"......"
It felt as though he had sunk into the depths of the sea.
The concepts of time and space no longer existed. The loss of distance and the sensation of weightlessness left him completely disoriented.
Shirou could not move. His consciousness was hazy, and all he could do was stare wide-eyed and listen.
"Don't..."
"Don't go..."
The boy heard an incomparably gentle woman's voice.
Accompanied by the sound of distant tides drawing closer from the edge of the abyss, it rose and fell like a mournful song.
"Don't..."
"Don't leave..."
"You're going to leave my side again..."
"Don't leave me again..."
What... was this...?
"Come back... Come back... Return to my side again..."
"Again... Again..."
"Never again... Never again..."
"Stop." "Loving." "Me."
"You are..."
Shirou struggled to force out the words, but at that moment, an intelligent male voice rang out.
"...This is original sin. This is humanity's original sin."
The Magus spoke.
"There are many kinds of sin. Deceiving others, framing others, envying others. Taking lives."
"All of these are evils borne by humanity alone. All of these are poisons that afflict only humanity."
"However, this is the oldest evil of all. Original Sin II. The evil [sin] of leaving ■■ and abandoning paradise."
"But..."
"Life was born from the sea. The primordial sea, Nammu. The Goddess of Origin, Nammu."
"To humanity, the goddess is the ocean. The sound of the waves will become her call, recording every detail of your sins."
"Remember. Never forget."
"This voice is your original sin. Its name is also your salvation."
"Its name is..."
"Aa, Aa... Aaaaaaaaaa..."
Shirou could do nothing.
He could neither answer her call nor hold her tightly in his arms.
He simply felt unbearably, overwhelmingly sad.
...
...
In the northern reaches of Uruk stood an enormous fortress whose presence dominated the landscape.
While the Magical Beasts were overrunning the northern nations, King Gilgamesh had led his subordinates in dismantling the ruined city of Babylon and used the salvaged materials to construct it.
Mounted atop the walls were countless defensive weapons and installations modified from armaments taken from the "Gate of Babylon."
People now called it by this name.
Humanity's hope, the greatest and final fortress defending the world: the Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia.
Its sturdy, thick, ocher walls stretched endlessly across the desolate land. On the other side stood tens of thousands of Magical Beasts.
Each Magical Beast possessed combat strength comparable to a Phantasmal Species from the Age of Gods, and dozens of times that number still remained in the north.
Yet this army of Magical Beasts, powerful enough to trample the entire human world, had been held back by those walls for several months.
The Magical Beasts launched attacks of varying scale every morning and only returned to the forest to rest at night.
Such relentless pressure, combined with a disparity in strength that should have made the situation nearly hopeless, could not have been endured through the fortifications of the Magical Beast Front and the tenacity of its soldiers alone.
They had managed to hold out this long entirely because of that man.
One of the Servants summoned by Gilgamesh, Lancer, King Leonidas I of Sparta.
He was widely known throughout history for the Battle of Thermopylae, where he faced a Persian army of one hundred thousand with only three hundred men.
He was the half-brother of Cleomenes I, King of Sparta. After all the sons of his elder brother, who should have inherited the throne, died, Leonidas became the new king.
At the time, an uneasy atmosphere of war was beginning to spread around the city-state of Sparta.
Xerxes I, King of Persia's Achaemenid Empire, demanded "earth and water" from the Greek world. He was demanding that they surrender their territories and the rights to their harvests, which effectively meant total capitulation.
Although most cities chose to submit to the mighty Persian Empire, a coalition centered around Sparta and Athens chose to resist.
"Either Sparta will be destroyed by the descendants of Perseus, or its king will die, guided by the blood of Heracles."
So spoke the prophet.
According to legend, Leonidas was a descendant of Heracles, while Perseus was the ancestor of the Persians.
Leonidas accepted the oracle with little more than an, "I see."
"So if I value my own life and run away, Sparta will be destroyed. Is that it?"
Leonidas did not hesitate.
He led three hundred elite warriors into formation at the pass of Thermopylae, known as the "Hot Gates," and fought to the bitter end for three days against a Persian army said to number in the hundreds of thousands.
However, because of a traitor, the Spartan lines were breached from the rear, and the entire force was annihilated. The sole exception was Aristodemus, who had left the army after losing his sight.
It was said that when the Spartan soldiers lost their weapons, they continued fighting with their bare hands and even their teeth.
