One hour earlier, at the center of the Fairy Domain "Wandersnatch."
"You... you really won't kill me?"
The Werewolf boy, Beowulf, lay trembling on the ground, looking up at the red-haired boy in terror.
Shirou reached out to him and said with a smile, "Really. Touko asked me to look after you. She said that if I met you, I should try to get along with you."
What part of that was "getting along" just now!?
Beowulf screamed inwardly, though he did not dare say it out loud.
As a perfect Gold Wolf, he had just suffered his first defeat in battle and experienced fear for the first time in his life.
And it was not simply because Shirou had killed him nine times in an instant.
Beowulf was a lifeform, an Elemental, born from the planet and raised by Werewolves. As such, he possessed instincts far beyond those of ordinary humans.
At that moment, those instincts were sending a single fact straight to his brain.
Shirou had most likely slaughtered countless members of Beowulf's kind before.
If the boy known in some world as the "Fairy Slayer" truly wanted to kill him, it would be laughably easy.
"..."
And so, the wolf lowered his proud head.
Seeing that, Shirou took Beowulf's hand, pulled him up from the ground, and said happily, "Good. Now we're friends."
"Fr... friends?"
"Yeah. You don't want to?" Shirou asked.
Beowulf shook his head without thinking, but confusion rose in his heart.
They had been trying to kill each other only a minute ago. How could he say something like that so calmly?
Wait...
The Werewolf boy suddenly realized something.
Could this be what Touko was always talking about... "the composure of the strong"!?
Because he was strong, he did not need to care about worldly opinion or anyone else's feelings.
Beowulf's eyes went wide.
As a simple, completely free-spirited Werewolf, he had never cared about human good and evil, or whether humans and Werewolves were good or bad.
This beautiful Beast had nothing to do with the world around him. He simply looked down on every living creature other than himself.
The sole exception was his master, Touko Aozaki.
She gave him shiny things and tasty food, and her scent made the Werewolf feel comfortable.
Beowulf had only one standard for what he liked. Whether something was "cool" or "not cool."
Hobbies, appearance, gender, and the like had no place in the Gold Wolf's world.
In Beowulf's eyes, Touko Aozaki was very cool.
Something about her way of living and the way she spoke made him think she was "cool." Though she had all sorts of strange habits, to the Werewolf boy, she was a human with a pleasant scent.
And without a doubt, Shirou was also the kind of person who was very cool.
Not only was he absurdly strong, but even though he looked like a child, just like Beowulf, with an even more childish baby face, he carried a strangely mature, old-fashioned air.
Shirou is... No, maybe he's even cooler than Touko! That person can be really petty and narrow-minded sometimes!
If he had not returned to human form and were still in his Golden Beast form, the Werewolf boy would probably have been wagging his tail happily by now.
Fr... friends, huh... Being friends with a human doesn't sound so bad...
"Sh-Shirou! Are we friends?"
"Sure. Can I call you Beo?"
"Of course! Call me Beo!"
The Gold Wolf said this excitedly, looking just like a puppy rushing out to greet its owner coming home from work.
He grabbed Shirou's hand and ran up the mountain.
"Shirou, let's go! We'll kill the big sister in the thick fog, then get out of this hellhole together!"
Shirou: "..."
Beo: "...S-sorry. I was joking."
The Werewolf boy began telling Shirou about the situation inside the Fairy Domain.
Since last night, time and space had been looping over and over inside the thick fog.
Beowulf had tried to kill the witch in the fog countless times, but he still had not been able to break through it.
Just as the Nursery Rhyme hummed by Meinster described, this was a forest one could never leave after stepping inside.
"There should be some kind of 'rule' inside the Fairy Domain... Beo, do you know what the starting point of the time-space reset is?"
Shirou asked, "Even in an endless loop, there should be one or more things like switches. Something that sends time back to the beginning once it's triggered. Do you know what that is, Beo?"
"Reset? Starting point? Switch? What are you talking about, Shirou? I don't understand any of it."
Beowulf said this with an innocent look. "I've never touched any switches!
Back at a hotel, I messed with the switches and accidentally set off the fire alarm. Touko scolded me, and I haven't touched those things since!"
This is hopeless... Shirou sighed helplessly.
Seeing the red-haired boy look so deflated, Beowulf quickly said, "I think I remembered something!"
"What?" Shirou asked without much hope.
The Werewolf boy said, "Every time something weird happens, it seems to start after I kill the girl in the thick fog."
Shirou frowned.
So, just as he thought, time and space inside the "Fairy Domain" reset after the domain's master was killed?
The special rule behind the time-space reset was "death."
Simple and easy to understand, but extremely difficult to break.
If the domain's master was not eliminated, she would keep summoning monsters without end.
But if the domain's master was killed, time and space inside the domain would return to the beginning.
