"Black Mud...?"
Shirou spoke the speechless words with parched lips.
"That is a long story. But, as expected, you recognize it."
Coexisting with the most vile of curses—yet Alcides raised a bow-staff of pure, crystalline brilliance.
The current Shirou had become able to see through that bow.
It was almost like an artwork composed of materialized divine breath, crystal clear and emitting a crystalline light; yet there could be no greater irony.
The monster standing before him was undoubtedly an artificially formed anomaly.
"Did your Master do this... No, just how foolish must someone be to use this 'Mud'... This is a bastard thing capable of polluting the Holy Grail itself. Even its function as a wish-granting machine could lead to the destruction of the world, yet they use it just to win the Holy Grail War and make a wish??"
In a scenario where no one else in this fake Holy Grail War could speak a word of commentary, only Shirou, who understood the substance flowing from the bow, could converse with Alcides as an equal.
"I have no obligation to inform him of what the 'Mud' will cause. Having fought this time to take revenge against the gods, all three of my Master's Command Spells have already been used. If I win, he will be killed by me, and the curse of this body will not flow back into the Grail; conversely, if I fail, neither he nor I retain the right to a wish. Now that I have already coexisted with these things, the outcome you fear has become a fixed certainty; it will not change."
The Alcides before him stated this calmly, showing no signs of emotional agitation.
"!? Are you truly a hero?"
"The name of Hero is of no use to an Avenger."
The monster sneered self-deprecatingly: "If you are so attached to such titles, I don't mind giving it to you."
Shirou felt a shudder on a different level.
He felt the veins on his forehead bulge uncontrollably.
This was too distorted. This guy was beyond saving, and he clearly recognized that fact.
Alcides retained only the humility and tenacity of a hero.
"Do not bestow unnecessary sympathy upon me. The current me is simply an aspect that a fool—one who felt complacent accepting the blessings of the gods only to be consumed by them—ought to have. Otherwise, a second history would be produced."
Perhaps it was because Shirou was distracted by the face-contorting situation. When the monster flashed before him in an instant, Shirou was unable to react.
The balance he had struggled so hard to maintain until now collapsed so easily, and in such a cynical manner.
It sounded like the shattering of glass.
"Cough!?"
The iron inside his body felt as if it were boiling in his mouth. The ominous taste of rust burst through his lips, splashing into the open air. With just a single blow, Shirou was swept away, crashing into a protruding concrete pillar on the platform. The square pillar behind him shattered to pieces.
Unable to recover immediately, it took a breath before he realized the man had drawn his bow once more.
The bow's limb, as sharp as a staff strike, came crashing down toward his head.
At limit speed, Shirou blocked with the twin long blades that manifested before him. The hum of the collision felt far too light amidst the ringing in his ears.
There was no more room to retreat.
That was because Shirou had been pinned to the ground by this strike. Shirou's head and upper body were beyond the edge of the high-rise, completely suspended in mid-air. If his body moved just a bit further out, he would fall.
The white-blue bow, its limb now pressing down with titanic force against the barrier of the twin blades.
"..."
His arms felt as if they were cramping, refusing to obey. The massive force ground against the defensive line formed by the joined swords. Despite the bow-limb being a blunt instrument, it was inching closer and closer to Shirou's chest.
"There is no need to speak of my affairs further."
The gaunt giant pressed all his distortions beneath this sentence; the way he maintained his movement was even solemn enough to be described as majestic:
"Human. If I am not mistaken, what you possess is the ability to 'Duplicate Noble Phantasms,' is it not? Identical Noble Phantasms in the shape of small knives for harassment,
inexhaustible and limitless. It is neither a 'Collection Noble Phantasm' (Gate of Babylon), nor a 'Plundering Noble Phantasm' (Reincarnation Pandora).
A mixture of pain and astonishment caused Shirou's eyes to widen. When he tried to open his mouth, he coughed up more blood.
