Buzz—!
The manifested giant goddess crushed the courtyard structures of Ryuudou Temple outright. A terrifying tide of magical power surged as though it would destroy everything, sweeping across the entire confinement barrier of Ryuudou Temple, which now swayed like withered leaves in a storm.
"Hahahaha—! Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!! What beauty, what power, what a captivating form this is—!"
The storm carrying fragments of shattered buildings howled past at close range. The horrifying pressure poured down upon every inch of exposed skin. Caster Medea could no longer help but retreat.
As a fellow Greek, Medea knew all too well the tale of Medusa and the three Gorgon sisters. With the Golden Fleece—Argon Coin—unsealed and elevated, even if Medusa had not been chosen as a vessel by the Great Will, she would still be a true beast-goddess in every sense.
Yet Lev, clad in a green overcoat and wearing a tall top hat, remained completely unmoving. There was no fear on him.
His face—already terrifyingly feral—had twisted even further. Spreading his arms wide like a mad zealot possessed in the Middle Ages, the emotional turbulence surging within him was frenzied, hysterical.
"This foolish, hopeless world—I truly do not want it to continue for even one more moment!"
"The world will return to the proper course and once again receive the King's favor!" (PS: The "King's favor" may refer either to King Solomon or to Mystery itself. After King Solomon's death, the Mystery of the world began to decline at an accelerated pace.)
Rip—!
As he spoke, Lev's right hand, veins bulging from agitation, plunged deep into his own chest.
The finely tailored coat tightened beneath the force of his grip, then tore apart. His fingernails even pierced the skin of his chest. Blood dyed the fabric crimson.
"Your Majesty, if it is you, then our long-cherished wish is no mere delusion! Let the world and the principles that once existed in the past be recreated in this modern age once more!!"
"With this body, with this Saint Graph, with the authority that belongs to the Goddess of Creation!"
His speech grew faster and faster. Lev's expression became increasingly deranged. He dragged his fingers across his own face, tearing open his skin without the slightest concern for the blood streaming down. Within those frenzied, blasphemous eyes was nothing but the satisfaction and delight of a long-cherished dream about to be realized.
"I'm so high I can't even stand it!!!"
Seeing this, Caster Medea instinctively pulled even farther away from Lev. Now she was certain—this wild-haired magus could no longer be considered human.
In the next instant, the storm abruptly ceased.
The magical tempest that had been venting in all directions suddenly reversed, as though time itself were flowing backward, shrinking inward. The barrier that had been shaking and on the verge of collapse stabilized once more.
"Lev, let this farcical sideshow end here. When the new era truly arrives, there will be time enough to display it."
As the ashes settled, the shrine that once radiated solemnity and sanctity had vanished completely. Broken stones and shattered tiles lay everywhere, rendering the area like a disaster zone after an earthquake.
Fragments of shattered Honkai Cubes were scattered across the ground—resplendent yet chaotic.
"As you command, Your Majesty."
Removing his tall top hat, Lev instantly returned—like a man with split personalities—to the composed and rational image of a learned mentor. He gracefully placed a hand over his chest and bowed before the enormous goddess.
At this moment, the Selene standing before him was different from the true descent she had manifested during the Romanian Holy Grail War. This was a form closer to a possession-based descent.
The body of Rider Medusa, who had been transformed into Avenger Gorgon, was the vessel Selene had chosen for her incarnation.
"This body..." Raising a claw, Selene examined her new form.
If one looked only at the upper half, the proportions could be considered golden. The skin of her upper body was as white as milk. She stood nearly naked, save for a few dark ornamental pieces that covered the pointed peaks of her breasts, leaving the rest of her voluptuous chest exposed to the open air.
It was simply far too enormous. A human torso above, a serpent's tail below. Standing upright, her height reached at least ninety meters. The length of her body stretched close to eight hundred meters. Merely coiling her serpent tail was enough to fill nearly the entirety of Ryuudou Temple, which had been carved into the belly of Mount Enzou.
Her purple hair, seemingly alive, swayed in the wind and spread across the ground. Upon closer inspection, the strands coiled into serpentine heads—like living giant pythons, constantly hissing.
Six wings spread from her back. Unlike the original Avenger Gorgon's wings, these were formed almost entirely of skeletal frames and densely packed, blade-like scales—more savage and terrifying.
A layer of shimmering purple-red scales covered her cheeks and neck like armor, lending her an exotic, feral beauty.
Neatly arranged dark-golden scales encased her entire arm. Her elongated, savage claws gleamed, their sharpness no inferior to any legendary blade.
