The power of the Divine Scribe was gradually fading.
There were no visible wounds.
After the beautiful flame symbolizing the Holy Maiden's brief life burned out, the Pillar of Flame behind Metatron also faded back into the night.
In just a few seconds, the ultimate and strongest perfect being had been defeated with unbelievable ease.
"Her Spirit Origin is gone."
For some reason, moved by a sorrowful feeling, Metatron pressed a hand to her chest as she spoke.
She slowly descended until she was at the same height as Shirou and Leticia.
Even with her Spirit Origin destroyed, Metatron, who possessed [Independent Manifestation (Angel)], would not disappear from that alone. But her plan had undeniably fallen apart.
O Savior, and Holy Maiden who saved the nation, you have indeed won.
Be proud. You have truly defeated the Archangel Metatron... but the destruction of the world is now unavoidable.
The crown inside Metatron had malfunctioned.
It was the network hub Metatron used to command her army of one million angels, and its functions had been destroyed in the blast from [La Pucelle].
The one million angels, now out of control and running wild, would continue to manifest. What would become of this planet then?
Humanity's future was all too easy to imagine.
Metatron did not speak to mock or warn Shirou and the others. She simply felt a deep sorrow.
As expected... nothing will change...
"Deep down, somewhere in your heart, you actually hate humanity, don't you?"
"!"
Metatron turned around.
Within her own light, the shadow of another girl appeared.
"So you're still alive, Sloth (me). More tenacious than I expected."
Metatron (Sloth) shrugged. "Since I'm so weak, being adaptable is my only good point."
Metatron noticed that time had stopped around them.
She had actually deployed a Barrier. Did she (Sloth) really possess that much power?
"Why did you come to the outside? Come to think of it, the Holy Sword User was able to escape from my body so smoothly because you helped him, wasn't he?"
"I won't deny it."
Seeing her completely unconcerned expression, a trace of irritation rose in Metatron's chest.
"You are supposed to be one of my aspects, yet you've become humanity's ally…"
"No, you can hardly even be called one of my aspects. You are only a redundant personality created to contain the name [Sloth]."
Metatron (Sloth) puffed out her cheeks. "That's so mean. Well, it's true, though."
"You threw me away as something unnecessary, just like the humans of this world."
Metatron paused. "So... this is sympathy between fellow outcasts?"
"Maybe. But there's also a much simpler truth."
The blonde girl looked up at the starry sky, narrowing her eyes as if she missed it dearly.
"...That month I spent with him wasn't exactly sunny. The sky was full of dark clouds, gloomy and overcast, but I was still happy."
"Even though there were things I needed to do, I ended up wasting time in the game of [Sloth].
"I forgot my purpose and stared blankly up at the sky."
"Those days, the him who spent that time with me, and myself as I was then... all of it made me happy."
"But you know, the sin called [Sloth] only exists because there is something that has to be done."
"So for the sake of that thing I must do, I came to find you now."
Metatron's expression was cold. "Disappear. I have no need for [Sloth]."
"First of all, you as an individual will vanish like this. Are you fine with that?"
"Since you're asking, then no, I'm obviously not fine with it. But there's nothing I can do."
"This is why I've existed until now. To become one with you again, and to make you truly perfect."
"You were afraid of me (Sloth). You feared that I would weaken you and keep you from achieving your goal."
"You feared that because of [Sloth], time would pass, and the hatred for humanity in your heart would fade along with it."
"..."
The Archangel's expression twisted.
"But that's already in the past, ever since the moment you decided on your own to pass judgment on humanity."
"Stop it. A me like that isn't perfect at all. It isn't perfect in the slightest...!"
Metatron (Sloth) said, "From the moment you descended, you had already begun falling into an incomplete Divine Spirit, an incomplete being."
"From the moment you answered Amakusa Shirou Tokisada's wish, this outcome was already inevitable."
"Even wearing Jeanne's body and possessing Metatron's core only makes you an imitation Divine Spirit. You still need an element closer to humanity."
Metatron said, "...Yes. You were born at that moment."
"The Cardinal Sin (Sloth) born from me. By recognizing your existence, I could better understand humanity."
"And then you went down the wrong path. You tried to hide the impulses and hatred born from that understanding behind a cold facade. By cutting away [Sloth] like me, you tried to carry out that hatred."
Metatron frowned. "Why exactly did you come here...? Don't tell me."
Metatron wore a troubled expression as well. "Just as hatred wells up inside you when you look at humanity, when I look at humanity's [sloth]... well... in this case, saying it wells up feels a little strange."
