The black mud doll snapped its fingers.
Behind it, a passage emitting a faint blue light slowly emerged from the black mud.
The passage was unstable, its edges flickering with spacetime fissures.
But Asuka could feel a familiar aura from within, the aura of the World of the Living.
Angra Mainyu's voice was full of temptation.
"[As long as you nod, this nightmare will end... You can return to your woman, return to your comrades... Isn't that wonderful?]"
Asuka looked at the blue passage.
Through the overlapping mists of spacetime, he seemed to truly see the streets of Rukongai, and those familiar faces.
As long as he stepped inside...
As long as he stepped inside, all of this would end.
He wouldn't have to struggle in this world filled with malice anymore, wouldn't have to face those baffling magi and battles.
It was indeed an offer hard to refuse.
"...Sounds good."
Asuka slowly lowered the Zanpakuto in his hand, and the killing intent radiating from him seemed to dissipate a little.
The black mud doll looked pleased, opening its arms as if welcoming an old friend.
"But..."
Asuka raised his head. "In this world, there are two things I hate the most."
"The first is a lunatic who thinks of himself as a god and toys with the lives of others."
"The second... is a liar who spouts nothing but absolute bullshit."
"And coincidentally, you fit both perfectly."
Slash—!!
The black mud doll's extended arm was cleanly severed once again.
With a splat, it fell to the ground and dissolved into a puddle of foul-smelling sludge.
"[...]"
The arm did not regenerate; the severed stump was as smooth as a mirror.
Its voice turned somewhat gloomy and cold, carrying a trace of incomprehensible confusion.
"No, I have no doubt that you can do it," Asuka said.
"But your words carry a stench."
"The stench of treating human lives as numbers, and hope as bargaining chips."
Asuka's gaze passed over the black mud doll, looking toward the people in the distance who were still trapped in their nightmares, their bodies gradually being corroded by the black mud.
He looked at Sumire Kamado, at Kaien, and at Kiritsugu Emiya, who had fallen into despair for the sake of his ideals.
"If I leave, what will happen to them?" Asuka asked coldly.
"You said you would let me go, but what about them? Will they become your nourishment? Or sacrifices for this world?"
"[They are merely the natives of this world, kindling destined to be burned! Why should an outsider like you meddle in such trivial matters?!]"
Asuka sighed, as if somewhat helpless.
The Spiritual Pressure radiating from his body began to climb steadily.
"...Your heart contains only the purest of evils. Have you become completely incapable of understanding human emotions?"
"If I were to abandon them in a fiery pit just to survive on my own..."
"Then what face would I have to see Shinobu after I return? What face would I have to seek my revenge with dignity?"
"More importantly..."
A flash of tyrannical red light crossed Asuka's eyes.
"You piss me off."
"From the very beginning, you've pissed me off to the extreme."
"Toying with human lives in the palm of your hand, hiding behind the scenes to weave your vicious scripts... A thing like you shouldn't even exist in this world."
The black mud doll's figure began to twist and expand.
Rumble—!!!
In the sky, that massive void suddenly began to tremble violently.
A dazzling golden meteor, wrapped in black and red lightning, plummeted from the void!
That was no ordinary meteor.
"Is that... the King of Heroes?!"
Asuka's heart skipped a beat.
The current Gilgamesh had long lost his previous arrogance and extravagance.
His golden armor was shattered and ruined, and the exposed skin was covered in black veins, as if some sort of black toxin was madly spreading through his body.
His eyes had completely lost all reason, leaving only two clusters of burning black fire.
And on his chest, a white bone mask was firmly embedded. Countless scarlet tentacles pierced deeply into his flesh, connecting to his Spirit Core.
Metastacia.
This lingering Hollow had actually succeeded in parasitizing a demigod!
"Hahahaha! I feel it! I feel it!!"
That nauseating voice emerged from Gilgamesh's mouth, overlapping with the King of Heroes' original voice to form a bizarre duet.
"Is this the power of the strongest Heroic Spirit?! Is this the Gate of Babylon?!"
"Fantastic! Fantastic!! With this power, I am a god!!"
Boom—!!!
The King of Heroes crashed heavily into the plaza of Ryuudou Temple, kicking up a sky full of dust and rubble.
The black mud was blown away by the shockwave, revealing the scorched earth beneath.
Gilgamesh... or rather, the one parasitized by Metastacia, staggered out from the ruins.
With every step he took, the black aura around his body grew denser.
The hole of the Greater Grail in the sky was currently dropping a pillar of black light, connecting to his body.
Angra Mainyu's figure had disappeared, leaving only that voice echoing in the air.
"[But... that bug parasitizing his body, that creature filled with desire and greed... is the perfect conductor!]"
Roar—!!!
The controlled Gilgamesh let out a high-spirited roar.
He abruptly raised his head, locking onto Asuka with those eyes burning with black fire.
In the void behind him, the originally golden ripples had now turned completely pitch-black.
Countless Noble Phantasms corrupted by the black mud, carrying a cursed aura that corroded everything, slowly poked their heads out.
"Now this... is a huge problem."
Cold sweat seeped from Asuka's palm as he gripped his sword.