Silence.
Silence.
Utter silence.
From the instant Shirou Emiya entered the Grail, every sound vanished, leaving only boundless silence behind.
All things seemed tranquil, as if everything around him had fallen into absolute stillness.
He felt like he was drifting through an infinite cosmos, floating endlessly through an unfathomable void.
It seemed that time and space no longer existed here.
Zzzzt—!
Suddenly, a strange, electric crackling ripped through him like lightning.
In this dark, soundless void, his body twisted violently, wrenching him from side to side.
Under normal circumstances, entering the Holy Grail's interior should have been impossible.
If it had been so easy to enter without paying a heavy price, Darnic would have found a way long ago.
No one could resist the allure of making a wish before achieving final victory in the Holy Grail War.
Shirou's body began to tremble uncontrollably as wave after wave of pain, fierce as a tsunami, surged through him.
A terrifying suffocation was drowning him at every moment.
Poison...?
No matter how quickly Shirou Emiya had moved, he couldn't avoid Bashmu's Venom. Even Astolfo, equipped with [Incursio], empowered by [Command Spells], and protected by his Noble Phantasm, had failed to escape unscathed.
How could Shirou, a mere human, hope to fare any better? The instant he had broken free from Jeanne's barrier, his body had already been utterly saturated by poison.
If he were a Servant, he would likely have dissolved into golden particles within the Holy Church.
But Shirou Emiya wasn't a Servant; unlike Mordred, he didn't possess an A-rank [Magic Resistance].
In fact, he had no [Magic Resistance] at all.
Yet precisely because he was human, precisely because of his mortal body, Shirou Emiya had managed to reach the Grail's interior despite already being dead.
Indeed, Shirou had died the moment he stepped beyond Jeanne's protective boundary. The body that ascended the altar was merely a corpse propelled forward by his will alone.
Even gods feared this venom; even [Avalon] would fail to rescue Shirou once he'd been infected.
This poison didn't just instantly kill Servants—it lingered, relentlessly assaulting anyone unfortunate enough to breathe it in. Shirou had no defense against such insidious power.
But still, he had wagered everything on this one desperate gamble. Even when Jeanne desperately opposed it, even when the entire Black Faction had objected, Shirou had made this choice without hesitation.
In that moment, only the fastest reaction could secure victory.
He had charged forward without pause, as though it wasn't his own death he was rushing towards.
"AAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHH!!!"
Chaotic thoughts scrambled through Shirou's mind, his brain spinning and shuddering like a blender.
Glitches flickered across his body, fragments of reality seeming to reject his very existence in this place.
An indescribable sensation overtook him, impossible to articulate, as though his soul was being torn apart. Golden cracks began spreading across his form.
It should have been pure agony—and indeed, Shirou struggled fiercely within it.
Yet, amidst the agony was a strange, inexplicable sense of bliss, as if true release lay in surrendering to it. He began to sink willingly into that seductive oblivion.
Shnk—!
Just as his consciousness started dissolving into that inexplicable ecstasy, a knightly sword appeared in Shirou's hand.
Without hesitation, without preamble, Shirou summoned every last ounce of his willpower and thrust the blade deep into his abdomen.
A pain entirely distinct from before jolted his consciousness back briefly. But that overwhelming, paradoxically joyous agony quickly returned, wrapping him once more.
Shnk—!
Shnk—!
Shnk—!
One after another, Shirou repeatedly stabbed himself, as if desperately fighting off some dawning realization.
Floating silently in this infinite darkness, no blood poured from his body; even his lost right arm had inexplicably returned.
Shirou had long since separated from his physical form—what remained drifting here was merely his soul.
So this is the inside of the Greater Grail...?
It truly was an awful place.
A wry smile crossed Shirou's lips.
Jeanne had warned him that the Grail's interior existed under entirely different laws from the outside world. Neither the physical nor magical laws he knew would apply here.
This alien space would annihilate any intruder lacking adequate preparation, instantly reducing them to pure mana, absorbed entirely by the Grail.
That was precisely why Amakusa Shirou Tokisada had painstakingly prepared himself before daring to enter. Had the situation not been urgent, he would have taken even greater precautions.
It had been his long-held wish; any level of caution was entirely justified. But time had simply run out.
Amakusa had been forced to risk everything to enter the Grail.
Had Shirou Emiya not possessed such unwavering determination, had he not immediately resorted to self-mutilation, he would have been utterly consumed by that euphoric annihilation, losing every trace of identity. Only his soul would remain, drifting until it too dissolved into pure mana stored within the Grail.
Perhaps not even that precisely—just a soul wandering the Grail's depths until it inevitably dispersed into pure magical energy.
"Did Amakusa really stay in such a place…?"
Finally regaining his clarity, Shirou murmured softly.
This altar had never belonged solely to Amakusa. The protections it provided weren't exclusive to him; Shirou Emiya benefitted just as much.
Normally, even someone of immense mental fortitude wouldn't survive entry into the Grail's depths—they'd vanish instantly upon arrival.
Only because of this altar was Shirou able to avoid dissolving into mana immediately.
But that meant Amakusa Shirou Tokisada had endured precisely the same ordeal Shirou was now experiencing.
Such resolve—such willpower—was truly astonishing.
After all, maintaining one's existence in a place like this was already extraordinarily difficult. Yet, Amakusa had apparently ventured even further, deeper towards the very heart of the Grail.
How could one not be impressed...?