"Shirou-sama, you saw the Goddess Tiamat in your dream... Mother...?"
To clear up the misunderstanding, Shirou explained to Tomoe Gozen what had happened after he lost consciousness and how he had encountered the Goddess Tiamat.
He had already planned to report the matter to Gilgamesh once he returned to Uruk, so there was no harm in telling her beforehand.
Tomoe Gozen rested a hand beneath her delicate chin and murmured, "The Goddess Tiamat... In other words, the Goddess of Demonic Beasts who currently rules over the North, the being whom hundreds of thousands of Magical Beasts and the Sage Girtablilu call Mother. That goddess entered Shirou-sama's dream... W-wait. Does that mean you weren't treating me like your mother and clinging to me just now?"
"Mm."
Shirou nodded emphatically.
No matter how unreliable Irisviel could be, he would never seek maternal affection from a woman he had only just met. A goddess was an exception.
"Ugh...!"
Tomoe Gozen looked deeply disappointed, only to become mortified by her own presumptuous misunderstanding a moment later.
"I'm sorry I caused such an unnecessary misunderstanding," Shirou said.
"No, no. I'm the one who should apologize... I must have made you uncomfortable, didn't I?" Tomoe Gozen replied.
"Not at all. I should be thanking you, Tomoe-san, for looking after me after I passed out."
"It was only natural. Had Shirou-sama not defeated the Scorpion Man, I would have perished along with it by now."
Shirou and Tomoe Gozen continued exchanging polite remarks. Although the atmosphere remained somewhat awkward, it was at least much better than before.
"Besides, Tomoe-san really does have a motherly air about her..."
"Eh! Do you really mean that?"
The silver-haired widowed warrior's eyes lit up.
"In that case! Just for this era, allow Tomoe to become Shirou-sama's..."
"No, let's not."
Shirou politely declined, and Tomoe Gozen hung her head in disappointment.
"Now that the commander of the Magical Beasts has been defeated, we should be heading back. We're behind an army of hundreds of thousands of Magical Beasts. Staying here any longer would be dangerous."
Shirou held out his hand to Tomoe Gozen, but her expression stiffened.
"The way I look now..."
During her battle against the Scorpion Man, Tomoe Gozen had pushed her Oni lineage to its absolute limit through Lineage Excitation. Even her once-valiant appearance had undergone a permanent transformation.
Her beautiful long silver hair had taken on a pale pink hue, with tiny sparks drifting around it.
Two large, crimson chitinous horns extended from her forehead.
Even her deep red eyes had become serpentine, their pupils narrowing into vertical slits.
No matter how one looked at her now, Tomoe Gozen had strayed far from human appearance and become a true oni.
"Shirou-sama, please return on your own."
"Huh? What about you, Tomoe Gozen-san?"
"I will remain here and destroy as many Magical Beasts as possible."
The warrior spoke with a look of grim resolve.
"This body has already become kindling. If so, all I can do is burn. Burn, burn, and burn away even more, until everything has been consumed."
As she spoke, a vacant smile appeared on her face.
It seemed her Oni bloodline had affected not only her body, but her mind as well.
"You became this way to protect Uruk, Tomoe-san. There's no need to worry about it."
Shirou could tell that Tomoe Gozen deeply resented her own demonic bloodline.
He did not know exactly what she had experienced during her lifetime, but the absence of any record describing her as a member of the Demon Kind suggested that she had probably concealed her true nature all her life.
Tomoe Gozen shook her head. "Even if you say that..."
"Neither the soldiers of the Magical Beast Front nor the citizens of Uruk will fear or reject you because of your appearance. I can promise you that. Besides..."
The boy scratched the back of his head and looked away in embarrassment.
"Even like this, you're still very beautiful, Tomoe-san."
Shirou spoke awkwardly. Tomoe Gozen stared at him in a daze for a moment.
Perhaps her self-loathing had eased a little, because a gentle smile soon appeared on her face.
"Thank you very much for the compliment. Very well. Since Shirou-sama says so, I'll trust you this once."
"Thank you..."
"There is one thing I would like Shirou-sama to promise me."
"What is it?"
The warrior placed a hand over her ample chest and spoke solemnly.
"The woman of the Kiso clan is dead. The one standing here now is an oni whose life was saved by Shirou-sama. If I am to rely on the power of the Oni to protect humanity, then please allow me to accompany you. However, if the day ever comes when Tomoe Gozen can no longer control herself and falls completely to her demonic nature, I ask that you personally sever my head. Shirou-sama, will you make that promise to me?"
"......"
So that was it.
Tomoe Gozen could not trust herself. She believed that her existence would one day bring harm to the people of Uruk.
However, she was willing to trust Shirou. More precisely, she trusted the strength of the Shirou who had defeated the Sage Girtablilu.
If Shirou was willing to act as her limiter, she did not mind continuing to wield her blade as an oni.
