As the group made their way through the Cedar Forest, they felt tremors traveling through the ground from far away.
"The battle has begun..."
"Yeah. The first wave of Magical Beasts has already passed through Nippur and is expected to engage the defenders at the North Wall in five minutes. Leading them is Enkidu... no, Kingu, commander of the 'Eleven Offspring of Tiamat'!"
Dr. Roman kept the group updated on the situation at the main battlefield as they hurried onward.
"The Magical Beast horde is less than five hundred meters from the North Wall... Both sides have officially engaged."
"Quetzalcoatl has successfully tied down Kingu. As long as she's there, Kingu won't be coming after you!"
Merlin looked satisfied. "Good. The operation is going smoothly. Quetzalcoatl really is quite skilled at stirring people up."
"All right, we need to hurry too... Leonidas and the others have Ishtar with them on the main battlefield, but against that many Magical Beasts, large-scale casualties are only a matter of time."
"No more breaks from here on out. We're advancing at full speed, everyone!"
The five-person team heading for the Blood Fort consisted of Shirou, Ritsuka, Mash, Merlin, and Ana.
According to the original plan, Ishtar was supposed to be part of the team as well.
However, as the War Goddess and Victory Goddess, she could do far more to inspire Uruk's soldiers by remaining on the battlefield than by joining an assassination mission, so they ultimately settled on the current lineup.
After clearing out the scattered Magical Beasts in the Cedar Forest, Dr. Roman detected the Blood Fort's exact coordinates.
"Wait! Stop, Merlin! There's an extremely powerful Divinity response three hundred meters ahead of you! It's the Blood Fort! Hurry and signal Quetzalcoatl!"
Two days earlier, everyone had gathered at the Temple of Uruk to decide on their battle plan.
They would use Marduk's Axe to smash directly through the temple's outer wall.
After three days of transport, the divine axe had finally been moved from Eridu to the North Wall.
However, there were still roughly thirty kilometers between the North Wall and the temple. Throwing Marduk's Axe, which weighed as much as an entire city, all the way there...
Even Quetzalcoatl was capable of something like that.
The problem was that doing so would count as violating the agreement that "the Three Goddess Alliance shall not attack one another."
Even the Supreme Divinity of South America would be reduced to ashes on the spot for breaking that pact, so she could not attack Gorgon directly.
"It's fine, it's fine. You only need to throw it into the Cedar Forest. Leave the rest to us."
That was what Merlin had said at the time...
As he spoke, the Magus of Flowers wrapped a red strip of cloth around the divine axe, saying he would take responsibility for guiding where it landed.
"...?"
Shirou narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but Merlin frantically jabbed him with an elbow, warning him not to say anything.
"All right, let's begin!"
Merlin raised his staff high. "Leave it to me! Britannia Magecraft: Artoria, time to eat. Incantation!"
BOOM—!
A dazzling pillar of light erupted from the staff and shot straight into the sky, dragging a long blazing trail behind it.
Mash squinted against the glare. "A flare!? Something like a flare just got fired into the sky, Senpai!"
The next instant, an enormous axe hundreds of meters long came flying toward them, blotting out the sky.
"We're going to get caught in it too! Merlin, you idiot!" Ana shouted.
But the Magus of Flowers remained completely unhurried. With an innocent smile, he said,
"Oops, sorry... My hand slipped!"
Then he threw the staff he had been using to guide the landing point straight toward the Blood Fort.
"I knew it..." Shirou closed his eyes.
"Hey!?" The girls stared at him in disbelief.
"Fou!"
"Merlin must die!"
With an explosive crash and a tremor that seemed to tear the earth apart, the distant temple was smashed apart on the spot.
Immediately afterward, an enraged roar from Quetzalcoatl came from the distant direction of the North Wall.
"Su-i-ci-da!!!!!!?"
Mash went pale. "We can hear Quetzalcoatl-san screaming from several kilometers away, all the way over here... She... she must have..."
Shirou shook his head. "No, Quetzalcoatl is still alive."
"Since it wasn't something she did of her own free will, the punishment from the pact shouldn't be too severe... She probably lost around half of her Divinity?"
Ana sighed softly. "Mm... What an unpleasant incident..."
Merlin merely shrugged. "Well, if my hand slipped, there's nothing I could do about it."
"Who would have thought my staff would turn into a marker and guide the axe to the wrong place? What a blunder. What a blunder."
He paused and narrowed his eyes at the towering Blood Fort three hundred meters ahead. A gigantic axe blade was now buried straight into the top of the temple, with cracks spreading outward like a spiderweb.
"Still, Marduk's Axe didn't land here in the end. It somehow went straight into the Blood Fort instead."
"But thanks to that, everything is going perfectly, everyone! We can't let Quetzalcoatl's precious sacrifice go to waste!"
"Let's focus on what we have to do. Come on, the final battle is finally here!"