Leonidas's spear never reached Xerxes, but the three days purchased by him and his three hundred men gave the Greek alliance enough time to prepare to repel the Persian army.
Those mere three hundred men and their king had unquestionably saved the Greek world.
It was said that the following words by the poet Simonides were carved upon the graves of the three hundred Spartans:
"Stranger, carry word to the people of Sparta. We kept our promise, and here we lie fallen."
The King of Sparta who had come to this era was entrusted by Gilgamesh with the crucial responsibility of commanding the Magical Beast Front.
Although he had been born in a land famous for producing "muscle-brained fools," he considered himself an intellectual, and he truly possessed the talent to justify that claim.
Under Leonidas I's command, the Magical Beast Front became a defensive fortress capable of battling the monsters day and night without pause.
The Magical Beasts attacked relentlessly, often forcing the soldiers to sortie beyond the walls to intercept them, yet human casualties remained far lower than those of the Magical Beasts.
Precise troop deployment. A flawless rotation system.
Leonidas trained recruits while fighting, sent them to the front, and ensured that wounded soldiers received thorough rest until they had fully recovered.
It was the very pinnacle of fortress defense.
Even so, strategy could only compensate for an enormous disparity in raw strength when the difference in skill between the two sides was equally vast.
The Magical Beasts had originally been little more than animals driven by hatred for humanity. They launched crude, reckless assaults without any concern for their own lives, which was why human soldiers had been able to defeat them so easily.
That situation had changed not long ago.
A highly intelligent commander had appeared among the Magical Beasts.
It called itself by the name of an ancient scorpion-man monster, the Sage Girtablilu.
Not only did it possess strength far beyond that of the other Magical Beasts, but it also had outstanding strategic knowledge.
Under the scorpion-man's command, the Magical Beasts launched one dangerous assault after another against the fortress.
Although they appeared to have achieved no decisive results, the soldiers' casualty rate and exhaustion were rising sharply. Both were potentially fatal problems.
"That Girtablilu is quite skilled."
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before the last fortress in the north collapsed entirely.
Leonidas I had repeatedly requested reinforcements from the King, but he knew perfectly well that Uruk had little fighting strength to spare.
"I will defeat the scorpion-man. That is my mission."
The one who made that resolution was another Heroic Spirit defending the Magical Beast Front alongside Leonidas I.
The dignified beauty with long silver hair and deep crimson eyes was none other than the Archer summoned by Gilgamesh, Tomoe Gozen.
Although she was a woman, The Tale of the Heike described her as a warrior worth a thousand men. She was said to possess enough strength to tear off a man's head with her bare hands.
According to legend, she had personally twisted the head from the body of the enemy general Onda-no-Hachirou-Moroshige, who was renowned for his tremendous strength.
In terms of individual combat power as a Heroic Spirit, Tomoe Gozen was likely even stronger than Leonidas I.
If Leonidas I possessed the ability to draw out the full potential of his soldiers on a hopeless battlefield, Rear Guard's Pride A, then she possessed the combat skills to fight alone amid an entire army, Knowledge of Melee Combat B.
Tomoe Gozen was exceptionally skilled in battles involving many against many or one against many. However, before an army of hundreds of thousands, she knew that her importance was nothing compared to Lancer's.
That made her the most suitable person for an operation to assassinate the enemy commander.
There was another important reason as well. It was the guilt she carried in her heart.
Among the Servants defending Uruk, Rider Ushiwakamaru had been Tomoe Gozen's sworn enemy in life.
Although Ushiwakamaru had taken the initiative to offer reconciliation, hoping they could put aside their old grudges and defend the Human Order together, Tomoe Gozen had coldly refused.
Forgiveness was impossible.
Rather, she was astonished that the other party could shamelessly speak of "putting aside past grievances."
Merely hearing the name Minamoto no Yoshitsune Kurō made a flame of hatred burn within her chest.
It was precisely because of this that King Gilgamesh could not send Ushiwakamaru and her retainer, Musashibou Benkei, as reinforcements.
If the Magical Beast Front fell, then Tomoe Gozen would unquestionably be the true culprit.
That was why she believed this was a mission she had to complete herself.
Leonidas I understood the female warrior's guilt and resolve, and made the correct decision.
Under cover provided by the soldiers, Tomoe Gozen successfully infiltrated deep behind the Magical Beast army's lines.
She had expected it to be an extremely dangerous assassination mission, but contrary to her expectations, she encountered little resistance.
