Angelica looked at the world full of fakes with a face of disgust. Her personality, influenced by the corruption of the class card, made her feel almost nauseous. This time, the 'Gate of Babylon' directly illuminated the horizon under the snowy night.
There were hundreds, thousands of various armaments.
"Someone who shouldn't have even had the right to stand on this stage... you, those things masquerading as humans, and that mud-like evil Heracles—you're all truly disgusting!"
Enveloped by infinite Noble Phantasms, the swords around Ritsuka began to float slowly. She pointed her own blades at Angelica. "Haha... yeah. I never had the right to stand on this stage, but he gave it to me, and that's enough."
A sea of swords, vast in number, rose up. The fake Noble Phantasms proactively met the rain of flying treasures, shooting them down.
The blades in her hands shattered upon impact. Re-gripping Alcides' stone axe with a mad grin, Ritsuka leaped high and struck at Angelica, who was standing her ground.
The stone axe was blocked by a dozen shields—each a famous piece of armor from myth. The girl bearing the name of the King of Heroes brought them forth, then a massive sword emerged from the ripples below; even a mere graze sent Ritsuka flying.
Rolling through the snow, struggling to regain her balance, Ritsuka looked up as countless projected swords, surrounded by magical energy, launched a charge. "You truly are a Heroic Spirit worthy of being a 'King,' able to throw away Noble Phantasms that mortals look up to as if they were scrap metal!"
"But that's exactly why you look down on him, isn't it?!"
"The Avenger who abandoned the gods, swore revenge against them, and did not hesitate to 'defile' himself, reaching the pinnacle of martial arts with a human body—Alcides!!"
The stone axe in her hand swung down violently. divine energy pouring from the belt flooded into it as the power obtained from the crystal dice suddenly reached its limit.
Her fingertips shattered, but her five fingers tightly gripped the axe handle. Countless shields broke apart, and Angelica's shocked expression came into view.
In that moment, behind the girl who was roaring with all her might, Angelica seemed to see a tall black figure also roaring at her, his crimson eyes filled with a will of madness as the stone axe cleaved toward her head.
Crack—!
Ritsuka's left hand shattered and disappeared, blood spilling in large amounts onto the snow. Angelica, who was about to be hit by the stone axe, was moved away by a glass-like phenomenon.
Space distorted and shifted; the attack struck nothing but empty air.
Immense pain swept through her entire body. The side effects of her immortality became terrifyingly severe; without a large amount of magical energy to suppress it, the sudden surge caused Ritsuka's face to contort slightly.
—Finally, the moment had arrived.
It was the sensation of something incredibly important suddenly snapping and vanishing.
She, who had always squeezed her body to master power beyond its limits, had never once lacked magical energy—and now she finally understood the source.
Ritsuka closed her eyes—
"Miyu, you must be happy."
Section 53, Chapter 47: Splitting Mountains, Burning Seas
In the cave of Mount Enzou, a pillar of light illuminated the night. A massive circular magic circle enveloped the individual within that light.
At a certain moment, the power that had reached its critical point suddenly contracted. The beam of light shrank, the world was opened, and Miyu, the embodiment of a wish, was sent out of this world.
Along with the connection array of the Holy Grail, the interior of Mount Enzou became empty.
A hole appeared above from the impact of the light pillar, revealing a scene from another world: a prosperous city and bustling crowds were clearly visible.
That was also Fuyuki City.
The seven class cards used for the wish passed through the hole.
At this moment, two similar yet different worlds were connected to each other.
———
Within the inner world of her heart, amidst the frozen landscape, Ritsuka knelt on one knee, gasping for breath. Her right hand had already shattered upon reaching its limit, blood spilling onto the white snow.
The supply of magical energy within her, the previously tireless Mage Circuits, suddenly became restricted.
A mana shortage began to manifest.
It was clear that the near-infinite magical energy she had possessed during the previous battle did not come from the crystal dice, but from Emiya Miyu—the Holy Grail, the miracle itself.
"Heh... what a pathetic older sister, being taken care of by her little sister until the very end..."
The mana consumption of the Unlimited Blade Works was very high. Looking at the crumbling Unlimited Reality Marble, Ritsuka deactivated the Twelve Labors without hesitation, even withdrawing the divine beast cloak and the war belt.
She returned to her tattered state, looking like a middle school girl who had just been bullied.
"I've won, King of Heroes."
Saying words that Angelica couldn't understand at all, Ritsuka wiped the corner of her mouth with her remaining left hand and then raised it.
She pulled a sharp sword from the ground.
Angelica frowned, clearly sensing something as well. She glared at the battered Emiya Ritsuka not far away. "You..."
Clang—!
With a step forward, amidst the flying snow, Ritsuka struck with her sword.
A sword emerging from a golden ripple blocked Ritsuka's assault. Failing to land a hit, Ritsuka withdrew slightly.
With only one hand left to fight, the situation had become somewhat dire, but it didn't matter.
