"Henshin!"
As the Sacred Fountain dried up, a fearsome warrior manifested like a thunderbolt.
Darkness instantly swallowed the moon.
Leon had summoned the Ultimate Darkness.
"What?"
"This aura of madness…"
"You're the real Berserker!"
Fooled again!
Gilgamesh knew perfectly well that this was what happened when he chose not to activate Sha Naqba Imuru.
And yet—
It was precisely this unknown that made the experience all the more exhilarating to him.
"Come!"
"A reenactment of the mythological battle!"
Gilgamesh's arrogant laughter echoed across the heavens.
But when he looked around again—
He discovered that he had already been dragged into a dark space.
There was no distinction between sky and earth here.
There was only endless darkness and chaotic gravity.
Black meteorites floated throughout the void, ranging from specks of dust to enormous masses rivaling entire continents.
"This is…"
"Hmph. A Reality Marble?"
Standing atop a meteorite roughly the size of a basketball court, Gilgamesh immediately saw through the true nature of this space.
"That's right."
"Just an appetizer."
"But you can't cheat by using that sword."
Leon hung upside down directly above Gilgamesh.
His arms were crossed as he stood atop a meteorite roughly the size of a Japanese prefecture, like a black sun suspended high above the King of Heroes.
"Go greet our guest, children."
The instant Leon finished speaking, countless shadow creatures emerged from the darkness surrounding Gilgamesh like a tsunami.
They had wildly varying appearances, each grotesque and distinctly Lovecraftian, resembling familiars formed from living shadows.
"ROOOAAAR!!!!!"
Some ran.
Some flew.
Some leaped.
Others seemed to teleport in bizarre, discontinuous jumps, as though frames of reality itself had been skipped.
In an instant, they surrounded Gilgamesh from every direction, completely engulfing him until not even his figure could be seen from outside.
"Hmph!"
Gilgamesh merely snorted.
Then—
Countless golden rays suddenly erupted from within the black sphere formed by the shadow familiars.
A closer look revealed that they were innumerable Noble Phantasms traveling so quickly that their trajectories appeared to merge into beams of light.
The encirclement of shadow familiars was instantly torn apart!
Surrounded by the countless golden portals of the Gate of Babylon, Gilgamesh emerged from within.
He resembled a radiant golden sun.
His golden armor was not stained by even a trace of dust or blood, while the savage grin on his face perfectly embodied both overwhelming style and brutal violence.
"That is all?"
Gilgamesh pointed the black tip of Ea, the Sword of Rupture, directly at Leon above him and sneered.
"It's no different from that King of Conquerors' Reality Marble."
"You've merely replaced his soldiers with a different kind of familiar."
Clap, clap, clap!
"As expected of the oldest King of Heroes."
Leon applauded, making no attempt to conceal his praise.
"But are you really sure you've seen through it?"
"What?"
"The Heroic Spirits within Iskandar's Ionioi Hetairoi have a clearly observable numerical limit."
"But my shadow familiars…"
"They are endless!"
"ROOOAAAR!!!!!" ×N
Leon spread his arms.
As though answering their master, the shadow familiars concealed throughout the void roared in unison.
The deafening sound shook the entire space!
"You!"
Gilgamesh roared furiously.
The next moment, he was swallowed by an endless tide of shadow familiars.
They surged forward one after another, utterly fearless of death.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The golden portals of the Gate of Babylon expanded into a spherical formation covering Gilgamesh from every direction.
Its full firepower was enough to keep the shadow familiars at bay, preventing even one from touching him.
But from the perspective of Ultimate Kuuga—Leon—watching from outside the encirclement, the light radiating from Gilgamesh was utterly insignificant compared to the boundless darkness filling the Shadow Domain.
If this were all there was to it, Leon was confident he could kill this golden-haired bastard simply by exhausting him.
But Gilgamesh's versatility was precisely what made him so formidable.
And then—
The stalemate was completely shattered when a crimson vortex suddenly rose.
There was only one reason.