The group stepped through the shattered entrance of the temple.
...
...
The Blood Fort was exactly what its name suggested, a temple made of flesh and blood.
Indescribable masses of flesh covered the entire underground space, its structure as complicated as a gigantic anthill.
The air felt thick and viscous, like the organs of a living creature. Dark red blood vessels crawled across the walls, connecting one purplish cocoon to another, each one pulsing as though it were breathing.
Huge shadows writhed within the cocoons under the dim light.
"Inside... I think there are shadows moving..." Mash said, her voice trembling.
Ana stood silently at the front, her fingers tightening slightly beneath her cloak.
Merlin shook his head gently, his voice little more than a sigh. "It's better not to look. There's nothing pleasant in there."
But Mash had already seen them.
She abruptly covered her mouth.
"...These are... these shadows are...!"
At first, the girl had assumed the things breathing inside the cocoons were Magical Beasts waiting to hatch.
The truth was even crueler.
They were monsters that still retained traces of human form, human bodies forcibly rewritten into Magical Beasts.
Their distorted faces bore pain that had long since gone numb and despair that had already surrendered.
Ritsuka Fujimaru took her junior's hand. "Let's go, Mash... We have to head deeper inside."
Mash bit her lip. "But... but they're still alive! Even after becoming like that... everyone... they're all still alive...!"
"No. There's no saving them anymore... We have to go, Mash."
Shirou placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Shirou-san...!"
Roman's anxious voice cut in. "Everyone, hurry!"
"Kingu has figured out what you're doing. He's broken away from the front line and is heading toward you at high speed!"
"If you waste any more time, you'll have to fight Gorgon and Kingu at the same time!"
Ana turned around, determination shining in her violet eyes.
"I'll lead the way from here. I know where Gorgon's chamber is."
"Huh? How does Ana know that?"
Mash looked completely baffled.
"...I'm sorry, Mash, but I still have to ask this of you."
Ana murmured, "Now is the time to fight. To defeat Gorgon, please lend me your strength."
...
The group reached the lowest level of the Blood Fort.
The place felt like the stomach of a living creature. An indescribable sense of suffocation pressed down on everyone.
"She's here."
Merlin raised a hand and pointed into the darkness. "I can see her. Mother of Magical Beasts, Goddess Tiamat..."
"No. Composite Divinity Gorgon! Your Divinity has already fallen to its lowest point! Accept your fate and show yourself!"
BOOM————!!
The wall suddenly split apart.
The enormous serpent-haired Magical Beast slowly rose from a sea of blood.
She was already a monster more than a hundred and fifty meters in length, but in the oppressive confines of the Blood Fort, her presence felt even more overwhelming.
"You are..."
Gorgon swept her crimson serpentine eyes over the group.
"So you're the humans serving the King of Uruk... I was just about to go looking for you. You've saved me the trouble by coming here yourselves."
"Your revenge ends here, Gorgon."
"You're...!"
Gorgon finally noticed the red-haired boy.
She showed nothing outwardly, but her unease was unmistakable.
During their previous battle, she had sensed her own fate, death, in Shirou's blades.
If Enkidu had not intervened in time, Gorgon might already have died beneath those twin blades spewing hellfire.
But that had only happened because she had underestimated him.
She had looked down on her opponent and allowed such an insignificant insect to get close.
No matter how dangerous a venomous bug might be, all she had to do was crush it before it reached her.
Gorgon had no doubt in the power she possessed.
Even with the Blood Fort destroyed by Marduk's Axe and her Divinity reduced by half, she was still the Goddess of Demonic Beasts, a colossal monster holding the Holy Grail.
Slaughtering these humans in the depths of the Blood Fort would be effortless.
And yet...
"If we could meet under different circumstances, I would be willing to become your ally..."
For some reason, the words she had heard that day echoed in the depths of her mind.
"I've changed my mind. You're different from the other humans. There really is something special about you."
The Goddess of Demonic Beasts looked down at Shirou and gave him a seductive smile.
"Your name... was Shirou, wasn't it? Kingu mentioned you."
"Well? Human, would you like to become my child?"
"Wh...!?"
Ritsuka and Mash stared with their mouths open.
Shirou-san! Please don't let "Goddess Special Attack" activate in places where it absolutely shouldn't!
"Shirou, you're not a human from this era, are you? If so, then you have no reason to fight for the humans of this age."
"No... there is a reason."
"You can't stand by while humanity is trampled. You can't simply watch civilization come to an end..."
"That is why you stepped forward. That is why you were willing to sacrifice even your own life to take me down with you."
"What a noble conviction. You saw the victims, so you became their protector."
"But have you ever considered that I, Gorgon, am the true victim?"
Shirou frowned. "What are you trying to say?"
Gorgon continued with a cold laugh. "Salvation, compensation, redemption... Those are things only people who can still 'stand back up' have the luxury of thinking about."