Then how exactly was he supposed to dispel the Fairy Domain?
The red-haired boy sank into thought.
"So, Shirou, did that help?"
"Yeah. It helped a lot."
Shirou praised him in the tone one used to coax a child, and the Werewolf boy broke into a delighted smile.
"Hehehehe~"
Shirou and Beowulf continued deeper into the forest.
Incidentally, while they explored the Fairy Domain, white monsters kept leaping out of the fog to attack them.
No matter how grotesque or bizarre those monsters looked, Beowulf easily killed them in an instant, swatting each one dead with a single paw.
If the Golden Beast's abilities were converted into Servant parameters, they would probably be something like "Endurance B," "Strength C," "Agility A," and "Mana EX." Even among the Three Knights, that would be considered quite impressive. Add an extremely high-ranked "Magic Resistance" on top of that...
Stat monsters really are convenient, Shirou thought.
If it were him, he would have to ignite his Magic Circuits every time he fought back. By the end of the day, he would probably be exhausted.
If Shirou had another five or six years to grow, he would probably be able to handle these enemies much more easily.
Assuming, of course, that he could safely leave Alice's "Fairy Domain."
"How much farther?"
"Almost there. If we go a little farther, we should be able to see that one."
"Good. Beo, you stay here. I'll go on ahead alone."
Shirou told the Werewolf boy to remain where he was and deal with the fog monsters, then continued deeper in by himself.
After walking through the thick fog for a while longer, Shirou finally saw the master of the "Fairy Domain."
"I was wondering why it was so quiet this time... So someone else came instead. Where did that noisy little dog run off to?"
It was Alice Kuonji, dressed in an exceptionally lavish Western-style outfit, giving off a dangerous aura that felt slightly different from her usual self.
No... was she really Alice Kuonji?
A bewitching smile played across the girl's face. Behind her, the white fog writhed restlessly, as if some indescribable monster were hiding within it.
"Good evening, Shirou-kun... I never thought you would come looking for me yourself. If that child knew, she would probably be rolling around on her bed in delight."
Yeah, she really isn't Alice.
At first glance, she looked exactly like Alice, but that dark, wicked aura was already spilling out completely.
Shirou began activating the Magic Circuits inside his body.
Perhaps sensing it, the witch curled her lips.
"Though as a counterfeit, I may not be in any position to comment... you really are exactly as the Alice in my memories remembers you.
The moment you realized I wasn't truly her, that merciless side of you came out.
Those eyes look like they're planning to butcher me until not even ash remains. Am I wrong?"
Shirou did not answer, but the "Blades of Chaos" projected into his hand did so for him.
"Before we start killing each other, allow me to introduce myself."
The girl said with a faint smile, "I am the deep consciousness of Alice Kuonji...
The Alter Ego that surfaced and gained a body when the Fairy Domain 'Wandersnatch' went out of control.
Another personality of Alice Kuonji."
"What's your goal?"
Shirou frowned. "Are you saying Alice Kuonji's subconscious is actually the one behind all of this?"
The girl with Alice Kuonji's appearance said, "How could that be? That child is very kind... Yes, even though she is a witch, she is terribly kind."
"It's precisely because she's too kind that she kept suppressing what was inside her, and that's how things ended up spiraling this far out of control."
"By 'out of control,' you mean you surfaced?"
"Yes. To put it simply... you can think of me as the evil personality of Alice Kuonji.
We are the same existence, yet also different existences.
Normally, Alice and I should have been able to coexist peacefully, but she kept trying to suppress me.
She kept saying things like, 'This isn't the Middle Ages anymore. A witch should properly follow the doctrines of modern society'... Don't you think that's absurd?
No matter how hard a witch tries, she can never truly blend into the human world. Our fundamental way of existing is different... Shirou-kun, you understand that too, don't you?"
Shirou: "..."
"So that child and I aren't on friendly terms. We've been enemies for a very long time.
For more than ten years, she kept me suppressed... but last night, her emotions slipped out of control, and I seized the opportunity.
Now that I've finally gained a physical form, of course I have no intention of handing control back to the original... What do you think I should do now?"
Shirou said in a low voice, "Turn against the world, against humanity... make Alice Kuonji feel so guilty that she can no longer maintain herself..."
"As expected of you, Shirou-kun! That's exactly the strategy I had in mind!"
The girl smiled wickedly. "That child Alice is shy and proper... so while she's asleep, I'll commit an unforgivable sin in her name, with her power.
For example, making the town she lives in vanish from the face of the earth.
If that happens, she'll be crushed by guilt and never be able to stay herself again, don't you think?"
"You really are evil through and through," Shirou said.
The girl nodded with a smile. "Am I? I think it's quite normal.
