In his ultra-high-speed state, passing through the massive gate standing in the temple was the work of an instant.
After a journey that felt both incredibly long and incredibly short, Takumi stepped out of the gateway and arrived at the core of the Grand Temple of Time: the base of the Demon God King's throne.
Unlike the cosmic backdrop outside, the environment here resembled a bright, clear day, albeit without a sun. Beneath his feet lay a smooth, grassy plain. Straight ahead, atop a long flight of stairs, sat a throne made of pristine white jade, radiating terrifying magical energy. Hovering silently above the throne, serving as an apocalyptic backdrop, was the immaculate ring of light.
The moment he entered this space, it felt like stepping into a soundproof room. The blaring music and the chaotic sounds of battle from outside were instantly muffled by ninety percent.
Almost subconsciously, Takumi ran another diagnostic check on his condition.
—Even though he had been continuously adjusting and checking everything from the moment he left Chaldea.
Mana circulation: Perfect. Heart of Fire combustion state: Perfect. Miracles and Connections: Stable. Stamina distribution: Optimal. Physical feedback: Excellent.
Like a normal student rapidly reviewing everything they studied right before a massive exam, Takumi went through his checklist. After tightening his grip on the flag and his sword, he finally raised his head to look at the entity sitting upon the Demon God King's throne.
Goetia.
He looked exactly as he had during their brief encounter in the Fourth Singularity. He wore the face of King Solomon, but twisted with a far more sinister, malevolent aura.
However, the face and presence that had once brought him endless, paralyzing fear... could no longer create even a single ripple in Takumi's calm heart.
"So you have arrived, Foreigner."
Goetia didn't stand up. He simply looked down at the youth with a strange gaze, his ethereal, echoing voice filling the space.
He didn't address him as the "Master of Chaldea." Clearly, in his eyes, the title of "Foreigner" was far more significant.
"...That's right. I'm here."
Not entirely sure what to say in response, Takumi paused for a moment before answering.
"But you shouldn't have come, Foreigner."
Takumi: "..."
If he couldn't vividly sense Goetia's genuine confusion through the Heart of Fire—that the Beast truly wished he had just stayed put in Chaldea—he would have thought Goetia was trying to recreate a classic movie trope.
Goetia didn't understand the bizarre thoughts running through Takumi's head. His confusion was completely sincere.
"I truly do not understand. If a normal human had stumbled into this domain, I could simply despise their inherent ugliness, their greed, and their arrogant delusion that humanity should continue to 'rule' this planet!"
"——But why? Why did you, a Foreigner with no ties to this world, insist on standing before me?"
Goetia frowned, unable to comprehend why Takumi was here.
Yeah. Why am I here?
Takumi subconsciously asked himself.
"The purpose of the band of light is the final settlement of ancient Human History. Its purpose is to reach a superior truth. This is a fact any Heroic Spirit inherently understands the moment they manifest within this temple... Though, I suppose that hardly matters anymore. Every single Heroic Spirit fighting outside is only here because they answered your summons. Even though their arrival is completely meaningless, they still crossed space and time to be here."
As Beast I, he could naturally see the true reason the Servants had arrived. But that was exactly why he couldn't figure it out.
"If you do not comprehend the grand, majestic undertaking I am attempting, and my brief explanation was insufficient, I can phrase it in a way that is easier for you to understand—"
"What I am doing is fundamentally eradicating the original sin of humanity! I am creating a superior, completely flawless 'New World'!"
"I despise humanity, so humans will not exist in this 'New World'—but you are different! Although you take the form of a human, your nature as a Foreigner is enough for me to grant you a seat in the 'New World'... No, even if I didn't offer you a place, with your current existence, you are more than capable of surviving the convergence of the light band and arriving at the 'New World' entirely on your own, aren't you?"
Having deduced this fact, Goetia was even more bewildered.
Why fight a battle you didn't have to fight, to protect a world that wasn't yours?
But under Goetia's intense scrutiny, Takumi smiled.
"Haha."
Seeing the sheer, unadulterated confusion on Goetia's face and hearing it in his voice, Takumi snapped out of his own thoughts. He closed his eyes briefly and let out a soft laugh.
It wasn't a mocking laugh, nor was he laughing at Goetia's expense. It was a natural, completely relaxed chuckle, as if a heavy weight had finally been lifted from his shoulders.
"...I finally understand. I finally get why, when it comes down to a moment like this, people always feel the need to say some 'trash talk' before they fight."
Takumi exhaled deeply. He twirled his sword casually, looking up at Goetia with a completely relaxed expression. The brilliant flames burning in his eyes settled into a calm, steady glow.
Goetia: "???"
To Takumi, this whole journey felt like it had passed in the blink of an eye.
Before he knew it, he was standing face-to-face with the ultimate hypothetical enemy he had been hyper-fixated on since day one. Just moments ago, he had finally witnessed the "Meteor Shower of the Extreme Heavens" he had been waiting for. Seeing so many familiar Servants arrive one after another under the constant adrenaline rush had left him—still just a teenager at heart—feeling like he was in a surreal dream.
