"Shirou-san!"
A sword descended from the heavens and killed the goddess's gaze.
The boy's arrival also revived the morale that had fallen to its lowest point.
After putting away the Boat of Heaven Maanna he had borrowed from Ishtar, Shirou stood amid the Magical Beasts and ruins, studying the hostile goddess he was seeing for the first time.
Tiamat, the Mother Goddess of All Beasts...?
That was how she had introduced herself.
Yet from a single distant glance, Shirou was more certain than ever that this goddess was not Tiamat.
It was not merely because the Mother Goddess of All Beasts looked nothing like the Mother of Genesis from Shirou's dreams. More importantly, there was something invisible to the naked eye.
A profound hatred coiled around the goddess's colossal body, utterly unlike the gentle mother Shirou knew.
Then, when their eyes met, Shirou realized the goddess's true identity.
"Ana, you..."
Although he did not know whether he would make it back alive, Shirou made a decision.
Once this battle was over, he would bake Ana her favorite butter cake. An enormous one.
"Amamiya... Shirou..."
The snake haired goddess quietly spoke the boy's name.
Shirou frowned upon realizing that she knew who he was.
The Goddess of Demonic Beasts continued.
"Of course I know you, unforgivable sinner…"
"You are the accursed human who calls himself the [Magical Beast Slayer], the one who slaughtered so many of my beloved children while I, Tiamat, slept."
"What did you just do?"
She probably could not understand why her [Gaze] had stopped working.
"I merely killed your gaze. There's no need to make such a fuss... Next, I'll take your life as well."
The Goddess of Demonic Beasts gave him a seductive smile.
"Arrogant little insect. Even if you have mastered a few underhanded tricks, an insect will always remain an insect..."
"Wait... Mother..."
Enkidu tried to stop the goddess, but she ignored him completely.
The Goddess of Demonic Beasts suddenly twisted her waist, sweeping her thick serpentine tail toward Shirou.
"You're an eyesore! I'll start by crushing you, you accursed insect!"
Shirou smiled fearlessly.
As he drew the [Blades of Chaos] and assumed a fighting stance, he glanced at Ritsuka and the others behind him from the corner of his eye.
Run.
"Huh... But!?"
Ritsuka Fujimaru had intended to fight beside him.
Fighting alongside Shirou and earning his praise had once been the girl's dream.
But she was too weak.
She understood perfectly well that remaining here would only hold him back.
"Senpai! We have to go! We can't let Shirou-san's resolve go to waste!"
Mash grabbed Ritsuka Fujimaru's hand and pulled her toward the gates of Nippur City.
"My Lord, I will remain and cover you."
"I may not be much help, but I'll lend a hand too."
Tomoe Gozen and Merlin stayed behind.
At the same moment, Shirou leaped toward the Goddess of Demonic Beasts.
"Be careful, Shirou! That Divine Spirit Servant possesses the King of Magecraft's Holy Grail...!"
Merlin's warning came from behind him.
So that was it. Was part of her abnormal amount of Mana coming from the Holy Grail?
The reason Shirou had not attacked the Goddess of Demonic Beasts directly during his surprise attack was not because he had chosen not to. It was because he could not.
His Projected [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception] could not see the goddess's death.
One reason was that the immortality granted by her [Potnia Theron] Authority was simply too powerful.
Another was that Shirou could not properly comprehend the death of a god.
Then there was the third and most important reason. Shirou's eyes were more specialized in killing concepts than in killing living creatures.
A direct attack would be faster.
With that thought, the [Blades of Chaos] appeared in the boy's hands, their edges blazing with the fires of hell.
The twin blades possessed special effectiveness against both [Divinity] and [Demonic Nature], allowing them to inflict tremendous damage on the goddess before him.
Provided he could land a hit.
The Goddess of Demonic Beasts naturally sensed how dangerous Shirou's weapons were to her.
Her serpentine hair thrashed wildly.
Purple beams saturated with Mana erupted from the jaws at the ends of her long hair.
Those beams were...!?
The first thing Shirou had killed was the [Snake's Gaze], which brought living creatures to a halt.
The beams now converging on him from every direction were its superior form, the [Serpent's Mystic Eyes], which petrified all things.
"I have grown tired of collecting statues of ordinary humans, but a statue of the arrogant human calling himself the [Magical Beast Slayer] might make a fine decoration for my temple."
"Thousand Mystic Eyes, release."
Countless petrifying beams crossed one another, forming a vast net that blotted out the sky as it closed around the boy.
Shirou adjusted his position in midair to evade them, eventually landing on the Goddess of Demonic Beasts' serpentine tail.
"You keep calling me an insect, but with a body that size, do you really think you can catch one?"
At this point, the goddess's immense size and serpentine body had become something Shirou could exploit.
The arrows Tomoe Gozen fired from the ground could not inflict any real damage, but they still served as a distraction.
"Incidentally, I once studied under someone who taught me the secret technique of catching flies with chopsticks... Would you like me to teach you?"
