"So you yearn that desperately to behold this king's other half. Such devotion deserves praise. But before that..."
"Struggle gloriously, Faker!"
With a thunderous shout, the King of Heroes opened a thousand muzzles behind him.
The golden radiance was so overwhelming that even the scenery of the Inner Sea of the Planet grew dim beneath it, and countless Noble Phantasms poured forth from the [Gate of Babylon].
A storm of deadly weapons tore through the air like shooting stars crashing down upon the earth.
Faced with those primordial treasures arriving in a blaze of destruction, an ordinary Heroic Spirit could do nothing but be ravaged by them.
But Shirou chose to face that barrage of death head-on.
His amber eyes shone brilliantly as the red-haired boy raised one arm.
In the next instant, the countless swords stored within Shirou's inner world, the Inner Sea of the Planet, shot into the sky with force no less fierce than [Gate of Babylon], intercepting the crashing rain of golden Noble Phantasms.
Shirou's [Unlimited Blade Works] possessed two abilities.
The first was [forging].
It imposed an unconditional instant-death judgment on any enemy who stepped into this field.
Though it appeared outwardly as the beautiful Inner Sea of the Planet, its true nature was a blazing furnace for forging planetary defense armaments.
Any enemy that entered Shirou's [Unlimited Blade Works] would be subjected to repeated waves of instant-death attacks.
A check was made against the enemy's [Mana] and [Luck] values, and those who failed would be forged into replicas of Holy Swords.
In a sense, Shirou's [Unlimited Blade Works] could be called the natural enemy of Iskandar's [Ionioi Hetairoi].
The moment that thirty-thousand-strong army was dragged into the Inner Sea of the Planet, more than ninety percent of its soldiers would be refined on the spot into pseudo-Holy Swords under Shirou's control.
The second ability of [Unlimited Blade Works] was the [storage] function inherent to the inner world itself.
Stored here were not only vast numbers of counterfeit Star Holy Swords, but also every sword Shirou had ever seen, analyzed, or projected.
The moment [Unlimited Blade Works] was activated, Shirou skipped the projection process entirely and directly called forth the swords stored within his soul.
Their number rivaled [Gate of Babylon], the original source of human wisdom. Countless.
"————————!!!"
Noble Phantasm collided with Noble Phantasm, producing scorching, blinding light and colossal torrents of magical energy.
The earth and sky seemed to split apart, as though the world itself were on the verge of collapse.
Shirou and Gilgamesh both stood their ground as more than three thousand Noble Phantasms clashed, exploded, and were destroyed above them.
Neither showed the slightest intention of stopping.
Thirty seconds had already passed since [Dead Count Shapeshifter] was activated, yet not a trace of impatience appeared on Shirou's face.
He was confident that within his own world, he would lose to no one in a contest of sheer firepower.
Since Gilgamesh refused to draw the Sword Of Rupture, then Shirou would simply send him back to the Throne of Heroes under this saturated storm of Noble Phantasms.
"..."
Gilgamesh also realized that something was off.
He saw a sword he had just shattered flying at him again.
The King of Heroes narrowed his eyes and swept his gaze across the surroundings. The ground was already covered with more than a thousand swords.
Among them were treasures Archer recognized. But when he noticed that the swords stuck in the earth were vanishing one after another from the edges inward, he could not help clicking his tongue.
The King of Heroes realized that Shirou's supply of swords was not infinite in some merely figurative sense.
As long as the battle continued inside this inner landscape, Shirou's stored arsenal would never decrease.
Realizing there was no point hoping Shirou would run out of ammunition, Archer abruptly changed tactics.
Ripples spread through the void behind him, and two fantasy armaments of extraordinary presence appeared.
Gilgamesh had only one right arm left, but that did nothing to hinder his use of such enormous mythic weapons.
The power possessed by a king had never been brute force, nor the raw strength to swing a deadly weapon.
"Go. Twin Swords of War! Tear apart that mongrel and his unrealistic fantasy!"
Gilgamesh raised one arm and poured magical energy into a single point.
Then, for the first time, he stopped simply hurling them carelessly and released the treasures' True Names.
[The Green Horizon that Cleaves a Thousand Mountains, Ig-Alima!]
[The Dawn Horizon that Burns Away Ten Thousand Seas, Sul-sagana!]
What the King of Heroes wielded were the twin swords of the legendary war god Zababa of Arad. The mountain-cleaving sword and the sea-cleaving sword.
The mountain-cleaving sword, which bore the concept of the horizon, could effortlessly split a thousand mountains.