It was to the point where he had almost forgotten why he was fighting Goetia in the first place. He had stopped thinking about the deeper reasons, treating it like he was fighting Goetia simply because Goetia was the final boss he had to fight...
Just as Goetia pointed out, Takumi was now fully capable of bypassing the "Great Light Ring's" incineration. Even if the surface of the Earth was wiped clean and the planet was completely reshaped, he could stand there unharmed, perfectly safe in Goetia's "superior truth."
Because of that, Takumi couldn't even copy Fujimaru Ritsuka's iconic answer: "Because I want to live."
—But then again, who ever said Takumi had to copy that answer?
He had already seen the "Meteor Shower" he wanted to see more than anything else. Did he really need to explain what his second biggest motivation was?
"The answer is actually really simple. Because I am an incredibly selfish, incredibly vain person."
Meeting Goetia's confused gaze, Takumi spoke seriously, though a smile still played on his lips.
"Selfish? Vain? Are you mocking me? Or is this some kind of joke?"
The Demon God King furrowed his brow.
Having actively monitored Takumi throughout his journey, Goetia absolutely refused to believe those two words accurately described the youth.
"Why would I be joking? I want the Heroic Spirits who helped me, the people I trust, to always be somewhere I can see them. I want to be able to hang out with them whenever I want, chat with them, eat with them... That's my selfishness."
"Then I will grant those Heroic Spirits a place in the New World as well!"
"——But some of them wouldn't want that, would they?"
Before Goetia even finished his sentence, Takumi cut him off with a calm, undeniable counter-question.
What exactly do you want?! Isn't that the perfect compromise?!
Goetia was starting to get angry.
Takumi shook his head. "My selfishness includes respecting their selfish desires. Since some of them wouldn't agree to your New World, I won't agree to it either."
Goetia was left speechless.
"As for being 'vain,' that's even simpler."
Takumi tapped his chest, flashing a wide, toothy grin.
"I want to be a 'Hero'! After all this is over, I want to hear them praise me from the bottom of their hearts! When they think of me, I want them to feel incredibly proud that they fought by my side!"
His [Heart of Fire] burned fiercely. His fiery pupils blazed.
As he spoke, the [Miracle] began to manifest.
Compared to the miracle forged by a hundred thousand souls in Uruk, there were barely a hundred Servants outside right now. The resulting miracle was naturally significantly weaker, but...
[Miracle Buff Acquired: The Blessing of the "Stars"!]
Dozens of tiny, brilliant points of light materialized around Takumi, orbiting his body like miniature blue comets, radiating a mesmerizing starlight.
"And besides all that, there's one more really important reason!"
Surrounded by the orbiting "stars," Takumi tapped his Silver Arm.
"——I still haven't made you pay for the injury you gave me right here!"
Takumi locked his eyes onto Goetia, his gaze turning incredibly sharp.
Hearing an answer that sounded far more fitting for an Avenger, Goetia finally understood.
This wasn't selfishness or vanity. This was pure, unadulterated willfulness!
An extreme, absolute stubbornness that surpassed even his own "willfulness" as Beast I!
"Heh... So, as long as one possesses the form of a human, regardless of what they truly are, they can never truly shed the inherent, pathetic flaws of humanity?"
"How embarrassing. How utterly disgraceful! To think even I was momentarily deceived by your empty exterior, briefly forgetting that all humans are nothing but trash with rotting brains!"
Goetia laughed out of sheer anger, his expression twisting into a ferocious sneer.
"Of course the world isn't perfect. The malice between people won't magically disappear. But aren't you just as empty? Have you ever actually tried to understand humanity?"
Takumi stared right back, throwing the question at the "Beast of Pity" who had never truly comprehended the humans he sought to save.
Sometimes, the state of the world depends entirely on how you choose to look at it. If you never actively look for the beauty in the world, how could you ever find it beautiful?
"A ridiculous joke! A mere human dares to arrogantly assume they can lecture me on understanding?!"
Goetia scoffed with absolute disdain.
"Words are utterly wasted on someone with a head full of garbage. Therefore—Band of Light! Illuminate the Throne!"
Tired of talking, Goetia immediately moved to activate his Noble Phantasm and reveal his true, apocalyptic form.
However...
'Perfect. That's exactly what I was thinking—!'
Goetia: "?!"
Reflected in Goetia's eyes—which hadn't even had time to widen in surprise—a pristine, flawlessly clear sword blade was already sinking deep into the chest of his Solomon vessel.
The blade slid through the flesh without encountering the slightest resistance.
Ever since he first arrived in Chaldea, Takumi had constantly imagined how he would fight Goetia. He had obsessed over what methods he would use, endlessly calculating scenarios, waking up in cold sweats from simulated defeats, continuously pushing himself to evolve into a form capable of securing victory...