"Those who have had everything taken from them desire only something far more miserable."
"What good would it do to reclaim wealth or reclaim land?"
"I already have 'nothing left.'"
"Everything I loved has slipped from my grasp. Everything I spent so long protecting has vanished from the face of the earth."
"Even I myself was burned away from this world long ago."
"I desire nothing anymore. The only thing left within me is vengeance against humanity."
"To kill everything, trample everything flat, eradicate this world, and kill myself along with it."
"That is an Avenger. That is what I seek."
"Destroy Uruk. Destroy humanity. This overwhelming hatred within me was given to me by humans."
"Shirou... Humanity took everything from me. Am I not worthy of your sympathy?"
"Everything I loved was burned away by the malice of this world, and now only my vengeance remains... So tell me, who is supposed to protect me?"
Ritsuka shouted, "Shirou-san! Don't let her words get to you!"
"Shut up, little girl!"
A ray of light fired from one of the writhing snakes that made up the Goddess of Demonic Beasts' hair.
The petrifying beam swept across the ground, destroying everything in its path. Mash hurriedly raised her shield and blocked it, preventing them from being blasted to pieces on the spot.
"Shirou, you're a hero, aren't you? A brave warrior, aren't you?"
"Then answer me with your 'justice.'"
"Help me destroy this world. Have more and stronger children with me. Stand beside me and witness the final landscape left behind after humanity is gone... That is what you should do."
"...Shirou."
Ana's voice trembled as she tightened her grip on her scythe.
After a silence that felt both brief and endless, Shirou raised his head.
He stared directly into the goddess's demonic eyes and spoke one word at a time.
"Gorgon, the greatest sympathy I can offer you is to let you die with as little pain as possible."
The smile on the Goddess of Demonic Beasts' face froze.
Mash immediately followed, her voice trembling with anger.
"That's right! Shirou-san is absolutely right! Your desire for revenge will never earn our sympathy!"
"Even if you were created by humanity, even if you have every right to seek revenge... we still won't accept what you're doing!"
"What you've become is nothing more than a reflection of what's inside you!"
"..."
The Goddess of Demonic Beasts was rendered speechless with rage.
The Magus of Flowers smiled.
"Sorry, but unlike me, my disciple isn't going to switch sides just because a wicked woman whispers a few sweet words in his ear."
"All of you, die!!"
Humiliated and enraged, Gorgon unleashed the largest-scale Gaze, her Petrifying Mystic Eyes, she had used yet.
Anti-Fortress.
The pitch-black beam possessed enough power to destroy the North Wall in a single strike.
Now that the Blood Fort had lost its function, Gorgon decided to destroy her own lair outright and bury every intruder together with the temple.
However...
"!!!"
A petite figure appeared directly in front of Gorgon.
The pressure from the blast threw back her black cloak, revealing the delicate face of a young girl.
Ana stood before the Petrifying Mystic Eyes and opened her own eyes wide.
A violet gaze shot from them.
Although its power was far inferior to Gorgon's, it somehow canceled out the Anti-Fortress beam from her Mystic Eyes.
"What happened? Is something there? What is it... What blocked my attack!?"
Gorgon's incoherent words left everyone confused.
"So it's true. You can't see me, Gorgon."
Ana spoke sadly, her violet eyes reflecting the twisted face of the Goddess of Demonic Beasts.
"Merlin was right. You aren't Goddess Tiamat at all. You're just an ordinary monster that can't even see what it has become."
"How... can this... be... You... what are you...? This chill...!"
Gorgon's eyes widened.
The moment she saw Ana's true appearance, her enormous body began to tremble violently, her serpent hair thrashing wildly.
"My reason... my reason is coming back... I'm going insane...!"
"Kingu! Kingu, where are you!? What is that Servant!? I've never seen such a hideous Servant!"
"Take her away! Don't let that thing into my sight!"
"Kill her! Get that monster out of this temple!"
"Ana's True Name is... Medusa..."
Ritsuka and Mash stared in shock at the sudden revelation.
Ana and Gorgon were different aspects of the same Heroic Spirit.
Gorgon was Medusa after her fall, after she had devoured those she loved. Ana was Medusa from her girlhood, before she had been cursed.
Because she possessed the "Harpe," this was also why the Counter Force had summoned her to this land as a Lancer.
Without a word, Shirou walked over to Ana's side.
"Shirou..."
The girl looked up at him.
After hesitating for a moment, she spoke quietly.
"I've always told myself that I'm not allowed to live, that I'm not allowed to stay here, that I'm not allowed to smile."
"But everyone disagreed... Even you."
"I think... I want to live. I want to stay here. I want to smile."
"Shirou, you said you'd protect me, didn't you?"
The boy nodded solemnly. "Of course. I won't let you leave the stage here."