She was going to reach her limit anyway.
Countless blades rose from the ground at her call; swords and knives of all kinds hovered above Ritsuka's head. Within this Unlimited Reality Marble, she could maintain significant combat capability even without her right hand.
Clang, clang, clang, clang... almost all the weapons the Gate of Babylon tried to fire were intercepted the moment they emerged.
Ritsuka casually pulled out a Chinese longsword and charged at Angelica, performing a low slide to dodge the threat of two guillotine blades.
Flipping upward, she delivered a downward cleave that collided with Angelica's greatsword. Intense sparks flew at the point of impact as the two briefly stalemated.
In the next moment, the sword in Ritsuka's hand suddenly shattered, and the greatsword grazed her cheek.
The upturned corner of Ritsuka's mouth caused Angelica's expression to change abruptly.
Bam—!
Spinning into a knee strike, her leg joint suddenly became a weapon aimed at Angelica's head, as the outline of Displacement Thaumaturgy enveloped her.
The scenery in her vision shifted; she had been displaced into mid-air.
Ripples expanded for a 360-degree lock-on. Countless lethal spears, swords, and halberds shot out from the ripples, as if the battered girl would be turned into a pincushion in the next instant.
Across the vast snowy plains, countless weapons flew up, surging toward Ritsuka.
Using the approaching projected weapons as platforms, Ritsuka leaped through the air, dodging most of the attacks.
When she finally landed, she had only one sword stuck in her, but she didn't dare pull it out, even though it was draining her life force.
She had an intuition that if she pulled it out, she would die here instantly... She drew the bow of the hydra—a gift from the sun god Apollo, merged through myth after the slaying of the Hydra—to full draw. In an instant, she fired dozens of arrows with god-tier skill, all reaching supersonic speeds.
Angelica was forced to use Displacement Thaumaturgy again to move herself away.
"Heh, you were careless. I can track every movement within the Unlimited Reality Marble."
"...Nani?"
The moment the displacement ended, Ritsuka appeared right in front of Angelica. She immediately discarded her weapon and delivered a side kick.
Violent power poured into Angelica. As Ritsuka drew closer to her limit, her combat strength began to skyrocket. Although she couldn't use other Noble Phantasms due to mana restrictions, she was overall stronger in melee combat!
"Damn it!"
Angelica held a longsword in front of her. The kicked-and-broken blade pierced her abdomen, and an emergency secondary Displacement Thaumaturgy pulled her out of the fray.
She was injured, and the tyrant's personality attached to the doll manifested at this moment.
"You bastard... the games end here!"
The rage on Angelica's face was exceptionally clear. She waved her hand, and two massive ripples appeared above her head. "Come forth! Ig-Alima! Sul-Sagana!"
When she saw the weapons emerging from the ripples, Ritsuka's eyes widened in shock.
Massive armaments at least dozens of meters long, two Divine Constructs, descended from the sky. A pitch-black greatsword and a fire-red blade—two incomparable divine weapons pointed directly at the tiny figure.
The heavy pressure and the approaching heat made Ritsuka's eyes narrow.
'The attack range is too large; there's no time to run out of it. Unless... I take it head-on!'
"Trace On!"
Azure lightning condensed in her left hand, her eyes focused entirely on the first descending artifact.
Ritsuka roared: "Aaaaaahhhh..."
Rapidly analyzing the artifact, she reshaped the external structure. An armament without the artifact's own properties but with the same hardness formed in her hand.
Pseudo: The Green Horizon that Carves a Thousand Mountains!!!
She violently swung her left hand upward. The projected armament, which lacked the ability to actually carve mountains but possessed a hardness nearing the artifact's, swung fiercely toward the sky.
Boom—!!
In the massive crash, Ritsuka's projected mountain-carving sword hacked a notch into the real one.
The second artifact followed immediately. Ritsuka, her body starting to show small areas of cracking, squeezed out every bit of mana to frantically project the second artifact.
Absolute: The Dawn Horizon that Scorches Ten Thousand Seas!!!
Once again, the projected artifact slashed through the real one. The destroyed true Divine Construct exploded, and the concepts contained within turned into a sea of fire, falling directly onto the snowy plains.
Amidst the wreckage of the divine weapons, Ritsuka coughed violently.
Her top was nearly completely destroyed, with only half a long sleeve and her undergarments hanging on her body.
Her body, including her shoulder and left arm, was also breaking apart... Having squeezed out mana from her very being, there was almost no magical energy left in her shattered body. Ritsuka barely had any strength left—even to just stand up.
Struggling out of the sea of fire that was scorching her, she suddenly froze.
The woman who had released two super-powerful artifacts as if to deliver a killing blow stood dozens of meters away, looking at her coldly.
A ripple, neither large nor small, blossomed in her hand.
Following closely, a crimson storm descended upon this world; the King of Heroes' true trump card was finally revealed.