It was finally over.
That damn Merlin. Shirou was definitely going to complain to him later...
"Mmm...~"
Hearing the sound, Shirou looked down. The woman with demonic beast horns, the humanoid mind of the Goddess Tiamat, was frowning deeply as though trapped in a nightmare.
Keeping her in his arms the entire time probably would have been best, but after spending several hours falling from the Underworld to the very bottom of the Abyss, even Shirou could not help feeling exhausted.
So for now, he was sitting down to rest, with Tiamat's head on his lap as he gently stroked her hair.
Tiamat had remained asleep ever since.
She had certainly been through a great deal. She had spent hundreds of thousands of years alone in the empty Sea of Imaginary Numbers.
Filled with joy at finally being able to return to the surface, only to be greeted by the rebellion of the children she loved.
Both her body and her heart had probably reached their limits.
Tiamat was the Goddess of Creation, the mother of all life.
A mother could not act spoiled around her children, so there would never be anyone to comfort her in return.
Yet Tiamat had worked so hard and received no reward from anyone at all. Wasn't that terribly unfair?
There was nothing Shirou hated more than seeing someone's efforts go unrewarded.
Morgan, Artoria, the Tohsaka sisters...
From the bottom of his heart, Shirou wanted all of them to find happiness.
The same was true for Tiamat.
If there was no one else who could bless her, then he would do it himself.
Shirou would become someone capable of giving Tiamat the happiness she deserved.
"Old man... so scary... Sniff, please stop bullying Mother..."
As he stroked her head and hair, her pained expression gradually softened into a smile.
"Shirou... did you come to protect Mother...? I'm so happy..."
Give me a break. I don't want to make an enemy of that old man either.
Shirou smiled wryly and looked around.
On the Mesopotamian plains of the Age of Gods, the world of the dead was physically connected to the surface.
After humans died, their souls left their bodies and entered the Underworld, where Ereshkigal took them in and kept them.
And beneath that realm of the dead lay an even deeper Abyss.
The Abyss was the Sea of Nothingness, the Sea of Dawn that had existed before life itself was born.
According to the creation myths passed down by humanity, the gods Apsu and Tiamat emerged from that dark sea and created the world of Mesopotamia.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes had also entered the Abyss and found the herb of immortality there.
However, back then, the god Enki still governed the Abyss.
Now, the Abyss had become a realm unknown even to the gods.
How much time had passed since then?
There was no concept of flowing time within the Abyss. Even Shirou, who now possessed All Divinity, could not tell.
Just as Shirou began to wonder whether Mother might sleep forever, Tiamat's eyes slowly opened.
Sleeping Beauty had awakened.
"Mmm... Where is this...? Shirou... where are you?"
"Good morning, Mother. I'm right here."
"Why am I lying on Shirou's lap?"
Having only just awakened, the Goddess Tiamat's thoughts were still muddled, and she blinked repeatedly.
"Ah!"
The Goddess of Creation suddenly cried out, her Star Eyes widening.
"What's wrong?"
"A lap pillow... I wanted to give Shirou one, but you beat me to it!!"
Tiamat looked as though the world were ending. Shirou's mouth twitched.
"...Does something like that really matter?"
"Of course it matters..."
Tiamat's cheeks turned bright red as she bit her lower lip in grievance.
"Shirou, you're so unfair... You naughty child, stealing Mother's fun."
"Isn't that a little harsh? Fine, then. Should I lie on Mother's lap?"
"...Can I?"
"Why wouldn't you be able to?"
And so, Shirou rested his head on Tiamat's lap.
A wonderfully soft sensation pressed against the back of his head.
And directly before his eyes, from this angle, was a full view of the generous snow white curves above him.
"Hehehe..."
Tiamat looked utterly delighted as she gently stroked Shirou's head.
"I'm Mother, hehe... Shirou, what a good boy."
"As long as you're happy."
"Mm. I'm happy."
Shirou felt somewhat helpless about the whole thing, but he had to admit that Tiamat's lap was extremely comfortable...
This was bad. He was getting sleepy!
Even before entering the Underworld, Shirou had already gone several days without sleep.
Even in his current Divine Spirit body, he still possessed the three basic desires.
He could not fall asleep yet. There was something important he needed to make clear to her first...
While fighting off his drowsiness, Shirou nervously tried to arrange the words in his mind.
Then a warm drop of liquid fell onto his face.
"?"
Shirou opened his eyes in surprise and saw that Tiamat was crying as she stroked his head.
"Wh-what happened, Mother?"