Ea was simply too effective against Reality Marbles.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The instant the crimson vortex appeared, the Shadow Domain created by the Reality Marble began to resemble a balloon punctured by countless spikes.
It rapidly began leaking away and collapsing.
Soon—
"SKREEEE!"
Leon's endless army of shadow familiars cried out as they dispersed.
He and Gilgamesh reappeared in the outside world.
Neither of their positions had changed.
"!!!"
The moment Gilgamesh's vision returned to normal, his crimson pupils contracted.
Ultimate Kuuga—Leon—was already holding a fully black, deathly sword manifested as a Noble Phantasm.
And he had already launched a preemptive attack.
Without the slightest concern for fair play, Leon flashed forward like a teleportation and closed the distance!
"ZASSHU!!!"
Gilgamesh roared in fury.
BOOM—
The black-and-crimson cylindrical blade of Ea immediately generated a violent red pressure wave as it spiraled, enveloping Gilgamesh's entire body.
Ultimate Kuuga Leon's completely black God-Slaying Sword descended at tremendous speed in a horizontal slash.
When it was only twenty-five centimeters from Gilgamesh's waist armor—
Space itself split apart.
The slash was abruptly halted by the severed spatial layer.
BOOM!!!!
The fractured space was instantly repaired by the world's powerful self-restoration.
The God-Slaying Sword continued descending toward its intended target.
But it struck the black-and-crimson blade of Ea.
Gilgamesh had used that brief moment of respite to react and bring Ea across his body in a horizontal guard.
"What—?!"
Gilgamesh had completely underestimated Leon's Strength in his Ultimate Kuuga form.
Ea's blade remained intact.
But the bones in Gilgamesh's sword arm shattered instantly.
If not for his golden armor protecting him, the arm itself would already have been severed.
Even so, the overwhelming force passed through Ea's blade and crashed into his body, crushing the golden armor around his waist and transmitting the tremendous impact directly into him.
BOOOOOOM!!!!!!!
The courtyard of Ryūdō Temple instantly exploded.
A gigantic crater nearly one hundred meters across tore through the ground, its destruction extending almost across the entire mountain.
Gilgamesh was blasted away like a cannonball.
Leon had sent him flying several kilometers with sheer, unstoppable physical strength!
Leon glanced back at Sakura and the Holy Grail, both safely protected by Aegis Sigma.
Then his gaze passed over the dispirited Artoria and the main structure of Ryūdō Temple behind her, which was already swaying precariously.
He leaped into the air and gave chase.
At the same time—
RUMBLE, RUMBLE, RUMBLE!
Deep within the mountain where the Greater Grail was located—
Emiya Kiritsugu and Kotomine Kirei had only just awakened from the memory world five hundred years in the past.
Neither had even managed to regain their footing when the violent shaking of Mount Enzō threw both severely wounded men to the ground.
What happened?!
Kiritsugu furrowed his brow.
Thanks to the Avalon within his body automatically regenerating him, his physical condition had already recovered considerably.
Looking down at the Thompson Contender he had successfully reclaimed, Kiritsugu felt considerably more secure.
Using the nearby stone platform for support, he slowly stood.
Kirei, however, did not get back up after falling.
The terrifying injuries inflicted upon him by the Jewel of the Magic Tower within that memory space—injuries whose underlying mechanism Kiritsugu could not understand—had somehow been projected back into reality along with his consciousness.
His already grievously wounded body had suffered another devastating blow.
It was no longer merely a matter of blood flowing from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
He looked utterly miserable, practically transformed into a man drenched in blood.
"Emiya… Kiritsugu…"
Kotomine Kirei, who had almost become a blood-soaked corpse, struggled to raise his head and look toward Kiritsugu.
"…"
Kiritsugu said nothing.
Supporting one arm, he silently walked over to Kirei.
Then he raised the Thompson Contender.
BANG!
One shot blew Kirei's head apart.
That final gunshot—
was the end of the priest's life.
But before that—
The Command Seals on his arm had already completely disappeared.
They were the continuation of his life—
and of his empty will.
King Gilgamesh…
May this world become what you wish it to be…
"Hm hm hm hm hm~"
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