"I understand. I promise you, Tomoe Gozen-san. If you become a true evil oni, a Shura, I'll stop you. But until then, I'll do everything in my power to make sure that never happens."
"Thank you."
The widowed warrior smiled in relief.
She cheerfully grabbed Shirou by the wrist and started walking.
"Then let's go back, Master! Everyone is still waiting for us!"
"Yeah, all right... Wait, Master?"
...
"W-What is wrong with that woman?! There has to be a limit to how shameless someone can be! I looked away for one moment, and she started cozying up to my future husband!"
Hundreds of meters above the ground, the black-haired goddess sat upright upon the Boat of Heaven.
Using her enhanced vision to watch the two figures below, she bit her lip indignantly.
"What's this about a 'Master' and a 'promise'...? Don't make me laugh. Aren't you already a married woman? Even if your husband is dead, you shouldn't act so frivolously in front of a boy younger than you. Where is your dignity as a widow? What happened to your Yamato Nadeshiko spirit as a Japanese woman? How shameless..."
Despite being a married woman herself, Ishtar, the goddess least qualified in the world to criticize anyone for being frivolous, crossed her arms in indignation.
"Hmm?"
At that moment, the goddess spotted a large horde of Magical Beasts approaching Shirou and Tomoe Gozen from afar, preparing to surround them.
"Hmph. Perfect."
Ishtar realized that her chance had finally arrived.
This was the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity she had been waiting for.
She would create the perfect scene for her first meeting with the boy, then make him fall hopelessly in love with her, the capable goddess who had saved him.
Ishtar clenched her fists and smiled. Victory was already hers.
...
Because neither Shirou nor Tomoe Gozen knew the terrain in the area very well, they only realized they had been surrounded after it was already too late.
"There are so many of them... Master, please give your orders."
Tomoe Gozen stepped between Shirou and the Magical Beasts, assuming a valiant stance with her naginata.
Although they had not formally entered into a contract, she appeared to have embraced her new role almost immediately.
The warrior woman of the Kiso clan was dead.
The one now fighting for humanity's future was the oni whose life Shirou had saved.
To repay his kindness and trust, she had decided to serve him as her new lord.
She seems to be enjoying this quite a bit... Shirou thought.
"I'll fight with you."
Shirou prepared to project the "Blades of Chaos," but Tomoe Gozen stopped him.
"Please step back, Shirou-sama. Leave the front line to me. You need only remain somewhere safe and provide covering fire."
Come to think of it, she had heard the rumors of Shirou's exploits near Uruk.
Like Ushiwakamaru and the others, Tomoe Gozen had probably taken it for granted that Shirou was incapable of close-quarters combat.
After all, he had defeated the Scorpion Man earlier with his Mystic Eyes.
"Understood. Be careful."
Countless blades and swords materialized in the air behind Shirou.
The sight startled the warrior, but she quickly refocused on the Magical Beasts ahead. Coordinating with Shirou's barrage of Noble Phantasms, she charged forward.
The Magical Beasts surrounding Shirou and Tomoe Gozen numbered well into the triple digits.
With her Demon Lineage Excitation fully activated, Tomoe Gozen was far stronger as a Servant than she had been before.
If she and Shirou unleashed their full power, even a three-digit number of Magical Beasts would only take them a little time to eliminate.
The problem was that they were deep within enemy territory. If they caused too great a commotion, they would probably attract even more enemies.
They were therefore forced to fight cautiously while limiting their firepower.
"Guh... More Magical Beast reinforcements keep coming. This could get bad..."
Tomoe Gozen furrowed her brows while Shirou considered whether to unleash "Broken Phantasm."
But at that moment, a voice came from deep within the forest.
"Are you in trouble? I see. Leave this to me."
Shirou and Tomoe Gozen turned and saw a tall, slender humanoid figure dressed in white robes.
Long green hair framed an androgynously beautiful face.
He seemed at once like an inanimate work of art and a human being possessing a soul.
Standing amid the lush greenery, "he" resembled the embodiment of nature itself, the harmonizing force of the world.
"Who are you...?"
Tomoe Gozen's eyes widened.
Her five senses, greatly enhanced by her demonic bloodline, confirmed that this figure possessed incomparable Mana.
Divine Spirit level, perhaps even beyond it.
"Take your master and step back a little."
"He" spoke in an exceedingly gentle voice.
"!"
Tomoe Gozen cut down the Magical Beast in front of her, returned to Shirou's side, wrapped her arms around him, and leaped toward the open ground behind them.
At the same time, the humanoid figure with long green hair spread his arms.
Enormous Mana began to surge, not through the atmosphere, but from deep within the earth.
"They're only a hundred or so. We simply need to defeat them all at once."
"He" glanced at Shirou.
"Someone like you could certainly do the same. But leave this one to me. You can save your chance to show off for later."
