"TOHSAAAAAKA!!!"
"When will you finally understand—"
Gilgamesh raised Ea, the Sword of Rupture high.
The three conical sections of the blade began rotating in opposite directions, and a blood-red spiral shot into the heavens!
At this moment, Matou Kariya, fused with the Shadow Phoenix, was completely lucid.
The "companion" Leon had given him was taking the brunt of the curse that would otherwise have driven him mad.
But he still let out an enraged roar, simply to vent the resentment that could no longer be contained within his heart.
He resented himself for being so useless.
He resented himself for lacking the courage to shoulder his responsibilities.
He resented himself for failing to protect Aoi and Sakura from the very beginning.
He resented himself for always making the wrong choices...
As he watched the blood-red spiral hurtling toward him, as though he and Gilgamesh were rushing toward one another in a final confrontation, Kariya's deeply wrinkled face blossomed into a look of acceptance.
The smile was frightening.
Yet there was also a trace of peace within it.
Then—
He swung the Ebony Blade tightly gripped in his hand with the resolve of a man who had already accepted death.
Within that blood-red spiral of annihilation, he drew the final stroke of his life!
Aoi, you have to be happy...
Sakura, remember to eat properly. Work hard to restore your health...
Thank you... my one and only supreme god.
I shall offer this body to pave your path toward ultimate victory...
"—the fact that you are weak!"
Gilgamesh's contemptuous voice fell.
Matou Kariya, together with the Shadow Phoenix fused with him, was instantly crushed into nothingness by the blood-red spiral capable of severing the world.
And that—
Was merely the wind-up of Ea.
"Hmph!"
Gilgamesh flicked the blade as though shaking off the resentful spirits clinging to it.
He turned toward Enzō Mountain.
Without even looking away, he reached out and precisely caught the Ebony Blade falling from the sky.
Then his figure flashed.
He vanished from the sky, which was still trembling from the spatial distortion.
The next instant—
Gilgamesh, clad in golden armor, had already appeared before Leon, who was warming up in the courtyard of Ryūdō Temple.
...
At the exact moment Matou Kariya fell in battle—
Far away, at Einzbern Castle in Germany, Sakura suddenly felt something.
She stopped dead in her tracks.
Sakura, remember to eat properly. Work hard to restore your health...
Across the distance of time and space, Matou Kariya's final words seemed to echo inside Sakura's mind.
"Uncle Kariya..."
Sakura whispered softly.
Tears of sorrow involuntarily welled up in her eyes.
Yet the Sakura of the present could not even fully understand this sadness herself.
"Sakura, why are you crying?"
Illya was lying on the floor with her chin resting in both hands.
Her small, delicate feet, pale and rosy, swung leisurely in the air as she agonized over where to place her next chess piece.
When she noticed Sakura suddenly crying, she immediately asked with concern:
"Huh? I'm crying?"
Sakura herself had not noticed.
Only after wiping the tear tracks from her cheeks with her little hand did she realize that she had been crying.
What was this strange emotion stirring inside her?
Sadness?
Pain?
Shame?
Fear?
Sakura searched through every emotional word she could think of.
Yet she still could not determine what exactly was happening to her.
Why had she suddenly heard Uncle Kariya's voice?
Hurry... go find him...
Who?
Thump! Thump!! Thump!!!
Sakura's unease grew stronger and stronger.
Almost instinctively, she placed her left hand over the back of her right hand, where she had disguised the presence of her Command Seals.
She brought both hands to her chest, closed her eyes, and prayed:
Mr. Leon, please help me!
Of the two Command Seals she had remaining—
One was consumed once again.
Then—
Under Illya's stunned gaze, a shadow suddenly erupted from the ground and swallowed Sakura whole.
Her tiny figure disappeared from the spot in an instant.
"?!"
...
Elsewhere.
Inside the enormous fissure that had been torn into Enzō Mountain by the shockwaves from the battle between Berserker—Matou Kariya—and Gilgamesh—
Kiritsugu Emiya and Kirei Kotomine, who had been swallowed by the collapsing mountainside, discovered that they had not been crushed beneath the rocks.
The fissure had instead opened directly into a hollow space deep within Enzō Mountain.
Both men had suffered fractures of varying severity, but neither was in mortal danger.
The instant they landed, Kiritsugu—whose entire body had suffered fractures to varying degrees except for a scrape on his right arm—immediately crawled across the ground.
He wanted nothing more than to shoot Kirei dead.
Kirei's superior physical ability meant that his injuries were somewhat lighter than Kiritsugu's.
However, he could not get back up either.
It seemed that the rapidly closing rock formation had crushed his lower body.
This was the perfect opportunity.
Now... I can kill him with one shot!
Kiritsugu reached for the trigger.
Then he realized—
The Thompson Contender that had been in his hand all this time was gone.
At some point, he had dropped it.
"?!"
Kiritsugu hurriedly looked around.
He spotted the Thompson Contender lying not far away on a faintly glowing stone platform.
Although this hidden chamber received no sunlight, the concentration of magical energy within it was so dense that it was almost visible to the naked eye, providing them with a dim source of illumination.
Kirei noticed it as well.
The corners of his lips curled upward in delight.
His deep, magnetic voice carried a triumphant laugh.
"Looks like Fate is on my side once again!"
"Damn it!"
Kiritsugu cursed under his breath.
The two men simultaneously planted their hands against the ground and struggled forward, crawling toward the Thompson Contender.
Kiritsugu was closer.
But only one of his arms was functioning properly.
Kirei was farther away.
But he had the advantage of having both arms available.
Although his right arm—the one bearing his Command Seals—was practically useless, he still had his remaining Command Seals to reinforce himself, as well as greater raw arm strength than Kiritsugu.
At this moment—
The struggle between life and death had been reduced to one simple question:
Who would reach that lethal weapon first?
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