"Cultivated doesn't sound right either. Let me think... nourished...? I was watching them properly, you know."
"Humans who may lose themselves in pleasure for a time, but still choose to move forward in the end."
"..."
Metatron (Sloth) smiled. "Mm. Living with Shirou was surprisingly fun."
"So I thought... I should give humanity a little help."
Metatron said coldly, "How dull. He is the root of all evil, the Savior who brought about humanity's end through his self-satisfied desire for justice."
"If not for the Britannia he built extending the planet's Age of Gods far beyond its time, humanity could have avoided such a wretched future..."
Hearing that, Metatron (Sloth) gave a sly smile.
"You really didn't notice. It's common knowledge to the Magi of this world, yet you don't even know the most basic premise."
"That is the distortion born from standing too high above everything. Or perhaps, proof that your [omniscience and omnipotence] were never perfect."
"......What are you talking about?"
"This planet was originally supposed to have perished fifteen hundred years ago."
The blonde girl said calmly, "It was only because Shirou stepped forward that human history in this world was extended to the present day."
Metatron said, "Are you talking about the King of the Moon...? That was certainly the greatest threat, but it was not enough to end human civilization. It would only have brought about a long age of darkness."
Metatron (Sloth) gently shook her head. "No. I'm talking about a [Pruned Event]."
"Without Shirou, this world should have been pruned at that time."
"!?!?"
Metatron's eyes widened in disbelief.
The Holy Sword User... had avoided a [Pruned Event]...?
It was simply too impossible to believe.
"Impossible!"
"Nothing is impossible. That is the truth."
"Why do you think he searched for the Holy Grail, collected treasures, and hunted Dragonkind?
"Do you think it was only to save Britannia?"
"..."
Metatron was rendered speechless.
Seeing the ever-arrogant her make such a shaken face made Metatron (Sloth) feel that coming here had been worth it.
And so, the existence known as [Sloth] gradually began to dissolve.
She should have vanished along with Jeanne's special-attack Noble Phantasm in the first place. The fact that she had appeared here at all was an unbelievable miracle, and on top of that, she had opened a Barrier.
This was probably her first and last act of diligence.
Finally, I can get a proper rest, the girl thought happily.
Her very existence was [Sloth].
Even though she understood the situation Metatron (I) was in, she had still been too lazy to move, clinging to that pleasant life.
Wrath, envy, and greed were all sins that harmed others.
But only [Sloth] could continue existing without harming anyone.
That was why only [Sloth] had been discarded.
Because the gentle feeling hidden deep in the heart of the girl called [Sloth] was the complete opposite of the Chief Judge's hatred.
But that, too, was about to end.
She still wanted to watch humanity a little longer. She wanted to watch the people Shirou believed in a little longer.
She wanted to go on spending those boring, trivial, utterly lousy days with him...
Ah, there were so many, so very many regrets in her heart.
Had she tried a little harder, perhaps she could have done better. Perhaps there could have been a more complete ending.
But she did not want to try anymore. She had no motivation, so she did not want to get up.
No, that was only an excuse.
She simply did not want to do anything at all.
That was the essence of [Sloth], and also original sin.
So all those many regrets were nothing more than punishment for herself.
...That was how it should have been from the very beginning.
"That is not true, you who are [Sloth]."
She heard Metatron's voice. Right until the very end, it remained as lofty as ever.
"It is because you exist that I can continue to maintain myself."
"It is because you are here that I can make judgments that are not driven by impulse."
"Is that so?"
The blonde girl smiled at those words.
In a weak voice, she said, "In that case, for my sake, help them, the humans, my serious other self (Metatron)."
"I refuse. Having once abandoned humanity, I no longer have the right to meddle in their situation. So..."
Metatron brought her hands together and closed her eyes.
The radiance wrapped around the Archangel kept overflowing, flowing toward the girl lying on the ground.
Metatron (Sloth)'s eyes widened.
"Wait... what are you doing...!?"
Metatron, who had been praying, opened one eye and gave a sly, wicked smile wholly unbecoming of God's representative.
"As my Divided Spirit, finish the final task in my place... and don't you dare slack off."
"Huh?"
Metatron (Sloth) went deathly pale and began struggling on the ground. "No, no, no, no! I don't want to!"
"Stop transferring power to me! Let me disappear! Let me ascend! I don't want to work!"
"Stop. It. Right. Now...!"
...
"Metatron... no, is that Sloth-chan?"