From a human perspective, it's evil. But from the moral standpoint of Witches and Magi, something on this level is hardly anything, right?
Don't worry. I'm not a demon... I have no intention of destroying the world.
I'm only going to make a town of a hundred thousand people disappear."
Unable to listen any longer, Shirou attacked.
He closed the distance to the girl at astonishing speed and swung the "Blades of Chaos" in his hand.
But at the instant it was about to strike, the girl vanished, then reappeared out of thin air ten meters away.
Before Shirou could attack again, white monsters leapt from the thick fog, swarming him from every direction, knocking him to the ground and burying him beneath them.
The white monsters piled up like something out of a zombie movie, forming a small hill with Shirou buried at the very bottom.
They opened their crimson maws and brandished their blood-red claws, frantically tearing into the boy pinned beneath them.
But in the next instant, that mound of monsters erupted like a volcano.
With flames soaring into the sky, white flesh and blood scattered in every direction.
Shirou stood unharmed at the center of the wreckage, gripping a massive crimson sword with a sci-fi design.
The witch in the thick fog sucked in a breath at the sight. "How is that possible...?"
Shirou said calmly, "...If you were Alice eight years from now, I'd already be dead.
But as you are now, you can't draw out the true power of 'Wandersnatch' at all.
If you can't even beat me, there's no way you can commit evil on that scale...
Make Misaki Town disappear? Before that happened, you'd get taken out by some Church personnel passing by."
"Ugh... shut up!"
The girl bit her red lip in frustration.
More grotesque monsters emerged from the thick fog.
Shirou swung the "Aegis," and the flames it unleashed swept the monsters away.
The witch, unwilling to back down, summoned more and more fog monsters.
But no matter how hard she tried, the monsters could not harm Shirou in the slightest.
The "Aegis" did not merely burn the monsters away.
The flames spilling from the enormous blade were gradually destroying the "Fairy Domain" itself.
If the battle continued like this, the witch would be the one to lose.
But if the witch killed herself, time and space would immediately reset to the beginning, and all of Shirou's efforts so far would be for nothing.
After the two sides remained locked in a stalemate for a while, the monsters stopped appearing.
The witch glared at Shirou with eyes full of hatred, while he spoke with perfect composure.
"You understand now, don't you? This is all your power amounts to... You can't even kill me, so devouring a town is out of the question."
With that, he stepped forward.
"Don't screw with me... Why are you getting in my way?! Why did it have to be you?!"
The witch flew into a rage and attacked again.
Even knowing it was meaningless, she sent the fog monsters after Shirou.
"Who do you think did this? Who gave me a physical form? You did... It was you, Shirou Amamiya!"
"If you hadn't been here, I never would have surfaced!"
The girl screamed hysterically, "If not for you, Alice Kuonji could have stayed a good girl forever!
We could have gone on without a care forever! You appeared and ruined everything!"
"..."
Without even looking at her, Shirou cut down the monsters rushing at him and continued closing in on the girl.
One step, two steps, three steps.
The distance between them kept shrinking, and the girl staggered backward as if she had seen something terrifying.
"Even if you kill me, time and space will reset! You can't change anything!"
"Yeah. That's why I'll kill you no matter how many times it takes."
The girl gritted her teeth and demanded, "Why?! Why do you have to stop me?!"
"...Alice."
Shirou reached the girl.
She was so deeply frustrated.
This was not the outcome they, Alice Kuonji, had wanted.
Whether it was the kind Alice or the evil Alice, deep down, they both longed for the same thing.
To be accepted and acknowledged by someone, even after revealing the ugliest side of themselves.
But Shirou refused.
Shirou rejected and denied the evil Alice.
And it was not only the evil Alice who despaired because of that. The kind Alice did too.
After all, they had always been the same person.
She had been born into this world as a witch, not an ordinary girl. That had always been her fate.
And in the end...
You can't truly understand me either.
Shirou-kun, you aren't my "place to belong" either...
I'm used to it.
After all, there is nowhere in this world willing to accept the existence of a witch.
"!"
Seeing Shirou raise the greatsword toward her without the slightest hesitation, Alice's expression crumbled.
Through her tears, she thrust out a finger. It was the last resistance the unwilling girl could manage.
At the same time, she steeled herself.
Let it end here...
There's no point in resetting time and space anymore.
As long as I disappear, everyone will be happy.
Let Alice Kuonji vanish together with this twisted world, the Fairy Domain.
The girl closed her eyes, ready to die beneath Shirou's blade.
"?"
Strangely, painful, freezing death never came.
Instead, she felt something very warm.
Confused, Alice opened her eyes and saw that her hand had pierced through Shirou's body.
The curse-laden strike had burned straight through the boy's internal organs.
In return, Shirou used the last of his strength to stretch out both arms and gently embrace the witch.
"...Shirou-kun?"