Papiyas.
The world was enveloped in fire and ash.
The burning temple was the only structure present. Anything else beyond it burned an eternal pyre. As the supposed enemy of Buddha and Buddhism as a whole, this place was her world. Her hell.
During her life, Oda Nobunaga spent years upon years slaughtering monks and burning their temples. So much so that the Throne took it upon itself to designate her greatest weapon the bane of all that was Divine. A fitting legacy to the slaughterer of the firm Shinto believers.
This was her Reality Marble. The world within her core. The place where she was betrayed. The temple where she was murdered by her own people. A karmic end to one who burned all those monks that denied her conquest for decades on end.
The Daimyo closed her eyes, taking in the strong scent of sulfur and smoke. Alongside her rifles and blade, this was all she had left. The endlessly burning flames that even a god would consider their hell.
'Ah… I'll need some time off after this, again…' the woman sighed as the strain of forming the world took a minor toll on her. And that was despite Lelouch's surprising amount of mana. Speaking about her partner. 'I wonder… would Lelouch feel… at ease with this world of mine?'
As a fellow Demon, he should. Or, if his proposal was to be 'til death they part, he had to be able to at least accept this side of her legend. Naming herself a demon was one thing, but to be eternally attached to one who had her own personal underworld where no deity would willingly tread? That belied a bond requirement beyond simple verbal promises.
And yet, Nobu didn't doubt for a second he would accept. He'd accept her despite this world portraying such an unbecoming aspect of her as a woman. After all, the boy had carved his own path to hell for the sake of salvaging the world. For the Demon King who'd only seen his path in visions and dreams, the Demon Emperor who walked it in his past life was an existence worthy of respect as well as a seat in this world for her to rule alongside with.
However, Nobu had to pull away from such fleeting thoughts. She had a guest to entertain, after all. The poor soul that was transported inside the Reality Marble with her wasn't feeling as calm and collected as she.
"This is—?!" Gilgamesh dropped to a knee. His golden armour smoked and sizzled as it clanged to the ground with him. "This world is—NGAH?!"
It was a rare act of weakness, an arrogant one such as he would never do under normal circumstances. But the situation was anything except normal. There was a definite reason Oda Nobunaga had never feared the King of Heroes. She'd never been cowed by his presence as many of the others were.
Of course, she acknowledged his power and how dangerous he was. Yet still, she remained confident in her ability to beat—nay, slay the demigod. And why?
Because her world, her legend was built upon the desecration of all that the Divine held sacred!
Stoic faith and the sanctity of life? All that had been torn down, replaced by burning holy sites, massacring monks, leaving none who sought refuge in temple grounds alive. All those stories made a strong impression on her followers as well as the generations that succeeded her.
Born from negativity and fear, set in stone by her karmic death, and then burned into the annals of history. Oda Nobunaga, the Conqueror of Japan, soon attained the title Oda Nobunaga, the Demon King.
So strong was her legend that it gave rise to the mystery that fueled her power in the form of the most memorable curse she placed upon her enemies.
Those who worship God will know fear.
Those who claim the backing of the divine will know death.
Those who fight in the name of their deity, even with their life put to the blade… they shall be denied salvation.
For all their trespasses against Oda Nobunaga, for all that they claim their cause to be just, the bane of that which is holy will grant them one final damnation. In light of their futile yet stubborn resistance, they shall be granted hell.
Thus, the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven was born. She who was believed to be the enemy of the gods had been given the greatest weapon against them. Not divine chains that would restrain them. Not a sword that would sever them off from humanity. No.
All she had been given was the power itself to destroy that which held Divinity, a crystallization of her god-abhorring mythos.
Papiyas was the very picture of that power, an amalgamation of the fear and reverence that the people held for Nobunaga even after her death. Therefore, this world which she held absolute authority over burned with the greatest weapon those with Divinity and ancient Mystery could never endure.