Shirou was surprised to find that when [La Pucelle] faded, the one who appeared there was not Metatron, but the girl who had lived with him for the past month.
"I'm so tired... I want to die."
Metatron (Sloth) ignored Shirou, who had grabbed her by the shoulders, and let her head hang listlessly.
Even though her body was brimming with unprecedented power right now.
No, precisely because of that power. Possessing power was itself the greatest mental exhaustion.
"Shirou, carry me back... let me sit on your shoulders..."
"Whoa! Your mood is incredibly low! And why are you glowing...? Don't spread that stuff to me!"
"Master!"
Shirou looked toward Leticia's voice and saw a vast number of angels surrounding the Floating Garden.
Their numbers were enough to cover the night sky.
The Archangel Metatron had withdrawn, but the Angelic Legion she had summoned had not disappeared.
Not only that, the situation was even worse than expected. The out-of-control angels had begun attacking indiscriminately. At this rate...!
"I will repair the damaged Crown. Buy me time."
Metatron (Sloth) summoned her throne.
Compared to the original, Sloth's throne was pitifully small, but even so, it was their last hope for stopping the rampaging Angelic Legion.
"...Got it."
Shirou nodded and summoned a thousand gates of Noble Phantasms.
Against an enemy force of this size, projecting Noble Phantasms was more effective than the Holy Sword. Shirou released a four-digit number of Noble Phantasms all at once.
The angels that had just closed in were shot down, but even more angels surged forward like a white wave, with no visible hope of wiping them all out.
"...Tch!"
Had Mordred and the others been fighting enemies in numbers like this the entire time?
Even with an allied angel capable of disrupting the central command system and corrupting the enemy, things could not have been much better.
More swords appeared behind Shirou, completing the entire process from loading to firing in a fraction of a second.
"Wait... that's too much, Master!"
Leticia rushed over and supported Shirou just as he was about to drop to one knee.
Only then did Shirou realize that the Mana supply had stopped a short while ago.
The one providing him with Mana now was Semiramis.
If the Mana transfer had stopped, that meant everyone below had already... No, now was not the time to think about that.
Shirou shook his head and drove the distracting thoughts away.
If there was no external Mana supply, then he would drain his own Source dry.
He drew in a deep, deep breath.
The beating Dragon Heart buried in his chest shone even through his skin.
Mana. He needed more Mana!
He should still be able to obtain more Mana!
If even the heart of the strongest dragon could not satisfy him, then he would have to take in the surrounding Mana as well.
It was a method that completely ignored the limits of a living body.
Around Shirou drifted the Mana left behind after thousands of swords had shattered.
And the almost limitless Mana left behind by the Archangel's manifestation.
So now, he would gather those spirit particles and use his own Magic Circuits to accelerate their circulation.
Of course, that was not a skill of the Holy Sword User.
Gathering the residual Mana in the surroundings and recycling it.
If he could do that, then it was plainly a [Perpetual Engine].
...
"Could that be...?"
Caules Forvedge Yggdmillennia saw it clearly.
Having boarded the plane together with the Heroic Spirits, he looked up at the Floating Garden above.
As the current head of the Forvedge family, he had a duty to watch over this until the end.
Though his legs had not stopped trembling since he got on the plane, at a certain moment, the trembling suddenly ceased.
The boy saw a dazzling sight.
It was a torrent of emerald lightning, like the most basic form of Magic Circuits.
"Frankenstein... is that you? So you were there."
Wasn't that what the blueprint had said?
Berserker's Noble Phantasm had a hidden power that, with a low probability, would create a second her.
...Of course, that was only a fantasy.
Shirou was not Frankenstein.
But the heart the girl left behind had truly been entrusted to him.
The first hero in this world to treat her gently had received her ability, and her wish, from the Berserker.
The [Black] Berserker had been judged weak and powerless because she was a modern Heroic Spirit, but…
She had been created by Dr. Frankenstein with all the effort of his life, and there was no doubt that she possessed technology beyond her era.
And now, the power Frankenstein herself could not fully bring out had become the flesh and blood of the strongest Hero.
Caules felt deeply proud. If the Savior who possessed the Holy Sword and the Dragon Heart wielded her power, he would surely be able to draw it out to its absolute limit.
Bathed in the brilliant tree of lightning descending from the heavens, Shirou became the true [Perpetual Engine], the [Infinite Heart].
...
"..."
As a streak of green electricity briefly lit the dark room, Manaka Sajyou slowly opened her eyes.
***
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