Immediately afterward, countless chains, blades, spears, swords, and halberds erupted from beneath the green-haired youth's feet.
The sheer number of weapons was so overwhelming that they filled the entire battlefield.
The wedges at the ends of the chains pinned the Magical Beasts in place. Blades, spears, swords, and halberds then pierced their bodies, setting off a succession of Mana explosions.
A single thunderous blast rang out, and every Magical Beast surrounding Shirou and Tomoe Gozen was wiped out in an instant.
"......"
Held in Tomoe Gozen's arms, Shirou watched the stranger's attack intently.
It was an ability distinct from both Shirou Amamiya's "Unlimited Blade Works" and Gilgamesh's "Gate of Babylon," yet it also bore a striking resemblance to them in certain respects.
Furthermore, like Shirou and Gilgamesh, the green-haired young man required no incantation whatsoever to unleash an attack on such an enormous scale.
Androgynous beauty, the power of the earth, and an overwhelming quantity of Mana...
Shirou quickly determined the stranger's identity.
At that moment, the green-haired young man approached him.
"It is an honor to meet you, King Gilgamesh's messenger. My name is Enkidu. Although this introduction comes rather late, I have actually been here all along, eagerly awaiting our meeting."
"So you're Enkidu...?"
Tomoe Gozen exclaimed in surprise.
"The legendary Enkidu who stood as King Gilgamesh's equal?"
The young man calling himself Enkidu offered a gentle smile.
"You must be Tomoe Gozen, the Archer summoned by Gilgamesh. I have heard of your heroic exploits on the Magical Beast Front. It seems the Great Cup of Uruk bestowed the necessary knowledge upon you."
Delight spread across Tomoe Gozen's face. She turned to Shirou and began explaining.
"Master, allow me to introduce him. This gentleman is King Gilgamesh's one and only true friend, Enkidu! He is someone we can trust! You could even call him the greatest possible savior!"
When Tomoe Gozen first arrived in this era, the Holy Grail had granted her the most basic knowledge she needed.
Enkidu, King Gilgamesh's one and only true friend.
A "weapon with a will of its own" created by the gods.
Gilgamesh was a king blessed with extraordinary abilities, yet he acted as he pleased and refused to obey the gods' commands.
To admonish the arrogant king, the gods molded "clay" into human form.
Possessing a soul identical to that of a human, Enkidu could freely alter the shape of his body and even transform directly into a Noble Phantasm to pierce his enemies.
Meticulously crafted using all the gods' Authorities, Enkidu was the world's strongest "divinely created human."
If Mesopotamian civilization was one that fashioned all manner of objects from clay, then Enkidu was its supreme masterpiece.
If King Gilgamesh was the "Wedge of Heaven," a half-human, half-divine being created by the gods, then Enkidu was the "Chains of Heaven," created to bring Gilgamesh back to the side of the gods.
"In any case, now that Enkidu is here, nothing could be more reassuring! He is humanity's strongest ally, and Uruk's strongest ally! After all, he is a hero whose upright heart and pure morality could not be corrupted even by the tyrant Gilgamesh!"
Tomoe Gozen excitedly finished her explanation.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Shirou Amamiya."
Shirou nodded, then stepped forward and held out a hand to the green-haired youth.
"Thank you very much for helping us, Enkidu-san. Without you, Tomoe and I might have been in danger."
"?"
Enkidu frowned.
"Does extending your right hand signify some kind of abnormality?"
"It's a handshake, Enkidu-sama. Master wishes to shake your hand as a gesture of friendship and goodwill."
Enkidu looked embarrassed.
"Ah, so this is... My apologies. I'm not accustomed to it yet. Then allow me to formally ask for your guidance once again. I simply hold your hand like this, correct?"
Watching the two get along so well, Tomoe Gozen suddenly asked out of curiosity, "But Enkidu-sama, where were you before this?"
Enkidu explained, "Before any of you were summoned, Gilgamesh secretly dispatched me to the North, where the Magical Beasts were running rampant. My objective was to uncover the true identity of the Goddess of Demonic Beasts. To prevent any information from leaking, no one was informed of this top-secret mission."
"I see."
Tomoe Gozen nodded in understanding.
Indeed, it was a task suited only to Enkidu, the person Gilgamesh trusted most.
"It would be unwise to remain here talking. Let's withdraw before more Magical Beasts arrive. We may have to take a longer route, but that is necessary to avoid the Goddess of Demonic Beasts's notice."
Enkidu turned around as he spoke.
Tomoe stepped away from the wall and turned to walk out.
Shhk.
The sound of something being cut rang out.
Enkidu looked down in confusion and saw a blade gleaming with a cold light protruding from his chest.
"Consider this a warning. You really shouldn't leave your back unguarded, you impostor pretending to be Enkidu."
Standing behind him, Shirou spoke while gripping the "Yamato."