Metallic-patterned fangs glinted. Across her serpent tail, luminous scales seemed to grow from within her body itself, radiating an eerie blood-colored glow. And upon her head—those vicious, fearsome horns...
Horns?
The authority of the Goddess of Creation...
This situation caused Selene's brows to knit slightly. "I see... this body is like a composite shell, fused from various Saint Graphs."
Without question, the foundation of this body was Avenger Gorgon. As for the "holy relic" Lev had used to connect with Selene—it had been left behind when she descended as Rider during the Romanian Holy Grail War.
Because it had been left during her Rider-class incarnation, the magical power used to craft that "holy relic" still retained the aura of her mount, the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea · Cross-Tail Dragon, a dragon-type Super-class Danger Beast. After spiritual differentiation, the absorbable portion had been selected and fused into this body.
As for the other fragmentary Saint Graph that had merged into Selene along with the magical energy of the underground leylines—that had quite a significant origin.
Still, Selene found it rather agreeable.
This incarnation... yes, it would do. A different sort of experience was not bad at all.
The terrifying goddess half-raised her serpent body. Her gaze passed over Caster Medea, who was nearly collapsing on the ground, and she spoke.
"Lev, I am very satisfied with this gift."
"It pleases me that Your Majesty is satisfied."
Gladly accepting Selene's praise, Lev smiled and bowed slightly once more.
"Only in your hands can it perhaps realize its greatest value. Otherwise, would it not be too regrettable that the Mesopotamian Goddess of Creation—abandoned by her hypocritical, false-benevolent descendants—should leave nothing behind in this present world?"
The origin of the magic circle core that Lev had placed within the underground leylines of Fuyuki City—used to link and contaminate the entire Japanese archipelago's subterranean leylines, and even extend to the Western Pacific, the whole Pacific Ocean, and ultimately the leylines of the entire planet—was self-evident.
It came from the Seventh Singularity, Babylonia: one of the Seven Evils of Humanity, Beast II, the Beast who bore the Principle of Regression, the greatest calamity rejected by human history—Tiamat, the Mother Goddess of Creation. What remained was a fragment of her Saint Graph.
Though she had been cleaved in two by Saber Altera in the Eternal City during the Second Singularity, Lev—who had already transformed from a human into one of Solomon's Seventy-Two Demon Gods, the Demon God Flauros—was not so easily slain. Feigning death and slipping away, he had continued to observe Chaldea's movements from the shadows.
When the Seventh Singularity was ultimately restored and anchored by humanity's last Master, Ritsuka Fujimaru, Lev—seething in the dimensional gap—had unexpectedly observed a strand of Mystery that had abruptly appeared within a certain modern timeline of human history.
Before becoming a Demon God Pillar, Lev had been a rare magus possessing Imaginary attributes. To put it simply and bluntly—he was someone capable of reaching his hand into the dimensional gap itself.
It was a Mystery he had never once observed within human history. New. In its prime. Rising vigorously—a new Age of Gods.
Harboring the intent of cooperation and predictive descent, before the Singularity vanished entirely, Lev had taken from the Imaginary Sea of the Persian Gulf—where Tiamat had descended—the final trace left behind by the Mother Goddess of Creation, just as it was about to be erased along with the Singularity.
"You shall be the Creator Goddess of the new Age of Gods!"
"I shall accept the flattery for now."
With a soft chuckle, Selene lowered her enormous body and stared down at Caster Medea with Mystic Eyes of the Age of Gods—each larger than Medea's entire body.
"Medea, I will fulfill my promise. I will spare your life—and that of your little lover."
Under the gaze of those eyes—so overwhelming they seemed capable of petrifying her very soul—Caster Medea, finally hearing the promise she had longed for most, could not stop herself from bursting into tears. She fell prostrate upon the ground.
"Thank you... Your Majesty."
With the exception of certain special deities who presided over fraud, deception, and mischief, the vast majority of ruling gods—regardless of region or pantheon—were extremely faithful to their word. God-King class deities even more so.
With Selene's personal acknowledgment, the heart Caster Medea had kept tightly clenched for Lord Souichirou at last relaxed.
Waving a hand to indicate that Medea could go seek out her little lover, Selene no longer bothered herself with the ill-fated couple.
"My claws itch somewhat. I wish to vent a little. Lev, how progresses the preparation of the plan?"
"Your Majesty, my apologies. Please endure a little longer—grant me two days. Very soon, the sorting and linkage between Fuyuki City's underground leylines and those of the Pacific region will be complete. Through chain reaction, the leylines of the entire planet shall be activated. At the moment of completion, the Temple of Time shall descend together."