Despite being the commander of hundreds of thousands of Magical Beasts, there were no heavily guarded defenses around its base.
Tomoe Gozen even began to feel secretly pleased. No matter how much it called itself a "Sage," it was still nothing more than a beast.
After killing several Magical Beast guards, Tomoe Gozen successfully reached the enemy commander, the Sage Girtablilu, who stood alone.
Faced with the sudden appearance of a human assassin, the enormous scorpion-man showed no sign of panic.
Was it utterly confident in its own overwhelming strength?
Or had it underestimated her because of her delicate female appearance?
Probably both, Tomoe Gozen thought.
However, her opponent said something unexpected.
"I deliberately allowed you to enter. Did you think I failed to notice you slipping into our rear lines?"
"What is this? You refuse to admit your failure, so now you are trying to save face...?"
Tomoe Gozen gave it a contemptuous look, convinced that the Magical Beast was lying to unsettle her.
The scorpion-man continued, "I sensed it. Even from several kilometers away, I could perceive it clearly.
"Among the humans was one of our own kind. I never imagined it would be such a beautiful woman."
"What...?"
The female warrior's elegant brows furrowed slightly.
Although she tried her best to appear composed, if its goal had been to unsettle her, then the Magical Beast had succeeded.
Tomoe Gozen was not human. She was a Mixed-Blood with demonic blood flowing through her veins, a child of the Oni with an exceptionally strong bloodline.
Among the Servants summoned by Gilgamesh was a young man named Fuuma Kotarou. Like Tomoe Gozen, he was a Mixed-Blood who carried the blood of an Oni.
Records from the Sengoku period described Fuuma Kotarou as a monster "over two meters tall, with limbs like iron and bronze, his body covered in lumps of flesh, glaring bulging eyes, a mouth like a blood-filled basin beneath his black beard, four fangs, and an appearance like the Old Man of the South Pole."
That was proof that he was a child of the Oni.
Yet even Fuuma, who had left behind such terrifying legends, possessed only a faint Oni bloodline compared to Tomoe Gozen.
Her innate ability to wield flames and the Monstrous Strength of her Oni blood made her comparable to the great demons of the Heian period.
During her life, Tomoe Gozen had sealed away her demonic nature in order to survive in the human world. Only then had she developed the calm disposition of a woman from a samurai household.
No one around her had ever noticed anything unusual about Tomoe Gozen. Not even her husband.
Tomoe Gozen's husband was Kiso Yoshinaka.
He was a righteous man who despised evil and held an especially profound hatred for beings such as Oni.
Had he discovered her true identity, Tomoe Gozen surely would no longer have been able to remain herself.
Tomoe Gozen had believed she had concealed her Oni blood perfectly. Never had she imagined that, in her second life, her true nature would be exposed by a monster that was not even human.
"Woman, you said your name was Tomoe Gozen, didn't you?"
The Scorpion Man made no attempt to hide the longing and admiration in his eyes.
Unlike humans, his feelings remained sincere even after learning how ugly Tomoe Gozen was inside.
"Unlike those humans, you are beautiful…"
"You, too, are a child of 'Mother,' just like us."
The Scorpion Man extended his misshapen arm toward the female warrior.
"Our sister, Tomoe Gozen, come join us."
"From now on, you will no longer have to hide your true nature from humans."
"......"
Tomoe Gozen was too stunned to speak.
She felt ashamed for having contemptuously dismissed him as a mindless Beast only moments ago.
Girtablilu, the Scorpion Man, was a true Sage.
He possessed intellect equal to that of a human and a capacity for compassion much like theirs, though it extended only to his own kind.
After realizing that Tomoe Gozen was a monster hiding among humans, he had reached out to her of his own accord.
He did not seek her power. He simply believed, from the bottom of his heart, that she was a beautiful member of his own kind.
"I..."
The face of the young girl who had been summoned to this era alongside her surfaced in Tomoe Gozen's mind.
Berserker, Ibaraki-Douji.
Like Tomoe Gozen, she was of mixed blood, yet she had surrendered herself completely to her demonic nature and had even become the leader of the oni who ruled Oeyama.
She had refused to submit to King Gilgamesh's authority from the very beginning, and later, she had simply run away.
Had Tomoe Gozen not been raised by humans, would she have become such a being as well?
Then she recalled the face of the young girl who had arrived in this foreign land alongside her, her sworn enemy.