Shirou sounded relaxed, but his body was anything but.
Even without being struck directly by the beams, he could feel himself growing steadily more sluggish.
It was as though his body were slowly hardening from the joints outward.
The [Petrifying Mystic Eyes], powered by the Spirit Origin of a Divine Spirit, took effect even without directly striking their target. Simply entering their field of vision was enough.
Shirou realized that the closer he moved toward the goddess, the closer he came to turning completely to stone.
"Merlin! Do something!"
"Even if you tell me that, I... Wait, Shirou! Hurry and save me!"
"What?"
"The Petrifying Mystic Eyes are my natural enemy! My immortality is completely useless against that gaze! Once she locks on to me, I won't be able to escape into the world of dreams at the instant my Spirit Origin is destroyed!"
"Just find some way to protect me first! If my consciousness stops, we'll be in serious trouble! Everything we've worked for until now will have been wasted!"
This was something Shirou had discovered after spending half a year with Merlin.
Despite calling himself a [Grand Magus], Merlin was nowhere near as skilled in Magecraft as Shirou had imagined.
Compared to Lady Avalon and Morgan, Merlin excelled only in Illusion Arts, and even in that field he remained inferior to Lady Avalon. Beyond that, he had no particularly impressive abilities.
As Ana put it, he was a useless Magus who was practically worthless in battle.
"Are you kidding me!?"
At that moment, Shirou desperately missed his Professor (♀), who could provide him with a vast array of buffs all by herself.
He broke away from the Goddess of Demonic Beasts, returned to the ground, and began cutting down Magical Beasts to protect Merlin.
"It seems you'll die here without me even needing to act... Fragile little Magical Beast Slayer."
The Goddess of Demonic Beasts gave a vicious sneer as she watched Shirou and the others being swallowed by the tide of beasts.
"I wouldn't be so sure," Shirou said quietly.
"What?"
The Goddess of Demonic Beasts turned her eyes and saw that a path had been carved through the horde filling the city.
Ritsuka Fujimaru and Mash had returned.
"Shirou-san! Leave Merlin to Tomoe-san and me! Please find an opportunity to retreat as soon as possible!"
Mash shouted as she swung her massive shield and sent a Magical Beast flying.
"Exactly. It looks like you'll have to deal with me yourself after all," Shirou said with a smile.
The snake haired goddess snorted and slithered toward him once more.
"..."
Enkidu remained motionless in the air, silently watching the chaotic battle unfolding throughout the city.
The Goddess of Demonic Beasts taking the initiative had not been part of his plan, but eliminating Shirou and Chaldea here in a single stroke would not be a bad outcome.
The problem was Merlin.
Until the [True Mother] awakened, the Incubus needed to remain alive for as long as possible.
Would the Goddess of Demonic Beasts really let him escape so easily?
Elsewhere, Shirou once again clashed with the goddess.
"Why aren't you killing my gaze the way you did before, human?"
The Mother Goddess of All Beasts attacked with complete ease.
It was not that Shirou was unwilling. He simply could not do it because there were far too many petrifying beams.
Every strand of the Goddess of Demonic Beasts' hair cast its own gaze, attacking him from every direction. There was no way to deal with them all.
"My tongue dances, my lips grow moist, and the humiliation I once suffered sets my blood boiling."
"Beneath my Thousand Mystic Eyes, turn to ash along with this entire fortress!"
Countless petrifying beams fired at once.
Shirou had nowhere left to evade.
Haah... I really didn't want to use this.
The boy sighed.
"Trace On, begin."
Golden light illuminated the sky.
As though sensing something, Mash and Merlin suddenly looked toward him.
Amid that dazzling golden radiance, the boy's figure vanished.
"That is...!?"
The girl of the Round Table stared with wide eyes.
It was the first time she had ever seen it.
Even though it was the first time, she understood the Noble Phantasm Shirou had Projected as though the knowledge had been engraved into her soul from the very beginning.
Even a girl born as a test tube baby in a sterile room knew of that most fantastical legend.
"[Avalon]..."
The golden light swept away the purple beams.
As the sheath unfolded, time, space, and causality were severed.
"What...?"
The Goddess of Demonic Beasts and Enkidu stared in disbelief.
The petrifying gazes, powerful enough to pierce a city wall, had been repelled.
It had nothing to do with physical laws or the direction of energy. This was a realm beyond human comprehension.
"H... How is that possible...?"
In the next instant, Shirou appeared directly before the Goddess of Demonic Beasts' face.
Ritsuka Fujimaru stared blankly.
At that distance, Shirou-san would also...
"This ends here, ancient Greek goddess Gorgon."
Shirou spoke calmly.
To the Goddess of Demonic Beasts, Gorgon, his quiet voice sounded like the whisper of death from the underworld.
"Gorgon? The Goddess of Demonic Beasts' True Name is actually the Great Magical Beast Gorgon!?"
Gorgon.
It was the name of a monster from Greek mythology, as well as the name borne by the three goddess sisters who lived on the Shapeless Island.
