As Rin and Sakura recited the summoning incantation together under Rei Ao's guidance, the circle's radiance surged to its peak.
First to answer the golden orb was a figure as brazen as a falling star of gold.
"Heh-heh—summoned, I have come! I am the goddess of beauty, harvest, and war—Ishtar!"
"Huh? Wait! This feels wrong!"
The light cleared. Standing in the array was a tall woman dressed with extreme boldness: a white bra trimmed with gold, black hot pants, bare feet, and black hair tied into twin tails—a girl who was in truth the Mesopotamian deity, the Morning Star, Ishtar. Yet she stared down at her black-haired body in confusion, sensing a second, utterly different consciousness stirring within.
At the same time, the dark-purple orb flared, and a cool, death-tinged female voice spoke, annoyed:
"In the name of Ereshkigal, I answer this summons… but what is this?! Why am I crammed into the same little vessel as this idiot—and with her in control?!"
The mistress of the underworld, Ereshkigal, had awakened as well. She instantly grasped the situation: because of that peculiar catalyst and the Master's (Rin's) exceptionally high affinity, she and her sister/other half, Ishtar, were being forced to coexist inside Rin Tohsaka's body.
"Who are you calling an idiot, you gloomy shut-in of the underworld!"
"What did you say, you glittering, pesty Venus fly!"
Sharing one body, the two goddesses launched into a fierce quarrel. Rin's face and movements kept shifting—now flamboyant and overbearing, now cold and somber—leaving Aoi and Sakura Tohsaka staring, speechless.
"Rin is…?"
Aoi glanced on, worried.
"It's fine," Rei Ao said evenly, calming her. One person summoning two Servants—both highly compatible with Rin—was unexpected, but not outside his predictions.
Meanwhile, answering the call tied to the petrifying sigil, another figure appeared in a second summoning circle: tall, voluptuous, radiating a quiet, dangerous air. She wore her luxurious purple hair past her knees; a visor—the Mystic Eyes Killer—covered her eyes. A skintight black outfit and over-knee boots traced a breathtaking, sinuous silhouette.
She was Medusa, the youngest Gorgon sister of Greek myth—an Anti-Heroic Spirit. Upon appearing, she simply stood there, tilting her head as if to "look" toward her Master, Sakura Tohsaka, sensing a kindred reserve in the girl's bearing. She said nothing—her silence a stark counterpoint to the chaos inside Rin.
"Enough," Rei Ao said with a slight frown, watching Ishtar and Ereshkigal hurling barbs while using Rin's body. He stepped forward and, under the astonished gazes of both goddesses—each wearing a mature form unlike Rin's—lifted his hand and gently cupped Rin's cheeks.
Then, before everyone—Aoi with eyes wide, Sakura covering her mouth, and Medusa quietly "watching"—Rei Ao leaned down and kissed her.
No—more precisely, through the kiss he poured into her a tide of mana so vast it beggared belief, so pure it surpassed the very concepts of this world. The power split cleanly in two, surging into the core of Ishtar's and Ereshkigal's consciousnesses.
A deep hum rang out as that oceanic, root-pure mana flooded Rin's body—so immense, so pristine it was far beyond the grasp of ordinary magi or even Servants; nobler and nearer the Root than the divine power they'd once wielded as goddesses.
With that unbelievable power supporting them, the two spiritual foundations—cramped and mutually repellent from sharing one vessel—were as though injected with the strongest possible "separator" and stabilizer. They quaked, reshaped—
Light burst from Rin again—this time, the light of separation.
A golden radiance and a violet-black radiance shot out of her, coalescing at her left and right.
On the left, the gold faded: still the black-haired, twin-tailed, boldly dressed Ishtar—but now in a fully independent, solid Servant body. She sensed the vast mana within her—stamped with Rei Ao's presence—and the body completely under her own control; disbelief flashed across her face.
On the right, the violet-black dimmed, revealing a stunning blonde goddess adorned with golden ornaments—the queen of the underworld, Ereshkigal. She too felt her independent existence and that colossal mana, her eyes full of shock and wonder.
Both goddesses turned almost in unison to stare at Rei Ao, whose expression remained as placid as still water.
"Y-you… just who are you?!" Ishtar couldn't help exclaiming. That magnitude of power made even a goddess's heart tremble—and… crave? No, more than anything, it inspired awe.
Ereshkigal said nothing, but her tightly pressed lips and flickering gaze betrayed the turbulence within. To grant them, so easily, the immense mana needed for separate, stable existence—this man's level was far beyond anything they'd imagined.
Only then did Rin snap back from that sudden kiss. Her face blazed scarlet like a ripe apple, steam practically rising from her head. She clapped a hand over her lips, eyes flustered, her heart pounding as if it might leap from her chest. Along with the surge of power had come a cool, reassuring sensation that defied words…
So embarrassing!