Shirou noticed that although tears were falling from her eyes, her emotions had not gone out of control.
Tiamat murmured softly.
"I gave birth to countless lives, and countless lives loved me. But all of my children used me as a stepping stone and went far away."
"I wanted to keep loving them forever. I wanted to remain by their side forever."
"Was my love... wrong?"
Tiamat looked into Shirou's eyes as she asked.
After a brief silence, the boy answered calmly.
"I think... it definitely wasn't wrong."
"You naughty little liar."
Tiamat smiled happily.
"Shirou really is kind... You went this far just to answer my love."
"That's..."
"But it must still be wrong."
Tiamat spoke with a slightly sorrowful expression.
"Gilgamesh was right. Children have to leave their mothers someday..."
Tiamat placed a hand on Shirou's chest.
"Don't stay behind for my sake. Don't love me any more than you already do..."
"Shirou, even if you stay with me, you won't be able to find happiness..."
"So... go back to where you belong."
She intended to use the Authority of a Creator God to send Shirou back to his original time and space.
She alone was enough to bear exile in this world of nothingness.
Shirou was her most beloved child. Precisely because she loved him so much, she could not let him remain in this empty world with her.
"Shirou, Mother is truly happy that you came all the way to a place like this with me..."
Tears continued to stream down Tiamat's face.
"So happy... I've never been this happy before... Ah, I'm so happy..."
"Thank you. Truly, thank you... This is enough. You've already done more than enough for Mother..."
Compared with the unimaginably long life of the Goddess of Creation, the time she had spent with Shirou was painfully brief.
Yet the happiness and joy she had received in that short time were already enough to sustain Tiamat until the next era.
As long as she knew that Shirou would leave her and continue living well somewhere on some planet, Tiamat felt she could endure any amount of loneliness.
Light began to shine from her hand.
The Authority known as Counter-Summoning belonged to the King of the Demon Gods. Mother knew nothing of Magecraft, but by using the Authority of the Beast, she could achieve something similar.
She would send Shirou back to his own era.
"...?"
Tiamat looked down in confusion at the hand Shirou had suddenly grasped.
"What is it, Shirou? Please don't interfere with Mother."
"Actually... there's something important I want to show you."
"What?"
Tiamat blinked.
She noticed that Shirou's cheeks were red.
His usual sulky expression was already wonderful, but the face he was making now was simply too adorable. She wanted to pull him into her arms... No! Right now she had to send Shirou back to the future!
Avoiding Tiamat's gaze, Shirou pulled something from his clothes.
It was something he had completed at the Uruk Armory one week before the final battle.
"Th-this... is for you... Mother. If you don't mind, please accept it..."
"...This is..."
Tiamat's Star Eyes widened as she drew in a sharp breath.
It was a platinum ring, sized perfectly to fit her finger.
This was the gift Shirou wanted to give Tiamat.
More precisely, it represented the reason he had planned out before the final battle, a reason that would allow him to remain by Tiamat's side.
Children would one day leave their mothers. That was an unavoidable law of nature.
As long as Shirou continued to stand before Tiamat as her child, as a human, he would never be able to end the goddess's loneliness.
There was too little a child could truly do for a mother.
There was too little a human could truly do for a goddess.
As he was now, Shirou could not make Tiamat happy.
And so, Shirou had become a vessel that continuously gathered Divinity, eventually turning himself into a transcendent existence capable of standing alongside the Goddess of Creation.
Shirou Amamiya would become Tiamat's partner.
That was his answer.
Shirou had told no one about this idea. He had quietly prepared for the second proposal of his life.
For the ring, Shirou had chosen platinum.
He had heard that platinum symbolized eternity, which made it a perfect match for the Goddess of Creation who possessed eternal life.
Shirou had saved some money by taking commissions from the citizens of Uruk, then traded silver coins to a merchant for platinum.
While helping out at the Uruk Armory, he secretly forged the platinum ring.
But there was still one problem.
The custom of wedding rings had first arisen during the Greco-Roman era. As the Goddess of Creation from Mesopotamia, an even more ancient civilization, would Tiamat understand the deeper meaning behind his gesture?
Damn it! After all that work, was he the only one getting emotional over this...?
Apparently not.
Shirou stole a glance at Tiamat and saw her cheeks turning bright red.
After acquiring the Beast Spirit Origin, she had also gained the relevant common knowledge.
Tiamat remained frozen for quite some time before suddenly snapping back to reality. Realization dawned on her face, and she spoke in a trembling voice.
"Shirou... this is for me... isn't it? Even though I'm Mother... is it really all right?"