The sea-cleaving sword, which bore the concept of the waterline, could burn away even ten thousand seas.
Those two mythic armaments, whose power made even cleaving mountains and burning seas seem like a trivial use, split the air apart and devoured every sword-bullet Shirou fired.
Faced with the approaching divine constructs, Shirou remained calm and met them head-on.
"..."
Archer frowned.
What appeared in the boy's hand was the Holy Sword he had forged not long ago, something that could perhaps be called [Holy Sword Gilgamesh].
Unlike the mass-produced Holy Swords from the [Lake of Holy Swords], this counterfeit Holy Sword forged within [Unlimited Blade Works] possessed a remarkably distinct individuality.
Depending on the material used, it could display completely different properties. Take this, for example.
Forged from the right arm of the King of Heroes, it even contained a portion of the Spirit Origin of the strongest Heroic Spirit.
Under Gilgamesh's astonished gaze, Shirou let out a low roar and released the True Name of the counterfeit Holy Sword.
"Go. Wedge of Heaven (Gilgamesh)!!"
The golden Holy Sword Shirou swung with all his strength burst with an even more dazzling golden radiance, then its blade transformed into countless chains.
At the end of those chains was a wedge powerful enough to nail heaven and earth together.
The instant the wedge collided with the God of War's Twin Swords, the mountain cleaving sword and sea cleaving sword, both Divine Constructs, actually began to break apart.
That was only natural.
After all, the "Holy Sword Gilgamesh" was a weapon that embodied the concept of the King of Heroes' left arm. As long as it was a weapon stored within the Gate of Babylon, it could not defeat it.
Mystery and Noble Phantasm rank meant nothing here. The moment they clashed, the result was annihilation, like matter colliding with antimatter.
The Wedge of Heaven smashed through the God of War's Twin Swords and shot straight toward Archer.
But the King of Heroes had already anticipated this. He leaped lightly into the air and opened his treasury beneath his feet.
What appeared was a golden vessel with emerald wings, Vimana, the king's craft that could soar through the heavens at sublight speed.
Seated upon his throne in the sky, Archer bent his knees and rose into the heavens aboard the vessel.
In an instant, golden light burned away the place where Shirou had been standing, along with the sea of flowers.
It was a horrifying magical bombardment. Even the King of Heroes himself would not have escaped unscathed if he had taken it head on without warning.
And yet Shirou blocked it with a projected pair of swords.
They were counterfeit Holy Swords that covered Shirou's arms, forged from the strongest and toughest substance on this planet, Albion's outer shell.
Its name was.
"Connect, The clear and serene lake's surface reflects the moonlight! Innocence Arondight!!!"
Then Shirou used the Fairy Sword's properties to fly into the sky.
Mana erupted from the blade and spread behind him like a dragon's wings, forming an antigravity field as he sped toward the golden heavenly vessel of the king.
Shirou being capable of high speed flight was something Archer had never expected.
He immediately opened the Gate of Babylon. Ripple like waves surrounded the red haired boy pursuing him, and from every direction thousands of weapons poured down in a deadly rain.
"Hmph...!"
An alarm rang through Shirou's mind.
With the launch speed of the Noble Phantasms themselves added to Shirou's own flight speed, this sudden attack should have been impossible to avoid.
But the boy's body reacted instantly through solid experience and skill.
Almost unconsciously, with even thought cast aside, Shirou released tiny bursts of Mana from every joint in his body, from his shoulders, elbows, knees, and more, adjusting his posture and twisting deftly through the air as he knocked away the Noble Phantasm projectiles flying at him from all sides.
This was battle instinct beyond the limits of humanity. It was the intuition of a dragon species that Shirou had gained after reading the memories of "Innocence Arondight."
"Ha! Nicely done, Faker!"
Archer had intended that attack to inflict damage for certain. Though surprised by a response that exceeded his expectations, he frankly voiced his praise, something rare for him.
For Archer, this was a battle, and yet not a battle.
He had not obtained a physical body in this world. He knew that the Holy Grail was an utterly evil vessel, and at this moment he was facing a human worthy of his full power.
So Archer had already cast everything else aside.
Victory or defeat, spending himself without restraint, none of it mattered. This was merely one of those rare banquets life offered, a moment of wild revelry.
Shirou, transformed into a crowned dragon, pursued relentlessly, while the golden heavenly vessel cruised through the sky at an unhurried pace.
The two of them broke through the clouds above the Inner Sea of the Planet and flew beneath the stars.