Especially not Archer who was two-thirds of divine lineage. It didn't matter how much of him was human, he would never be immune from the air that sought to kill all who were originally of the divines.
Heels clicked against the steps that lead to the burning temple behind her. She hadn't the need to summon the giant skeleton this time, opting to stroll down from her own throne. Her world's only resident would remain slumbering for she only needed the air this land exuded to end her foe.
As proof of such confidence, Gilgamesh could barely even raise his head to glare at her feet. Kneeled before the burning temple's steps, he continued to suffer while she looked down upon his form. His skin burned, the air was attempting to choke out his very existence. No matter how hard his pride wouldn't allow him to show weakness, one couldn't deny the facts.
In this world, Avenger was the ruler. Gilgamesh was nothing but a weakened mongrel on the cusps of death.
"I see that you're in great pain, King of Heroes." Nobunaga smiled as she walked down towards the blood-spewing man. "Where has your earlier bravado gone? Come now, Archer. Aren't you going to shut up this bitch's mouth? Please, say something witty lest you bore me with your insufferable hacking." More blood was coughed to the floor in front of her. It started evaporating in the heat of the world. "Or maybe, you can start begging for your life, mongrel!"
The turnabout had Archer's blood boiling. That whilst his skin blistered and burned. Bent forward and in a far more despicable state, than he'd been mere minutes ago, he was no longer the picturesque King of Uruk he prided himself to be. He was just a man burning away in hell.
But although his very existence was being chipped away piece by piece by the ashes of this world, the arrogant king wasn't about to give her the satisfaction of tormenting him! She hadn't noticed it yet, but Archer's remaining hand gripped tightly on his precious sword's hilt.
"Burn… in hell!" Gilgamesh forced himself to say it through the agony of burning alive. "You… bitch!"
"Ahahah! Been there, done that," Nobunaga laughed as she raised her hand. A Gatling gun, a modern rendition of her myth's relentless assault during her conquest, materialized as if it was one of her rifles. But this one, she made to personally wield and aim at the fallen king's head, like an executioner's axe on the downtrodden prisoner of her world. "Are those your last words, Gilgamesh?"
This was it. His end was nigh. The false world around him would spell his end, even if he was able to dodge her finishing strike.
"No… It's… not!" But there was never going to be a chance in any hell that he would allow himself to die like this!
"Oh? A final act of defiance? Coming from a man who abhorred those who would rebel against his wishes?"
"You forget, wench! I, myself, have once fought and defeated gods!" Gilgamesh ignored the woman's taunts and raised his head. What blood and sweat that had yet to evaporate trickled down his face. With all his might, he grit his teeth and cried out. "—Behold!"
Nobunaga's eyes narrowed before opening wide when Archer trained a sword, the likes of which she had never seen before, on her face. This… weapon, just by witnessing it in so close a proximity, had frozen her stiff. Even though she was in the world where she was the most powerful, the gold-black-red object projected an aura that felt so wrong and yet not divine.
She couldn't make heads or tails of the power inside it. As the supposed blade of the strange sword started to spin, the air and space about her shifted as well.
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR—
Sensing her oncoming death, Avenger snapped back to her senses and opened fire upon the Archer. The Gatling gun didn't even bother to pre-spin to life as her hell-infused bullets whirred the contraption into a buzzing frenzy.
Hundreds of shells made contact with his body and ripped his torso apart. Archer's golden armour shattered like glass. Divine blood smoked and evaporated. Mortal flesh merely splattered and burned under the searing atmosphere. But the man didn't falter despite the obviously fatal damage he received.
Everything around him was already killing him. This suffering was less of a detriment and more of an encouragement to the one and only action available to him.
Only two words left Gilgamesh's mouth. Neither were cries of mercy nor pained death throes. However, the guttural utterance was enough to cause the Demon King's spine to shudder, if for but a moment.
"… Enuma Elish!"
The world was enveloped in a void of black.