The Goddess of Creation sounded completely at a loss.
"...Why wouldn't it be?"
Shirou's expression was tense.
Although this was already his second proposal, he was still incredibly nervous.
He had originally planned to brush the whole thing off as a gift from a child to his mother if necessary, but Tiamat had understood the meaning contained in the ring perfectly.
Now Shirou could never take it back, even if he wanted to.
"I am the Beast of Calamity... I destroyed Uruk with my own hands..."
"Uruk wasn't destroyed. It still survives."
"Everyone is afraid of Mother... I'm sure I'll cause Shirou a lot of trouble..."
"Humans may fear you, but they love you as well. I feel the same way."
"So many people... so many people died because of my selfishness..."
"Then we'll atone for it together."
Tiamat fell silent for a while before raising her vulnerable, tearful face.
"...Is it really all right?"
"...What do you mean?"
"A goddess as sinful as me... Even if I join myself with you... Even if I become happy... is that really allowed? Will I be forgiven?"
"I'm supposed to be everyone's mother, yet I selfishly wish to become Shirou's partner... This greedy, shameless wish... Will everyone forgive me for it...?"
In the end, the people Tiamat cared about most were still her children.
Having been exiled by humanity to the Sea of Imaginary Numbers, she naturally believed that she was absolutely forbidden from finding happiness.
Otherwise, she would be going against her children's wishes.
Shirou spoke solemnly.
"Everyone, no matter who they are, has the right to be happy."
"Whether they're the Goddess of Creation or the Beast of Calamity, that doesn't change."
"More than that, Mother, you gave everything you had for the future of the planet and humanity."
"If even someone like you isn't allowed to be happy, then I refuse to accept it."
"Something like that absolutely cannot be true, and it never should be."
Shirou placed both hands on the Goddess of Creation's shoulders and gazed into her Star Eyes.
"I'm standing here because I want to show you a kind of happiness that has nothing to do with being a mother."
"And I think everyone in Uruk would smile and give Mother and me their blessing."
After saying that, Shirou took Tiamat's hand and slipped the ring onto her finger without waiting any longer.
"If you still don't want this, just say so."
"I-I don't not want it...!!"
Tiamat hurriedly shook her head, then watched nervously as the platinum ring slowly slid onto her left ring finger.
"..."
The Goddess of Creation held her ring adorned left hand against her chest and clasped it tightly with her right, cherishing it as though it were the most precious treasure in existence.
Watching her, Shirou suddenly felt embarrassed. He scratched his cheek.
"How does it feel to receive a gift from your child for the first time?"
"I'm so happy... truly, so happy..."
"This is the first time I've ever received a gift filled with so much thought and feeling... Thank you so much, Shirou."
"I'll treasure it for the rest of my life... This means Shirou and I are husband and wife now..."
Tiamat's cheeks reddened as she murmured happily.
"From now on, Shirou is Mother's husband. Hehe."
"..."
That made them husband and wife in truth.
It was embarrassing, but when Shirou saw the smile on Tiamat's face, he felt that every bit of resolve that had brought him this far had been worth it.
Shirou pulled Tiamat into his arms.
This time, not as her child, but as her husband.
He held the goddess tightly against his chest.
"...I love you. I love you more than anything."
Tiamat rested against the boy's shoulder, her cheeks flushed as she whispered.
"I may be Mother, but from now on, I'm Shirou's wife too... I'll work very hard to be a good one."
As she said this, she smiled again.
It was not the radiant smile of a goddess.
It was the shy smile of an ordinary young girl, the kind that could be found anywhere.
Hearing those words, Shirou lowered his head and met her gaze, her eyes reflecting the Inner Sea of the Planet.
Tiamat gazed back into Shirou's twilight colored eyes.
Then, as though they had agreed without saying a word, they slowly drew closer.
Their hair brushed together.
Their eyes closed.
Then their lips met.
There was a trace of hesitation in the kiss. It was gentle and careful.
Their breaths mingled, conveying feelings that words could never fully express. A sweet numbness spread through them, filling their hearts with happiness.
Within this eternally still Abyss, time lost all meaning.
All that remained was the warmth of their embrace and their intermingled breaths.
After a while, their lips parted, and they gazed into each other's faces.
Tiamat's cheeks were already burning red.
"Mother's first kiss was taken by Shirou... I'm so happy."
"All of Tia's firsts belong to me."
"Mm! From now on, I'll give you many, many more of my firsts ♡♡♡"
And so, the boy and the Goddess of Creation became husband and wife in truth.
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