At half past seven in the evening, Shirou and the others arrived at the foot of the mountain.
Even though they were still within the city, the area had fallen into a deathly silence, as if they had stepped into a demonic realm ruled by the Queen in the Skin-Tight Suit (Scáthach).
The sound of Shirou and Irisviel's footsteps broke the stillness.
"They're up there."
As he spoke, Shirou looked toward the summit.
Mount Enzou was the largest Leyline in Fuyuki City. A hundred and eighty years ago, the Three Families had placed the altar of the Greater Grail inside a natural cavern deep within the mountain.
As the provider of the land, the Tohsaka Family should originally have been able to build their base on the best spiritual land. But the magical energy filling Mount Enzou was far too strong and dangerous to serve as a place where the next generation of Magus could live and be raised. That was why they built their home on the second Leyline instead, which was the present-day Tohsaka residence.
This mountain had always possessed immense magical energy, yet tonight several additional presences of extraordinary magical energy had appeared.
There was no doubt. The enemy was waiting for Shirou at Ryuudou Temple.
Avenger, Archer, and Saber.
"Saber and Archer's magical signatures are not near the Greater Grail... What do we do next? Should we go straight into the underground cavern?"
The silver-haired, red-eyed Homunculus asked the question.
As the Lesser Grail, she could sense the state of the Greater Grail altar, the remains of the Winter Saint, to a certain degree.
Shirou's guess had been correct.
He did not know why they had abandoned the Greater Grail and gone up to the mountaintop instead, but it was definitely an opportunity.
"No. If we do that, we might end up caught between front and rear attacks... I do not think the enemy will just let us get anywhere near the Greater Grail."
Shirou shook his head.
"I'll go intercept the enemy.
While I keep them occupied, Irisviel and Assassin should go destroy the Greater Grail."
"That is too heavy a burden for Shirou..."
Hassan of the Hundred Faces spoke from the darkness, and Irisviel nodded grimly as well.
"There is no helping it. We do not have enough people, so this is our only option. Assassin, I am leaving Irisviel under your protection.
If you two can dismantle the Greater Grail smoothly, I might not even have to fight Archer and Saber."
"I understand."
Hassan of the Hundred Faces accepted Shirou's plan.
"Wait. What about my opinion?"
Although Irisviel was dissatisfied, she also understood that if she stayed by Shirou's side, she would only be a burden.
She beckoned him closer, then pressed a kiss to his forehead.
"Be careful, Shirou," Irisviel said.
"Yeah. You too," Shirou replied.
"If possible... no, it is nothing."
Irisviel shook her head. Shirou guessed what she had wanted to say, so he answered for her.
"I will do my best to bring Saber back. You did not get the chance to say goodbye to her, did you?"
"Shirou...!"
Irisviel made a deeply pained expression and bit her lip.
"Please put your own safety first."
"Of course."
Shirou nodded with a smile.
"What is it, Assassin?"
"No... I just feel that Shirou has been smiling more lately."
"Is that so..."
Shirou fell into thought.
'Shirou has been smiling more lately.'
Someone had said those same words to him before.
During the latter half of the pilgrimage, Shirou had become much brighter than before and had gradually begun opening his heart to his companions.
But after returning to Proper Human History, he had turned back into the boy who had only just been freed from the fairies' slavery.
In other words...
As Shirou walked up the long flight of stone steps, he thought to himself,
I am slowly returning to my prime.
Shirou suddenly stopped and looked up.
A figure was standing on the stone steps some distance away from the mountain gate.
Even though the only light in these deep mountains came from the moon, that figure still shone brilliantly with gold, as if proclaiming that he was unlike the ordinary mortals of this earth, that the radiance of a king was not something granted by the sun.
Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes.
The arrogant king who loved high places more than anyone, who delighted more than anyone else in standing above and looking down on mongrels, had appeared halfway up the mountain, in that awkward place that was neither summit nor foothill.
"Did Avenger send you here to receive me?"
Archer folded his arms and gave a cold snort.
"Do not say something so foolish. Why would this king obey the orders of a mere little girl?"
"So the King of Heroes has personally come out to greet me... what an honor," Shirou said with a soft laugh.
"This king once told you that I would pass judgment on you. Now is the time to fulfill a king's promise."