"Mm. Then let's do this together."
The two exchanged a glance, then walked toward the rampaging Gorgon.
...
...
"It's time to end this, me!"
Ana cast off her black cloak, and her movements immediately became lighter.
She gripped her scythe in both hands, kicked off the ground, and leaped toward Gorgon's head.
"I don't know you... I don't know you, I don't know you, I don't know you! I don't know anything like you!"
"Die! Just die, you monster! Don't appear before me wearing that shallow face... Stay away from me!"
The Goddess of Demonic Beasts roared and lashed out with her serpentine tail.
To preserve what little reason she had left before it collapsed completely, she forcibly increased her Divinity, causing her already gigantic body to swell even further.
Ana swung down her scythe of death.
The next instant, some invisible light blasted her away.
"Watch out! That's a Noble Phantasm reaction!"
Merlin shouted anxiously.
But the Noble Phantasm moved even faster than sound.
"Pandemonium Cetus."
This was the Beast Queen's final trump card.
By abandoning the last vestiges of herself as a goddess, she temporarily materialized the tragic fate she had ultimately reached, the "Gorgon's Monster," dissolving all life within a designated area.
A human would die instantly.
Even a Servant would suffer a fatal blow.
"▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇!"
An inhuman roar shook the underground chamber as Gorgon rapidly lost her humanoid form.
Until now, the Goddess of Demonic Beasts had at least retained a roughly human upper body.
But after releasing this Noble Phantasm, Gorgon plunged even deeper into monstrosity, transforming into an amorphous beast formed from tens of thousands of enormous serpents coiling around one another.
At the same time, everything inside the Blood Fort was stained with a purplish-red glow.
"Mash! Protect Ritsuka and Merlin!"
"Mm! Leave them to me!"
After giving the order, Shirou reached out and caught Ana as she was sent crashing toward the ground.
"So this is what Shirou's training accomplished..."
When Ana opened her eyes, she was astonished to find that Shirou had taken the indiscriminate attack of "Pandemonium Cetus" in her place.
He raised his left arm while his entire body remained immersed in Gorgon's destructive Authority.
Normally, a human should have begun dissolving from the skin inward almost immediately, yet Gorgon's Noble Phantasm only managed to inflict damage on Shirou during its first two waves.
"Here we go, Ana."
"Huh?"
The girl's cheeks instantly turned red.
Shirou had one hand supporting her butt.
Despite her petite build, her hips were surprisingly developed...
What a frighteningly seductive girl!
Shirou forcibly suppressed the stray thoughts in his mind and poured strength into his right arm.
"W-wait, Shirou... I'm not ready y..."
"Here we go! Ana and my ultimate combination attack!"
"Yaaaaaaaaah! You idiot, Shirou!!!"
With the girl's scream ringing through the chamber, Ana shot forward like a cannonball.
Shirou had launched the petite girl directly from the ground, aiming her straight at the serpent monster's core.
"Ugh...!"
Her beautiful long hair streaming behind her, Ana barely managed to adjust her posture in midair.
"▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇—!"
As though sensing its own end, the serpent monster unleashed its Authority even more violently.
But Ana was not without a way to resist.
Throughout their entire journey, the girl had been suppressing her own Divinity.
Now, she finally released it completely.
"This is the end, monster of the Shapeless Isle, Gorgon, slayer of heroes."
"Your vengeance, in the end, can never leave that island."
Ana whispered the words and swung down the scythe of death in her hands.
"▇▇▇▇▇▇—!!!"
The Immortal Slaying Scythe pierced the Spirit Core hidden deep within Gorgon, and both of them began to collapse.
Light burst from within the serpent monster as though breaking free from a cocoon, illuminating the dim Blood Fort.
Gorgon's life rapidly drained away.
And just like that, it was over.
"Eh...?"
Ana's body suddenly slipped downward.
As though declaring, "I won't let you survive alone," more than a dozen snakes wrapped around Ana's legs and began dragging her toward the serpent monster's center.
"Tsk...!"
The "Harpe" had shattered together with Gorgon's Spirit Core, and Ana had nearly exhausted all her Mana.
Is this as far as I go...?
The thought flashed through the girl's mind for only an instant before vanishing.
Shirou... will keep his promise.
Even as the snakes slowly dragged her into the darkness, the girl never doubted it.
My hero... Shirou will definitely take me back to Uruk.
"———————!"
The next instant, the sound of chains tearing through the air rang out.
It was the "Blades of Chaos."
Flames severed the snakes constricting Ana's body.
The chains wrapped gently around the girl's waist.
Shirou gave the other end a violent pull, ripping Ana, already half-swallowed, back out from inside the serpent monster.
"...Shirou!"
Ana threw her arms around the boy in joy and held him tightly.
This journey had been wonderful.
I'm so glad I met him, the girl thought from the bottom of her heart.
***
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