Under the darkened sky, corpses piled into mountains, rivers of blood flowing between them.
A breathtakingly beautiful woman with long purple hair stood in the sea of corpses and blood, a long blade in hand. Endless thunderous power was radiating from the scabbard at her side.
The rift-born monsters on the planet were drawn by the smell of blood and swarmed toward the battlefield.
The six surviving parasites howled to the sky, and their kin on the other side of the wormhole heard the call, leaping out one after another, shoulder to shoulder.
"System, why hasn't that wormhole closed yet!" Emiya's voice was full of anger.
[The host entered the wormhole while holding the Sword of Promised Victory at full power, causing large-scale collapse of the wormhole...]
According to the system, after the wormhole collapsed, rifts tore through time and space. It was through those rifts that Acheron leapt in pursuit and arrived here.
The parasites, sensing Acheron's aura, also followed the rift to hunt her down.
Since Emiya had nearly exhausted all the system's hard-earned energy during the use of the MAX energy card earlier, the system could not actively shut the wormhole.
It could only wait for the wormhole to slowly close on its own.
"Roar!" Howls and bellows rose one after another.
The number of monsters seemed endless. No matter how fast Acheron killed, they poured in faster. Before long, the battlefield was surrounded and packed so tightly it was suffocating.
Not long ago, Acheron had unleashed all her power to destroy her homeland and Takamagahara. Exhausted, she could no longer hold on. Her speed slowed, and monster attacks began grazing her.
Emiya watched Acheron get swatted into the sky like a ball, only to be smacked back down by monsters above.
His brow furrowed deeply. At last, he opened his own starter pack, there was still one last card left, six thousand units of energy.
[Warning, once the starter pack is exhausted, the host will have no way to face crises for the foreseeable future!] The system's voice was sharper than ever.
"Since all this is my fault, then I must take responsibility." Ignoring the system's warning, Emiya's finger firmly tapped the six-thousand energy card.
At the same moment, sudden change erupted on the battlefield.
Acheron swept aside her weariness. The void-born energy within her exploded outward. Within a hundred miles, every monster was obliterated.
"I grieve for the departed, weeping as rain. Tears swell to fill the crossing river, surging like the tide, to guide you home..."
As the chant of annihilation sounded, Acheron's purple hair turned white in an instant. Her whole body drained into black and white.
Only the blood-red tears falling from her eyes, her right hand, and the blade sliding from its scabbard burned a blinding crimson.
The power was too immense for her to control. The time between her last two liberations of true strength had been far too short.
The moment the long blade fully slid free from its scabbard, Acheron's body began to collapse with it.
'So what? I should have been destroyed with Izumo long ago.'
With no regrets, Acheron closed her eyes, no longer looking at this world of suffering. Gathering all her strength into her blade, she prepared to shatter this planet along with herself.
Suddenly, a deep male voice chanting in an unknown language resounded across the battlefield. Even Acheron's aura faltered for a beat.
"I am the bone of my sword. This body is made of blades..."
"Yet what remains is only emptiness. Thus, this life has no meaning. This body is destined to be born as a sword!"
When the voice fell, Acheron found herself in an endless wasteland. All around her stretched nameless sword graves beyond counting.
On the horizon, sparks scattered across the sky, and enormous gears turned slowly.
In a daze, Acheron felt the scene overlap with Izumo before its destruction.
She was alone, standing at the graveyard of the world. Only endless desolation and despair remained, everything finally dissolving into nothingness.
"Roar!" The howls of monsters broke her thoughts.
At the edge of her vision stood a tall, broad man with white hair, silently battling, the radiant Holy Sword in his hands cleaving without pause.
In only a few breaths, the countless powerful monsters were cut down like weeds and obliterated in the light. Then the world returned once more to that desolate, corpse-strewn planet.
"You... who are you?" Acheron's voice trembled.
"Who I am doesn't matter." Emiya ignored her, sheathing the Excalibur.
He called upon the system, converting the last of his mana into system energy to close the wormhole.
Once it was done, Emiya's body went weak, nearly collapsing.
He could no longer remember how long it had been since he last rested. He had thought he was still like when he worked under Alaya, a body that never felt fatigue.
"Who exactly are you!" Acheron raised her blade and pointed at him, questioning once more.
"Your homeland has only you left. If you die, then they will vanish forever." Emiya answered with another question.
"I don't have time for riddles!" Acheron knew her days were numbered.
She wasted no more words and charged at Emiya, intending to defeat him first and question him later.
Yet Acheron herself hadn't realized, in front of this man, she actually felt a sense of safety. Her willpower, which she had been forcefully holding up, slackened.
In an instant her body succumbed to exhaustion, and her consciousness blacked out completely.
"Sigh... You fainting like this makes things hard for me!" Emiya shook his head helplessly.
Step by heavy step, he lifted Acheron onto his shoulder and hobbled back toward the underground chamber where he had hidden earlier.
[Notice, host has triggered a permanent mission, Save Acheron. Assist Acheron in slaying the Nihility Aeon]
'Hah? What kind of twisted logic is that?' Emiya felt his head was about to crash. This system had just been trying to stop him from interfering, and now it suddenly issues a permanent mission.
'I refuse this mission.' Without hesitation, caring nothing for rewards, Emiya flatly refused. He hadn't saved Acheron to start some star-crossed romance with her.
[Refusal invalid. This mission was forcibly triggered by the host himself]
For some reason, Emiya felt a trace of schadenfreude in the system's usually cold, mechanical voice.
[First phase mission complete. Reward issued: Guardian Decree Blade, and a temporary method to resist void corruption.]
Looking at the Guardian Decree Blade that had directly dropped into his hands, Emiya, normally proud of his composure, felt ten thousand wild horses trampling through his chest.
Luckily, heaven never truly cuts off all paths. From the system's method of temporarily resisting void corruption, Emiya glimpsed a faint chance.
Acheron dreamed. In her dream she walked alone in boundless darkness, with only coldness and solitude keeping her company.
No one knew how many ages passed. Just as her soul was about to collapse and fall into nothingness, a warm spring welled up, nourishing her body, warming her soul.
With that warmth came blurry fragments of memory.
A boy lifted by large, gentle hands in burning ruins, the belief of a partner of justice taking root in his heart; the legendary King Arthur and the all-granting wish machine; the power bestowed by Alaya, and the pitiful final fate of a partner of justice.
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