Archer looked down at the red-haired boy from above.
"Show this king everything you have, then die, Faker."
The corner of Shirou's mouth twitched.
"So it really came to this in the end... If possible, I was hoping you would let this slide.
You do not exactly like Avenger either, right? Could you not make an exception and let me pass?"
The red-haired boy put on a flattering expression, but the Golden King treated it with utter disdain.
"Drop the act, mongrel.
You make it sound so nice, but in truth, you have been looking forward to crossing swords with this king more than anyone."
"...As expected, I cannot hide anything from those eyes."
Shirou let out a sigh, while at the same time using telepathy to tell Lady Avalon to stack every buff on him.
Tonight was the last night. There was no reason to hold anything back anymore.
"All right. Then I will accept the king's advice."
Shirou took a deep breath and stilled his heart until it was calm as a lake.
"I do not mind accepting your judgment, but you will have to pay the proper trial fee in return. With your life, Archer!!"
The instant he spoke those words, Shirou took a huge step forward.
His legs had been reinforced by Lady Avalon's Magecraft, and intricate magical patterns appeared across them.
It was the blessing of the wind.
Shirou intended to use wind Magecraft to close the distance to Gilgamesh in a single rush.
But at that very moment, the dim moonlit night was lit up by golden brilliance as bright as day.
"!!"
The space around the red-haired boy began to warp.
Dozens, hundreds, thousands of Noble Phantasms began to emerge from the void.
That was the move Gilgamesh had intended to use on Shirou before, only to have it interrupted when his tactless Master recalled him.
A full three hundred and sixty-degree bombardment of Noble Phantasms formed around the enemy.
A saturation attack with literally no blind spots.
The original prototypes of the legendary Noble Phantasms of human history all fired at once, then detonated against the boy.
From a distance, it looked like a spherical golden cage.
At the center of that cage was a pitiful boy, utterly unable to fight back as he endured the baptism of Noble Phantasms.
Even Gilgamesh himself wondered whether he might have gone a little too far.
If he blasted the brat so thoroughly that not even scraps of his soul remained, then in the end, would he not lose even the chance to mock him after winning?
Amamiya Shirou's body, soul, and mind should have been torn apart under the barrage of weapons from every direction. That was how it should have gone, and yet...
Within the cage of light formed by countless Noble Phantasms, a new surge of magical energy erupted.
That new magical energy was so overwhelming that it even drowned out the immense magical energy of [Gate of Babylon].
"What...?"
The King of Heroes frowned at first, then smiled.
"So you have finally arrived."
[I command my body with a Command Spell.]
Shirou murmured softly, and the Command Spell on the back of his hand shone with crimson light.
In the next instant, the figure of the red-haired boy within the blaze began to change.
Along with that change in form came an unbelievable overflow of magical energy.
After last night's replenishment, Shirou's magical energy far surpassed what he had possessed on the night he defeated the Sea Demon.
The magical energy radiating from his [Dead Count Shapeshifter] state was like an invisible hammer of wind, smashing away every weapon hurled down by the [Gate of Babylon].
The overbearing golden brilliance was torn apart, revealing the boy's true form beneath the moonlight.
The slim youth stood wrapped in an enormous storm of wind.
His uncontrollable magical energy swept around him like a tornado, blowing away every Noble Phantasm fired from [Gate of Babylon].
It was not just that he had an enormous amount of magical energy. Its density was also astonishing.
Normally, if an ordinary person inhaled the air currents swirling around Shirou, their lungs would probably be burned through on the spot.
This was one of the powers possessed by Shirou, the Nameless King from another world.
Unable to use [Mana Burst], he had acquired a skill while crossing countless battlefields, [Invisible Air (Release)].
Just by standing there, Shirou could make the magical energy spilling out of him form a barrier that protected his body.
It could not be said to block absolutely everything, but at the very least, [Gate of Babylon] fired carelessly without True Name Release could never penetrate Shirou's [Invisible Air].
"...Hmph."
Gilgamesh's lips curled upward.
He did not press the attack any further, and instead quietly waited for Shirou to make his move.
As if answering that expectation, Shirou acted.
[Dead Count Shapeshifter] only lasted for one hundred and eighty seconds.
He did not have time to probe and test Gilgamesh back and forth like last time, so...