When Ibaraki-Douji boasted that she would establish a "New Oeyama" in this land, Ushiwakamaru declared that she would fulfill her duty as a descendant of the Minamoto Clan and take the oni's head. Ibaraki-Douji had fled in terror on the spot.
If Tomoe Gozen fell and became an evil oni, returning to her true nature, would she be able to fight Ushiwakamaru to the death without the slightest hesitation?
Seen that way, being human truly was troublesome.
And so...
"I refuse."
Tomoe Gozen firmly rejected the Scorpion Man's invitation.
In stark contrast to her icy tone, scorching flames erupted across her entire body as her right hand tightened around a deep-red naginata formed from Mana.
It had nothing to do with "justice" or "evil."
She might not be human. She might not even belong to this era.
But the kindness and care the citizens had shown Tomoe Gozen when she arrived in Uruk had been real.
She had to repay them. She had to answer the faith of those who believed she would protect them.
"Sage Girtablilu, I will kill you here and bring the people of Uruk even a fleeting moment of peace."
The Scorpion Man looked deeply disappointed.
In his eyes, Tomoe Gozen was undoubtedly a victim who had been brainwashed by humans.
"Don't look at me with pity, you monster."
Without changing her expression, the female warrior continued, "I have no need for an inhuman sympathizer, nor do I need your pity."
"It does not matter if humanity never truly accepts me."
"My purpose is to destroy enemies of humanity like you. The oni blood flowing through my veins exists for that very reason."
"I will use every last ounce of my strength to defeat you. Prepare yourself, Magical Beast!"
Wielding a katana and naginata wreathed in roaring flames, Tomoe Gozen stepped forward and charged at the Sage Girtablilu.
All the Magical Beasts now ravaging Mesopotamia possessed traits resembling the primordial monsters recorded as "Eleven Offspring of Tiamat."
The ferocious Beast, the water serpent Ušumgallu.
The terrifying serpent, the Dragon of Babylon, Mušḫuššu.
The giant sun, the mighty lion Ugallu.
The lion-dog, Uridimmu.
Each Magical Beast corresponded to one found in myth. For that very reason, many believed the "Goddess of Demonic Beasts" occupying the North to be the Goddess Tiamat herself.
Among all these Magical Beasts, the Scorpion Man, Sage Girtablilu, was undoubtedly the strongest.
Appointed Supreme Commander of the Monster Front, he had received immense power from the goddess he called "Mother."
According to Leonidas I's assessment, the Scorpion Man had already surpassed Heroic Spirits and approached the level of a Divine Spirit.
That was why Tomoe Gozen had never expected to return alive in the first place.
Her view of life and death was perfectly clear.
As a Servant, a temporary existence, she firmly believed that she would one day vanish peacefully from the earth.
Faced with an enemy several levels stronger than herself, she did not hesitate to burn her Spirit Origin.
A massive horn emerged from her forehead.
Her long hair turned crimson.
The traits of the Oni race rapidly manifested across Tomoe Gozen's body.
Tomoe Gozen possessed the skill "Lineage Excitation A," one of the forms of self-suggestion she had unconsciously practiced during her lifetime.
When manifested as a Servant, it was defined as a skill that temporarily amplified her non-human powers.
Now, by burning her Spirit Origin, Tomoe Gozen pushed the skill's effects to their absolute limit.
She would never again return to human form. She would lose all reason and continue fighting until both she and her enemy had been reduced to ashes.
"What utter foolishness! Why would you go this far for humanity!?"
The Scorpion Man's body was also engulfed in the flames pouring from Tomoe Gozen. Slowly but surely, they were wearing away at his life force.
He launched a relentless assault. Although he held the advantage, he could not kill the extraordinarily tenacious Tomoe Gozen. Instead, the female warrior's Monstrous Strength, wildly disproportionate to her size, nearly sent him flying again and again.
At this rate, they would destroy each other.
That was exactly what Tomoe Gozen intended.
In the next instant, a tremendous amount of "heat" erupted from the female warrior's body, enough to dye everything within sight crimson.
"Yoshinaka-sama... I'm coming to your side now..."
Tomoe Gozen murmured as she peacefully closed her eyes and placed a hand over her heart.
But just as she prepared to meet her end...
"Sorry to interrupt while you two are getting so heated."
A young boy's voice came from behind them.
"Gilgamesh ordered me to bring back the enemy's head. Mind leaving that guy to me?"
***
...
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