All the while, the storm of weapons unfolding around Shirou and the King of Heroes never stopped for even a moment.
The explosions of the Noble Phantasms even lit up the enormous celestial body in the distance, the Moon.
Faced with the dragon fairy hurtling at him at such terrifying speed, even the King of Heroes could not help widening his eyes in amazement, before bursting into laughter at the sheer absurdity of it all.
"Hahahahahahaha! You dare approach the skies where the King soars with nothing but your mortal body! Fall. Such insolence deserves punishment!"
Amid the treasures filling the sky, he skillfully controlled the golden sailing vessel, repeatedly dodging the projected swords fired from behind.
In terms of speed, "Innocence Arondight" even surpassed the heavenly boat of ancient myth, Vimana.
When Shirou accelerated once more through the Magic Circle deployed before him, the overbearing king's throne was overtaken and left behind.
Then, in a movement the laws of physics should never have allowed, Shirou came to a dead stop, turned in midair, and faced the bow of the heavenly boat head on.
""
The eyes of the nameless king met those of the oldest king.
Twilight colored eyes and crimson eyes locked onto each other.
In that instant, they understood each other without words. It was a moment of resonance between kings.
"The one who should fall is you. Kneel before me, King of Heroes!"
Shirou dismissed Innocence Arondight and projected a new weapon.
"This sword is the horn of calamity born from the law of the strong devouring the weak, the pitch black sunflame that burns away all impurity. Crush them. Black Dog Galatine!!!"
As Shirou released the True Name of the sword in his hand, an unknown black substance spread continuously from the blade, like the fangs of a predator tearing through enemy lines.
The raging flames took the form of a mass weapon like a black sun, crashing down on the King of Heroes' vessel like a fortress.
"!"
Even the King of Heroes had no time to react to this attack.
The calamity of flame had already descended, yet the King of Heroes still did not rise from his throne. A king's pride would not permit fleeing before the enemy.
And so.
Vimana was struck by the massive blow unleashed by the Fairy Sword. Its whole body ignited, and it spiraled downward toward the earth.
Amid the fierce winds of freefall, Gilgamesh stood with his arms folded, his expression unchanged.
Though the king's throne of the skies had been shot down, he himself had suffered nothing more than a few scratches on his golden armor.
Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes in delight.
...I see.
The endless swords stored within his heart, and the divine swordsmanship honed through countless battlefields. The ultimate combat style born from fusing those two together.
Though not truly an incarnation of the red dragon, he had still surpassed Phantasmal Species with nothing but a mortal human body.
Interesting...
Shirou Amamiya, I acknowledge it.
You truly are an unquestionable perfect warrior, a genuine king.
Thanks to both sides dragging the duel into the realm of sublight speed, after several exchanges, the "Dead Count Shapeshifter's Command Seal" still had more than thirty seconds remaining.
Even so.
"Your dream ends here."
The King of Heroes murmured softly as he drew out that sword from the treasury.
"Ea, though it is a discourtesy to awaken you again and again, indulge me and share this feast with me until the very end."
In the next instant, the King of Heroes raised the continuously rotating Anti-World Noble Phantasm high above his head.
At last, the wave that would bring an end to the boy's dream world, Unlimited Blade Works, had arrived.
...
...
Irisviel and Hassan of the Hundred Faces entered the great cavern beneath Mount Enzou.
On the path leading to where the Greater Grail lay dormant, they encountered a man who had vanished until now.
"Have you sold the souls of mankind to the devil, Kirei Kotomine?"
Irisviel narrowed her beautiful eyes, her face filled with disgust.
"Leave this to me."
Assassin emerged from behind Irisviel, a projected Noble Phantasm dagger from Shirou gripped in her hand.
Ambushing Kirei Kotomine from the shadows and assassinating him had certainly been an option, but Hassan of the Hundred Faces had not forgotten the highest priority mission her Master had given her, protect Irisviel.
"Regrettably, I am not insane enough to fight a Heroic Spirit head on."
The black robed priest slowly raised both arms. At once, the darkness behind him began to writhe.
"...How can this be?"
Irisviel's mouth fell slightly open as she let out a hoarse whisper.
There were nearly a hundred of them, and every one of them carried a Mana signature she knew all too well.
Lancer, Rider, Caster, and eighty eight Assassins.
The souls swallowed by the dark cauldron in this Holy Grail War had returned to the surface once more as "Shadow Servants."
"What a pity. I had hoped Shirou Amamiya would choose this side."
Kirei Kotomine said it expressionlessly.
"No matter. I'll kill you first, then go find him."