Without hesitating, Tenkei Shiomi leapt onto Melusine's back.
She had cast off her identity as a fairy and returned to the form of Albion's Dragon. Since she was originally nothing more than a left hand that still retained a trace of life, even Melusine couldn't say how long this form would last, or whether she would ever be able to become Fairy Knight Melusine again.
Even so, she had no regrets.
Here, in the face of a powerful enemy, she would fulfill Albion's duty as the 'Border'.
In truth, once she returned to this form, she should have become a rainbow spanning the boundary line, or a gate that opened a path to other worlds and other dimensions.
"Tenkei!" Artoria suddenly shouted from the deck.
Tenkei Shiomi turned back. The King of Knights was full of worry, yet couldn't bring herself to stop him aloud.
"Storm Border is in your hands. Take everyone and regroup with Morgan."
"You'll come back, won't you?" Artoria asked.
"…" Tenkei Shiomi had no answer for a moment.
This was probably the second time he'd stepped onto a road he couldn't be sure of. What awaited him ahead, even he couldn't say.
"If you want to keep wasting time, be my guest. It isn't my time, after all."
Goetia's voice carried over from afar.
Keeping this path open through a maze of layered dimensions, guiding him and Albion's Dragon to Chaos, was clearly no easy task. Otherwise, Goetia would never have appeared as Grand Caster.
"Quit rushing us! We're going now, just like you wanted!"
Tenkei Shiomi shouted back. He clenched his fist, then leaned down and gently patted the dragon's neck.
"Let's fly."
A roar that seemed to shake the sky was Melusine's reply. She spread her wings, gathered Mana through her body, and surged into the starry expanse where Chaos awaited.
In the blink of an eye, the figures of god and dragon shrank into a tiny speck in Chaldea's sight, racing along that long road.
Because of the route Goetia had constructed, Chaos, which should have been at a distance practically equal to infinity, on the far side of countless dimensional labyrinths, now loomed as a colossal presence only a little over twenty thousand meters away.
As Albion closed in on Chaos at speed, the sky… or rather, the universe itself, seemed to rise higher and higher.
That was a Dyson sphere, a piece of ultra-future technology that, to humanity, could only ever be a fantasy, something even theory couldn't truly reach: turning an entire star into an energy source.
And what they were doing now was drawing as close as possible to the place where that star existed.
"My husband…"
Morgan's voice sounded again through their telepathic link.
"…My wife." Tenkei Shiomi answered in his mind.
"You'll come back, won't you?" Morgan asked the same question, her voice trembling despite her effort to hold it steady.
"I'm sorry… I can't promise you that." Tenkei Shiomi pressed a hand to his chest. "If I don't make it back, I'm leaving what comes after to you."
"You're saying something so irresponsible again. I won't forgive you." Morgan's voice broke with a sob.
It was just her stubbornness. No one understood better than she did what Tenkei Shiomi was doing.
It wasn't irresponsibility. It was him doing everything he could to shoulder responsibility.
As a human, and as a god.
"You're right," Tenkei Shiomi whispered.
"Honestly… what am I even supposed to say?" Morgan let out a long sigh. "Fine. I promise."
"Thank you."
With that, Tenkei Shiomi ended what might have been his last telepathic exchange with Morgan.
He had promised he wouldn't leave her again, and yet once more, for a greater duty, he had to gamble his life on one final attempt.
"Tenkei-same… no, I suppose I should address you differently now…"
Melusine's voice echoed in his mind.
"My deity… are you crying?"
"Yes." Tenkei Shiomi didn't deny it. The one with tears in his eyes right now was him.
"Please don't cry. Everything you've done is right. To be found by you, to become your strength, to fly with you toward that divine eye that peers at us, to protect the planet and our comrades behind us… I'm proud."
"I told you to choose your own path. To live," Tenkei Shiomi said, half-kneeling on her back as Chaos grew closer and closer in his field of view.
Melusine didn't agree.
"To be born for it, to die for it. If this is fate, then it cannot be defied."
"There's no such thing as fate you can't defy. It's just that we're here now, and the only ones who can do it… are us…"
Tenkei Shiomi patted her neck, accepting her comfort in his own way.
"My deity, the temperature around us has already exceeded normal limits. Please protect yourself."
"Melusine—" Tenkei Shiomi started, already moving to deploy a defensive barrier over her as well.
"Don't worry about me."
"What?"
"The body of Albion's Dragon won't burn that easily," Melusine said, her voice full of confidence. "That's wonderful…"
Tenkei Shiomi pressed his lips together.
"Is it, really?"
What Melusine meant was this: even though she had become Albion's Dragon and could no longer communicate normally with humans the way she could in her fairy form, Tenkei Shiomi could still understand her voice.
To anyone else, it would have sounded like nothing more than an incomprehensible dragon's roar.
"We've reached the limit. The heat will start slowing our flight speed. No counterattack from Chaos has been observed," Melusine reported.
Tenkei Shiomi rose to his feet, narrowing his eyes at Chaos.
"Chaos never took us seriously from the beginning. In its eyes, the god of a planet about to be harvested is nothing more than a backward existence. No value at all."
"Then deny Chaos's arrogance," Melusine said.
"Of course."
The closer he drew, the more clearly Tenkei Shiomi understood the nature of that 'rift'—its essence as the void itself.
It wasn't impossible to close.
But to seal that fissure, something else had to fill the void.
A gap between times. A domain of nothingness.
A god's body was the most suitable material.
"…This is far enough," Tenkei Shiomi said suddenly.
"My deity?" Melusine's voice trembled in alarm.
In the next moment, she felt him leave her back, moving alone toward the crack through which Chaos peered into this universe.
"No! You can't go alone—"
She tried to accelerate, but the speed she took pride in as the Last Dragon was no longer enough to catch up with him.
The twisted, overlapping dimensional labyrinth obstructed her path, preventing her from following.
"That's enough. I know you want to stay with me. But some things aren't meant to drag others down with them."
Tenkei Shiomi raised a hand and gently pushed toward Melusine from afar.
At once, the form of Albion's Dragon was forcibly undone, returning her to a state suspended between fairy and dragon.
"Why…?"
But Tenkei Shiomi did not answer.
He had already turned his back on her, facing Chaos. Slowly, he raised his hand.
Unlike the time he had sealed the Sacrificial God, this was something even more absolute—
The Great Seal!