"I trust that the King of Magecraft, King Solomon, will not disappoint you."
"Very well. I grant you only two days."
A trace of cold calculation flickered within the depths of Selene's crimson, resplendent eyes.
"I greatly anticipate the divine revelation King Solomon received from the heavens."
"However, during this time, Lev—you would not mind if I go out for a stroll, would you?"
"..."
Lev tilted his head upward, looking at Selene's current form—seemingly even larger than the original Avenger Gorgon—and her explosively enhanced Servant parameters.
True Name: Selene
Class: Foreigner / Avenger / Beast
Strength: EX
Endurance: EX
Agility: A+
Mana: EX
Luck: A+
Noble Phantasm: EX
Alignment: Heaven
A Heroic Spirit degraded from a divine spirit—the incarnation of a god, a mythic epic, the embodiment of the laws of the great cosmos.
Order: Chaotic · Evil (Chaotic · Evil does not necessarily mean inherently wicked. Rather, in the broadly accepted understanding of the current era, Selene's existence and the world she governs undeniably negate all public rules and laws of modern society.)
Class Skills
Riding: E-
Originally possessing high-level riding aptitude capable of mounting numerous Phantasmal Species, including dragon-kind and Pegasus. However, due to irresistible factors (she was simply too large), virtually no mount could bear Selene in her present state.
Magic Resistance: A
Authority of the Beast: B-
Personal Skills
Divine Core of the God-Empress: B++
Though Gorgon had become a monster and Tiamat had degraded into a fragmentary Saint Graph as one of the Evils of Humanity, Servants in such states should have been entirely divorced from Divinity. Yet Selene's supreme throne as the highest deity of all races, all beings, all dimensions, and the cosmos forcibly offset the negative Divinity and restored it.
Mana Burst (Honkai Energy): A++
Superhuman Strength: A++
A power akin to that of Demon Gods. Enhances one's own Strength. Virtually at the pinnacle of its kind.
Mystic Eyes: A++
Possesses the highest-grade Mystic Eyes, "Cybele."
Scream of Fear: A++
A roar that instills instinctual terror in living beings. Inflicts Terror, continuous Defense Down, instantaneous massive Defense Down, Curse status, and more upon all enemies.
Gourmand: B
Golden Rule: A
Imperial Privilege: EX
Frozen Sun: EX
Imaginary Numbers Space: EX
Possessed Noble Phantasm
Honkai Dimension: EX
Type: Anti-World, Anti-Planet, Anti-Civilization
Effective Range: ???
Maximum Targets: ???
...
Staring at that dazzling sequence of A, A++, and EX ranks, Lev could not help but think—if Your Majesty took this body out for a casual stroll, how exactly was the so-called secret Holy Grail War supposed to remain secret? Even if the Holy Church and the local powers exhausted themselves to the brink of death, they likely would not be able to suppress it.
"From a cautious standpoint, I would not recommend it, but..."
At that thought, a certain emotion known as delight stirred within Lev.
"As you will."
...
Elsewhere, in the direction of Homurahara Academy.
Rumble—!
Centered upon the point where two torrents of magical power collided, the surrounding ground was instantly torn apart into countless ravines under the unleashed shockwaves.
"Berserker is the strongest!"
Watching the knight princess who stood locked in stalemate—fighting alone against their entire group—Illyasviel clenched her fists tightly.
Of course she could see it clearly. Durandal's primary target had always been her Berserker.
That resplendent silver-white armor was simply too unfair. Without Divinity, it was impossible to instantly unleash an attack exceeding its defensive limit. Unless one's weapon was a treasure on the level of a holy sword, one did not even qualify to inflict damage.
As a result, despite being besieged, Durandal moved with complete ease—precisely defending against attacks from Berserker and Saber, while utterly ignoring attacks from Archer, the shield-bearer, and even the Masters themselves in a manner that was infuriating.
"Berserker, you have to win!" That was Illya's only thought now.
Unfortunately, her expectation was destined to go unfulfilled.
"Ugh..."
At that moment, all the blood within Illya's body felt as though it had begun to boil. Especially around her heart, the magical energy within her ignited as though aflame, throwing her magic circuits completely into chaos.
"Wah—!"
Illya suddenly collapsed onto the ground. Pain filled her delicate face as she clutched her chest.
"What is this..."
"Hey! Einzbern girl, what's wrong with you?!"
"Miss Illyasviel!"
"The Greater Grail... has activated..."