But now, as he actually buried the [Sword of the Heart] into Goetia's body, Takumi suddenly realized something:
'He's so slow... he's so weak...'
Unrivaled, god-like speed. A conceptual Noble Phantasm that required no chanting, no setup, moving entirely according to his will, capable of unleashing maximum output with barely a microsecond of charge. Swordsmanship that had surpassed the realm of gods through sheer speed. The absolute blessing of the "Stars"...
Facing a customized skillset and Noble Phantasm loadout perfectly tailored to Takumi's hyper-aggressive combat style, Takumi's speed had reached a level Goetia literally couldn't react to!
Right now, in Takumi's "eyes," Goetia was essentially standing perfectly still, like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
Without a shred of mercy, Takumi swung his sword. The blade carved out incredibly sharp, rapid angles. Often, the exact microsecond the tip of the sword exited the flesh on one side, the same blade was already carving into the body from an entirely different direction. Before one sword form even finished, several arcs of light from entirely different trajectories were already raining down upon the rapidly disintegrating body before him.
VMMMM—
There was no howling wind, no massive explosions, no flashy light pollution. Even the sound of the strikes had been compressed into a single, dense, high-pitched hum.
After delivering the final strike, Takumi allowed his momentum to carry him several steps backward.
Under that relentless barrage of god-speed, guaranteed-kill strikes, the figure that had just stood up from the throne instantly collapsed into a pile of minced, unrecognizable meat the moment Takumi stepped away.
Goetia—Insta-killed!
But looking at the pile of flesh that didn't bleed a single drop of blood, Takumi didn't drop his guard. He kept his peripheral vision locked on every possible angle of attack.
At the end of the day, his [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception] were still a step too low. They couldn't permanently execute Goetia, whose Immortality within the Time Temple was arguably even more absurd than Tiamat's.
In other words, the fight was far from over.
BOOOOOOM——!!!
A deafening roar erupted from beneath the Demon God King's throne. In just two or three seconds, the previously clear, bright space was completely swallowed by a gloomy, oppressive storm of red and black light. The massive tentacles of Demon God Pillars surged upward, completely encasing the throne.
Takumi effortlessly dodged the resulting shockwaves, his eyes fixed on a terrifying, dark-red sphere of magical energy materializing in the distance.
The next second.
A colossal humanoid figure stepped out of the light.
It possessed a massive, burning crown that resembled a withered, twisted tree. Its body was vaguely humanoid, with golden limbs and a stark white torso. Its chest was split open, revealing a gigantic, grotesque eye clamped between jagged teeth...
This was the true, apocalyptic form of Beast I—the Demon God King, Goetia!
It should have been an incredibly intimidating, majestic entrance, a grand display meant to announce his absolute presence to every Servant fighting outside. Yet, at this moment, Goetia's mind was consumed entirely by absolute shock. His glowing red eye remained dead-locked onto Takumi.
'How is that possible?! How did he manage to hit me?! Did he use some kind of special technique or Noble Phantasm?! Or is there something fundamentally wrong with that sword?! I didn't even have time to react?!'
A moment ago, Goetia had only felt a terrifying, paralyzing sense of threat shoot straight to his brain. Then, his vision blurred, he felt a flash of pain, and his entire existence as a Beast was violently ripped out of Solomon's physical vessel—
In that single instant, facing an attack that felt like it was going to literally sever and kill everything in creation, he had genuinely, truly felt the paralyzing terror of impending "Death"!
It was a feeling he had never once experienced while residing in Solomon's body, nor had he felt it since becoming a Beast!
'No, no! That's impossible! How could a mere human possess such terrifying power?! How could he possibly make ME feel the threat of death?! It must be because the physical parameters of the vessel I was using were too low, causing my perception to lag...!'
Goetia shook his massive head, violently tossing the "illusion" aside. But he didn't take his eyes off Takumi for a single second.
His rationalization wasn't entirely without merit.
Compared to Solomon's physical vessel, his current Demon God King form possessed an offensive output and baseline parameters that vastly eclipsed the Grand class. While some people liked to compare him to a copy of Solomon, assuming he only possessed power equal to a Grand Caster...
The truth was, in this specific form, his specs were astronomically higher than Solomon manifesting as a Grand. If Solomon didn't detonate his First Noble Phantasm, Goetia could easily crush a Grand Solomon in a direct fight—after all, everything Solomon had, Goetia had, and Goetia had plenty of things Solomon didn't!
But before he could even utter a single threat or boast, Takumi, who had been standing perfectly still in his line of sight, suddenly vanished.
Demon God King Goetia: "?!"
By the time he realized what was happening, it was already too late.
VMMMM—!
An entirely unobservable flurry of god-speed sword light began ruthlessly, violently shredding the Beast's colossal body—a body supposedly durable enough to crush a normal Servant with a single punch.
Demon God King Goetia—"Dismantled"!