundere, easy-to-talk-to, adorable goddess.
That is only because Rin Tohsaka's personality tempers her!
The true Ishtar of myth is an undeniably vile goddess—arrogant and overbearing would be the mildest of descriptions.
...
Gazing at the abnormal cracks on Selene's face, Merlin knew that the days ahead for Chaldea would likely be difficult.
A dimensional transfer of such an enormous body in an instant, without pause, without even the slightest manifestation of magical formulae—aside from divine authority that materializes the laws of the world, Merlin could think of no other explanation.
In a single moment, Merlin reached his conclusion—that was damage to the Saint Graph caused by output exceeding its limits.
Through the crimson sky, it was clearly visible: Selene's colossal spiritual body, comparable to a mountain, was covered in countless fractures—some sparse, some dense, some thick, some fine. From the finer cracks seeped vaporizing, violet-red high-energy magical particles.
At this moment, Selene looked like an enormous, shattered porcelain doll.
Yet strangely, there was not the slightest sense of fragility. Instead, there was a peculiar beauty—like the ultimate, fatal beauty before a nuclear explosion.
"What a fierce and violent goddess... Fujimaru, Romani, pay attention—she's going all out!"
Wiping cold sweat from his forehead, Merlin felt his throat dry and itchy. Without drawing attention, he slipped behind Artoria, who had already deployed the sheath—Avalon, the Everdistant Utopia—as a defensive barrier. His tone was grim.
"Fujimaru, listen carefully! No matter what happens, do not act rashly. As long as you live, that is victory!"
While splitting off a new illusionary spirit, Merlin's real body slowly sank into the ground. As he spoke, he looked toward his beloved disciple, Artoria.
"Al, remember this—at times like this, the sheath is more useful than the sword. Use it well. Protect Fujimaru. It is the key to our victory."
"Understood." Casting a sideways glance at Merlin, Saber Artoria nodded.
"Hey, you old bastard, what do you mean by that? Ordering Father around while you run off yourself?"
"No, no, this isn't running away. This is a necessary tactical redeployment. Mordred, while I'm gone, make sure you protect your father."
Looking at Mordred, who no longer resembled her frenzied self from life, Merlin blinked at her and smoothly turned the situation around, wearing an expression that said this was all for her sake.
"Of course!! Like you even need to say it, you old bastard..."
Resting the royal sword on her shoulder, Mordred snorted heavily, looking thoroughly appeased.
Before she could finish speaking, Merlin left behind a dreamlike avatar and sank into the ground. His magical presence vanished.
...
Boom—!!
Selene's superhuman strength was something Scáthach could not contend with. Amid the deafening roar, her graceful figure was blasted away without resistance.
"Spatial magecraft? No... this is the free manipulation of spatial laws—this is Authority."
Soaring into the air, Scáthach quickly stabilized herself. She crashed near a fractured landmass hundreds of meters away, planting her spear into the ground. Her feet dragged long furrows through the sand as she barely avoided falling into the surging seawater below the chasm.
The fierce wind whipped her glossy deep-purple hair.
"Scáthach, Selene is forcing out divine power that a Servant absolutely cannot withstand at the cost of shattering her Saint Graph. Don't clash with her head-on. As long as we can stall and endure this final wave of her assault, victory will be ours!"
Through the Command Spell-linked magical supply system, Ritsuka Fujimaru's voice echoed in Scáthach's mind.
"Understood. I'll be careful..."
"Heh. Stall me? Fujimaru Ritsuka, how do you know how long my Saint Graph can endure? With this level of output, before my spiritual body collapses, wiping you out is more than enough."
Yet as they spoke, that cold, arrogant female voice—filled with destructive intent—forcefully intruded into Chaldea's internal communication channel.
At the command seat, Romani stared in disbelief. How had she done that?
"Combining modern technological communication methods with magecraft—an interesting approach. Intercepting and decoding your signal did take me some effort, Chaldea... don't worry, we'll meet soon."
"As for avoiding battle to stall for time? Tch, a good move—but! Do you think I'll let you continue?"
Selene's voice plunged the entire Chaldea control room into deathly silence.
...
Crack!
Suddenly, a sound like shattering glass rang out. The atmosphere within dozens of meters around Scáthach collapsed instantly before her eyes.
This was pure erasure. A pitch-black void devoured everything within its range, leaving behind only a perfectly smooth-edged crater.
"Tch... a step too slow."
Noticing the finer cracks spreading across her right arm, Selene's gaze flickered slightly. She spoke indifferently.
"A sense of unfamiliarity..."
Turning her gaze several kilometers away, toward the mature woman stepping out from a black stone gate inscribed with primordial runes, Selene couldn't help but tease:
"Scáthach, Queen of the Land of Shadows, slayer of gods—wasn't your wish death?"
"If you want to die, why run?"
This was a contradictory person. Selene offered no evaluation—this was simply her own view of Scáthach.
Scáthach's wish was "to seek death."
After a lifetime of endless battle, having slain countless gods, she was cursed by those she killed and bathed in divine blood. Though not born a god, Scáthach had already become half-divine and could no longer die like a human.
Because it was a divine curse, she could not even take her own life.
Whether a beautiful death or an ugly one, she could only persist—existing eternally until the world and even its outer layers reached their end.
"If the Holy Grail is truly omnipotent, then please—send someone who can kill me."
Her true body resided in the Land of Shadows, which, like Avalon, existed within the Inner Sea of the Planet. Dying of old age was impossible.
In truth, Chaldea's journey to restore human order would ultimately send her back to her Land of Shadows... was that not in direct conflict with her wish? And yet, in the end, Scáthach still chose to help Chaldea...