The Gorgon who had descended upon Mesopotamia was the corrupted form of Medusa, the youngest of the three sisters.
Cursed by the goddess Athena, Medusa slaughtered the many heroes who came to defeat her in order to protect herself and her sisters.
Throughout that process, she gradually became more cruel, even secretly drinking human blood to make herself stronger.
Tempted by her own monstrous nature, she sank deeper and deeper into corruption until she finally devoured her beloved sisters as well.
Gorgon was already a Great Magical Beast on the level of a Divine Spirit, one who could rightfully be called the Queen of Magical Beasts. After acquiring the King of Magecraft's Holy Grail, her power had increased even further.
That was how she had taken on this monstrous form, immense enough to call herself the Mother Goddess of All Beasts.
"...!"
Gorgon's pupils trembled as she stared at the boy before her.
Even with her True Name exposed, the balance of power between them had not actually changed.
If the strength of a life were measured by Mana and Mystery, then Shirou was nothing more than an insect compared to Gorgon.
That was not all.
Because Shirou had moved too close to her, ninety percent of his body had already been completely petrified. He was truly helpless prey awaiting slaughter.
And yet...
"Stop... Stop it...! Don't look at me like that!"
The arrogant Goddess of Demonic Beasts was showing fear and pleading with the human she had successfully captured.
She was not shaken merely by the power of the [Blades of Chaos]. She could not endure the look in the boy's eyes.
The emotion within Shirou's slightly lowered gaze was pity.
This was the first time Gorgon had ever been pitied by a human.
Those worthless people who called themselves heroes had repeatedly invaded the world she shared with her elder sisters, trying to steal everything she held dear.
So she killed them all.
So she devoured them all.
That was the only way she could protect herself and her sisters.
The monster had always believed that her actions were right, and that she could never coexist with humanity.
She had never expected humans to understand her.
"Gorgon, your hatred for humanity and the world is not wrong. I won't deny your loathing."
"What... are you talking about...? Be quiet!"
"If we had met under different circumstances, I would have been willing to become your ally... That's all I'm saying."
Shirou spoke sorrowfully.
With nearly his entire body petrified, he swung the only parts he could still move, his arms.
The flames along the [Blades of Chaos] roared fiercely.
Compared to Gorgon's colossal body, which stretched more than one hundred and fifty meters in length, the twin blades were so small that they seemed insignificant.
Yet within those flickering flames, she thought she saw the depths of Tartarus.
"It's over."
Shirou swung the strongest twin blades, capable of slaying gods and demons alike.
"Come, Gorgon!"
"No!"
Gorgon screamed and slashed at Shirou with her razor sharp claws.
The fully released [Blades of Chaos] would strike Gorgon, but Shirou would not emerge unharmed.
Gorgon was not the true Tiamat, but in terms of [Strength] alone, she might even surpass the Mother of Genesis.
Shirou had no intention of dying here, but even in the worst case, trading severe injuries of his own for Gorgon's defeat would be an excellent bargain.
Sorry, Ana...
It looks like I won't be able to make your butter cake tonight...
"..."
He noticed someone's gaze.
Shirou glanced aside and saw an orange haired girl running toward him with tears streaming down her face, shouting something he could not hear.
That would not do.
How could humanity's last Magus lose her composure like that?
Well, never mind. Burn the sight of my back into your memories and use it to become stronger, Ritsuka, Mash.
The two of you will surely save the Human Order and reclaim the future.
"Mother!"
Just as Shirou was about to succeed, countless chains shot toward him, wrapped around his arms, and dragged him toward the ground.
"Tch! Stay out of my way!"
Shirou severed the chains binding his arms.
By the time he had cut through Enkidu's relentless barrage, Gorgon had seized the opportunity to burrow underground.
Only moments ago, the Goddess of Demonic Beasts had been overwhelmingly arrogant. Now, only the end of her tail remained above the ground, and it quickly vanished as well.
Enkidu had naturally disappeared too. Rather, Shirou suspected that he had been planning to retreat from the very beginning.
"..."
Shirou fell to the ground and dismissed the [Blades of Chaos].
With their mother gone, the Magical Beasts scattered in every direction.
Silence returned to Nippur City, leaving behind only horrifying ruins and a massive pit leading deep underground.
Should he pursue them?
Before Shirou had time to think...
"Shirou-san!"
Something struck him from behind.
It was not a surprise attack from an enemy. Ritsuka had wrapped her arms around him and tackled him to the ground.
"You idiot! You complete idiot! What were you thinking!?
"Shirou-san, you're not a Servant! You're a living human being, aren't you?
"If you die, that's really the end! That was far too reckless! You idiot!"
Only a few days ago, the young Magus had joked that if Shirou-san died, he could become her Servant.
Now she buried her face against his chest and sobbed uncontrollably.
Shirou reached out, stroked her hair, and apologized sincerely.
"I'm sorry. I'll reflect properly on what I did later..."
***
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