The man impassively pressed the bow-limb toward Shirou's heart. His voice was terrifyingly calm.
"If you could survive after fighting me, you would become stronger—Son of Man, have you duplicated this bow by now?"
Even as he spoke, the bow-limb continued to crush downward without mercy. Not a single emotion could be heard in Alcides' rippleless tone.
Magic circuits, including the overflowing magical energy, were pushed to their maximum. These arms exerted every ounce of strength as if they were snapping.
Even this could not reverse the situation. Shirou was being overwhelmed.
Though he turned his pain into a fierce glare directed at him, it had no effect.
Alcides seemed to look toward the direction where Illya had been earlier. But he likely saw nothing. The cloth wrapped around him swayed with the motion of suppressing Shirou.
"Such is the growth of a Son of Man. However, standing from the position of a Son of Man myself, I shall stifle such an individual."
Finally, an emotion appeared. Shirou realized that the emotion was—sorrow.
The man who said he did not need sympathy was actually feeling sympathy for him.
At that moment, even knowing it would be difficult to even survive tonight, Shirou could not help but blurt out words inhabited by all his emotions:
"Alcides, I will definitely take you down."
"I shall wait."
Whether this was a delusion or a promise.
The unknown night still covered the sky.
Five.
The two blades guarding his chest were about to lose their strength.
Four.
Even for the red archer, there was no way out. Even recalling all of his techniques, this was an absolute dead-end. The things he mastered contained no method to escape this situation; the man who was once his future self had reached his limit.
Thus, there is only this possibility."
Three.
Therefore, Shirou felt lucky.
Lucky that his technique had a part that surpassed him.
Shirou would continue to walk on. No matter how ugly the crying, no matter how unsightly the gasping.
Two.
"Crane Wing!"
Alcides observed the situation wordlessly, and then discovered something flying through the air, having pierced through the ceiling behind him.
Four of them.
They were the Crane Wings he had knocked down earlier.
I see.
Alcides had made one mistake—the Triple-Linked Crane Wings is not something that can only be used once.
As long as the Crane Wings are behind the enemy, as long as the twin blades in hand are not destroyed. Even fallen Crane Wings can be called upon again.
This was a sublime technique that perhaps only this sweating, red-haired youth before him could achieve. No one else could.
However, it was still meaningless.
Alcides paid it no heed.
One.
The twin blades in the youth's hands had slackened to the final stage.
With his body running beyond its limits, he showed an expression of blurred consciousness.
His own bow-staff fell silently—at the exact same moment the four Yin-Yang swords struck the pelt on his back.
"What?"
Alcides did not understand.
Why did explosions erupt behind him?
Why did the pelt fail to isolate the damage? He was blasted visibly forward, exposing an opening that, in Alcides' eyes, was fatal in a battle between equals.
To the point that the bow-staff did not even pierce the correct location.
In the corner of his vision, he saw the fragments of collapsing Noble Phantasms, saw a brilliant light.
—Is this "Broken Phantasm"?
At the very instant he realized what the move was.
Alcides—for the first time, a trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth.
Four Broken Phantasms of approximately C-rank Noble Phantasms, endured at point-blank range; even Alcides could not remain completely unharmed.
The pelt of the Divine Beast rejects all tools of human endeavor.
However, it cannot nullify attacks that do not rely on tools. For example, a simple physical strike is enough to pass through the pelt normally and cause damage.
A "Broken Phantasm" uses the Noble Phantasm itself as a container for vast magical energy and detonates the magical energy contained within like an explosive.
What was detonated was: Magical Energy.
The "tool"—the "packaging"—never activated from start to finish; instead, it was the first to be blown to pieces by the internal destruction.
Alcides admitted he had made a second mistake—this human had breached the barrier of the Divine Beast's pelt at the final moment.
The wings had reached Alcides.
The youth, having pinned Alcides in place, left him behind and fell from the height of 200 meters toward the ground.
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