"Gáe Bolg Alternative!"
The crimson demonic spear was hurled almost simultaneously with Selene's words. That was her answer.
"Subspace Ribbon." A black, elongated object appeared beside Selene—like a spear, yet also like a whip.
"Go."
Rip—!
In an instant, it stretched outward. A streak of black light cut across space, distorting it—light itself seemed forcibly bent, and the atmosphere was sliced open into a long, pitch-black gash.
Wherever the black light passed, everything was severed. Splurt—!
Time itself seemed to freeze.
Then, in the next moment, under the disbelieving gazes of countless onlookers, Scáthach's god-slaying spear scattered apart within that sweeping black light—collapsing and vanishing outright.
In a direct clash, Scáthach was utterly outmatched by Selene's Subspace Ribbon—completely crushed!
"Scáthach—!"
"Cough..."
Sensing the condensed magical reaction erupting a thousand meters away, Selene clutched her chest and coughed up golden-red blood, her expression displeased.
That displeasure was not directed at Scáthach—but at herself.
"A feeble vessel. It can't even sustain this level of output."
She had only manifested a single degraded Subspace Lance, yet this spiritual body was already rebelling.
Crack... crack...
The rigid, breaking sounds echoing from her arm only irritated Selene further. Before the stunned eyes of Ritsuka Fujimaru and the others, Selene, her expression darkening, forcibly tore her own arm off.
Rather than waste time letting it repair, she might as well regenerate it completely.
The arm regrew at a visible speed, but this time, no serpent scales formed. The beastly claw was replaced by a slender, delicate hand of striking beauty.
Scáthach's defeat was inevitable. She was merely a Servant manifestation of a split spirit. If Selene had not overclocked her true authority, Scáthach might have been able to hold out for a while longer.
"I've kept you waiting. Now, it's your turn—the last Master of Chaldea."
Wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth, Selene narrowed her eyes teasingly. The scales on her cheeks had already begun to fall away, and her beautiful lips curved into a captivating smile.
"This will be my greeting gift."
If not for the killing intent filling the air—and the absence of her imperial subjects to admire her—even that rare smile alone would have been enough to console one for a lifetime.
"Senpai, her target is you!"
"Selene's Saint Graph is already damaged. The optimal choice now is to avoid battle—to stall for time."
In an instant, another black ribbon appeared beside Selene, lashing directly toward Ritsuka Fujimaru, who stood protected behind layers of defense.
Slash—!
The moment Selene's crimson gaze locked onto him, a chill shot from Ritsuka Fujimaru's spine to the top of his head. His thoughts froze instantly.
"Danger! Master!"
Splurt—!
...
High above the sky, Selene withdrew her gaze, raised her head, and clenched her newly formed arm, which felt far easier to use. She spoke softly:
"My time is running out. Solomon, you've seen enough of the show, haven't you?"
Bzzz—!
Centered on the underground fissures at the ruins of Mount Enzou, endless cracks stretching to the horizon split open across the land. In an instant, the tides surged, glowing, gradually thickening into a dark crimson.
"Roar—!"
As the first enormous pink-and-white "mosquito" burst forth from the Imaginary Numbers Space, countless beastly roars rose one after another. Giant creatures of varying forms emerged from the fissures in the earth.
Boom boom boom!
As a response from the King of Magecraft, massive tentacles that blotted out the sky shot upward from the cracks, each covered in densely packed crimson eyes that induced instinctive revulsion.
At the same time—
Beep—beep—!
Within Chaldea's control room, multiple Near-Future Observation Lenses SHEBA monitoring the Singularity immediately began flashing warnings.
"The concentration of Age of Gods ether particles in the atmosphere is rapidly increasing! Space-time is trembling again, and the spatial rift above the Pacific Ocean is expanding further!"
On the screen, an endless army of Honkai Beasts poured out from the cracks in the earth. Their numbers surged rapidly, covering the sky and land—surpassing one hundred thousand in the blink of an eye!
"Wait—zoom in here!"
Directing the operator to enlarge the largest fissure underground on the screen, Da Vinci stepped forward.
"Spatial ability... the authority she forcibly used exceeded the limits of her Saint Graph. It has already damaged it, but in doing so, she used divine power to temporarily connect the ley lines beneath the Pacific Ocean with another space."
"Beyond that underwater space-time rift, we have no way to determine what lies there. Even from shallow observation alone... these are magical beasts. Their numbers exceed hundreds of millions. Among them are countless gigantic ones comparable to Titans."
Staring at the enlarged display, at the purple-red light membrane covering the seabed leyline fissure, Da Vinci spoke bluntly.
"We must stop her. Otherwise... even if Selene is ultimately forced to withdraw due to her shattered Saint Graph, this world will already have been reshaped back into the Age of Gods. Mystery will return, and those beasts that crossed the rift will most likely not disappear along with her."
"And most importantly—Solomon..."
Da Vinci's words caused Romani to freeze.
Lowering his head, he murmured, "She's not giving us any chance at all... so the strategy of avoiding battle has failed. We have no choice but to fight her head-on until the end."
"Ritsuka..."
Just moments ago, upon learning that Selene would withdraw on her own after some time, he had planned for Scáthach to avoid battle. He had even instructed Ishtar to halt her trump card. But now, it was clear—they had been naïve.
Selene was forcing Chaldea into a direct confrontation.
If Chaldea dared to avoid battle, she would flood this world endlessly with vast armies of Honkai Beasts—as many as she could send!
And most crucially—the sky had already opened...
Solomon was about to descend!
They had no room left to choose.