Without the slightest hesitation, Shirou raised his left arm and released the strongest Magecraft in his possession.
[...I am the bone of my sword.]
If Kayneth had been there, he surely would have been so shocked that he would have questioned the entire life that had earned him the title of genius.
Because what Shirou was doing overturned the very common sense of Magecraft.
What he unfolded was without question a grand Magecraft that came closer to true Magic than anything else.
The more powerful a spell was, the more preparation time it usually required. Some Magecraft needed chanting for days and nights, while others were ritual Magecraft completed by hundreds of people working together.
And yet the incantation Shirou recited this time consisted of only a single verse, one count.
Without a single unnecessary movement, a grand Magecraft completed in a single action unfolded along the mountain path of Mount Enzou.
The world was invaded.
Boiling flames raced everywhere.
White line-like things crawled endlessly across the ground.
In an instant, the midnight mountain road was rewritten, and everything around them crumbled like a sketchboard being torn apart.
With terrifying speed, this world was replaced by another.
"Hm."
Gilgamesh calmly looked over the scenery around him without the slightest change in expression.
As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but a splendid sea of blooming flowers.
The cold mountain road in the dead of night had turned into a warm land of spring.
Above them stretched a brilliant starry sky that seemed close enough to touch.
In the distance hung a vast and beautiful blue moon.
A world with nothing in it, and yet one that needed nothing.
This was Shirou's inner world, the paradise he had seen only once and yet had engraved so deeply into his heart that he could never forget it.
The Inner Sea of the Planet...!?
Gilgamesh could not help narrowing his eyes.
Even the King of Heroes, who possessed the highest rank of Clairvoyance, could never have imagined that Shirou's Reality Marble would show him the Inner Sea of the Planet.
For a brief moment, he was dazed by the beauty of the scenery before him. But he quickly regained his composure, and from the bottom of his heart felt only disappointment.
The King of Heroes glanced disdainfully at the flowers beneath his feet.
How was one supposed to fight with this?
Compared to the stirring world of hot sands created by the King of Conquerors, this was not even worth mentioning.
Compared to the invincible army summoned by [Ionioi Hetairoi], this place was far too empty.
"Having even a shred of expectation for you was this king's greatest miscalculation."
The King of Heroes sighed and said in a thoroughly impatient voice,
"Do not tell me you meant for this king to merely admire the flower field in your head and call it a day."
"Of course not."
Shirou stood still in the sea of flowers, silently gazing at the King of Heroes in the distance.
"...?"
Gilgamesh sensed that something was wrong, and at that very moment...
"!"
He suddenly lowered his head and looked at his left arm.
Starting from his left hand, sharp metal fragments pierced through his skin, sprouting out one after another like bamboo shoots bursting from the earth.
"What...!?"
There was no doubt about it. They were swords.
Swords growing out from inside the King of Heroes' body.
Archer's flesh was being forcibly transformed into swords by some unseen will.
This was forging...
Gilgamesh's eyes widened in fury.
That mongrel was actually using this king's noble body as raw material for forging Holy Swords!!!
"Gh...!!"
Archer did not hesitate for even an instant. He drew his sword and chopped off his left arm, whose grotesque sword-like growths had already reached his elbow.
He realized that if he did not sever it and save himself, he would soon be completely overtaken.
The severed royal left arm spun through the air, changed shape, and in the end turned into a golden Holy Sword that plunged into the ground.
At the same time, even more Holy Swords appeared throughout the sea of flowers.
Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of swords.
In the blink of an eye, the beautiful landscape of the Inner Sea of the Planet was transformed into a mound of graves marked by Holy Swords, and all traces of its former gentle atmosphere vanished completely.
Shirou explained,
"This is my [Unlimited Blade Works].
Every enemy who steps into this place is forcibly forged into a Holy Sword. Well? It is a world that is both boring and shameless, is it not?"
One of the materials needed to forge the Holy Swords of the Star was the life of a Paradise Fairy.
This was the ultimate secret technique Shirou had developed in order to save Morgan's life.
"Archer, if you do not want to be forged into a Holy Sword and remain in this world forever...
Then draw the sword from the deepest depths of your treasury."
Shirou pointed a Holy Sword straight at the Golden King.
"I was considerate enough to leave you your right hand."