Ea.
It was the one treasure that the Ancient King, who had collected every treasure in the world, kept apart in the deepest reaches of his treasury.
The King of Heroes Gilgamesh called it his "other half," though no one truly knew whether it was even a sword.
It was the embodiment of the divine authority wielded by the gods to create the world in the primordial chaos before humanity was born.
The sword of Heaven and Earth that split apart the origins of this planet.
It cleaved through the void to create the sky, then pierced the sky to return it to the void.
Symbolizing both beginning and end, this power permitted only Gilgamesh, who had inherited a divine factor, to wield it.
Thus, when the sword was unleashed, it fell under the following classification.
An Anti-World Noble Phantasm.
It was the exact opposite of the "Spear of Total Annihilation" wielded by Karna, son of the Sun God, which "completely destroys the existence of a single individual."
Ea embodied the concept that "whether the opponent is an individual or a group, the world to which they belong will be shattered along with them."
Against Nrvnqsr Chaos, who had transformed his own body into a chaotic world, Ea was his natural nemesis.
Nrvnqsr Chaos had once proudly proclaimed that his "Principle" was "the Soil of Genesis, the primordial sea." In that case...
The red-haired youth drew the golden sword completed through Projection.
"Killing all six hundred and sixty-six lives at once? There's no need to go to that much trouble."
"I'll just evaporate your entire world."
Ea's three cylindrical sections began to rotate, and the atmosphere roared in response.
As vast quantities of air were forcibly drawn into Ea, the surrounding laws of physics began to collapse, forming a distorted force field that tore through dimensions.
"Enuma Elish (The Star of Creation that Split Heaven and Earth)!!!"
Shirou shouted as he swung down the replica Ea.
The laws compressed to their absolute limit were released in that instant, taking the form of a crimson tornado and becoming a single strike that cleaved the world.
That one swing, known as "The Opening of Heaven," revealed the true spectacle of creation.
Wherever the wind pressure reached, space itself shattered like glass, creating fractures in spacetime and gaps in causality as the world itself was overturned.
The snowfield and earth crumbled like clay, while the blizzard and the horde of black beasts were effortlessly torn apart.
It was as though a landscape painted on paper had been fed through a blender. The sight resembled the end of the world far more than its beginning.
The slash, imbued with the property of an "Anti-World Attack," devoured everything in its path as it surged toward the vampires.
Shirou had used Ea once before, during the Fourth Holy Grail War.
At the time, Lady Avalon's "Dead Count Shapeshifter" had granted him the strength of his prime, allowing him to analyze and replicate the divine weapon within the Inner Sea of the Planet contained inside "Fairy Domain: Unlimited Blade Works."
Ordinarily, Shirou possessed no divine factor and could not wield the sword even if he projected it.
Forcing himself to use it had instantly exhausted the remaining duration of the "Dead Count Shapeshifter," which should otherwise have lasted more than long enough. It had also drained all his stamina and Mana.
Fortunately, the King of Heroes Gilgamesh had also been severely weakened at the time, allowing Shirou to kill him.
What about this time?
Shirou was only sixteen. His body was still far from its prime, and the Mana within him was being supplied entirely by Justeaze. He was nowhere near peak condition.
Even so, it was enough.
Before Shirou's Mana ran out, Nrvnqsr Chaos's "Principle (Soil of Genesis)" would be vaporized by Ea.
"........."
Cracks appeared across Shirou's vision.
More precisely, the Mystic Eye Killers he was wearing shattered.
Immediately afterward, an overwhelming sensation of falling swept over him.
"Your spirit has finally shown an opening, Shirou-sama."
Through the haze, he caught sight of a woman's seductive smile.
It was beautiful yet cruel, like a thorn-covered flower. Her rippling smile seemed capable of staining the entire world with blood.
"To think you would leave me unattended and consider me less of a threat than Nrvnqsr Chaos…"
"Even a demure lady known as the 'Rose Princess' gets angry when the occasion calls for it, you know?"
Rita Rozay-en...!
Shirou clenched his teeth and tried to drive the interference from his mind.
While he had been completely focused on unleashing Ea, Rita Rozay-en had seized the opening and slipped into his thoughts.
"Don't make that face. I'm merely performing my proper duty as a vampire."
"It is true that I despise the White Wing faction. I also genuinely believe that Shirou-sama could become a connoisseur of my art."
"But that does not make me your ally. You must never assume otherwise simply because I have offered you advice and assistance before."
"My desire to turn you into my servant was not merely a lie intended to deceive Nrvnqsr Chaos and the others. Even now, I am desperately resisting the urge to sink my teeth into your throat and suck your flesh and blood dry."
"Dead Apostles and humans are eternal enemies. Ours is the relationship between predator and prey... Should you wish to live to a ripe old age while dealing with vampires, please remember that."
"That is enough idle chatter."
"Now then, Shirou-sama, please enjoy my greatest collection and creation."
"Idea Blood No.15, Mystic Eyes of Roses."
"...Ugh!?"
Shirou lost control of his body.
Everything within sight was red, filled with rose petals whirling through the air.
Only those crimson eyes, brimming with demonic power, blossomed like petals.
That alone was enough to overwhelm his perception and thoughts, transforming Shirou's world in an instant.
Petals raining from the sky swallowed the boy.
Roses, roses, roses, roses, roses, stretching endlessly into the distance.
The entire world was ruled by an intensely sweet fragrance that left him struggling to breathe.
Standing amid it all, Shirou Amamiya seemed like nothing more than a tiny insect gnawing at the roses in a garden.
"Welcome. Welcome to this place, my friend, the esteemed Shirou."
"This is a paradise of pleasure and depravity."
"It is the Idea Blood of Rose Princess Rozay-en, hailed as both the most beautiful and the most grotesque of all Mystic Eyes remaining in this world."
Her low chant drifted through the petals scattering on the wind, their brilliant colors dazzling his eyes.
The scent of roses corrupted his sense of smell until he could no longer distinguish one boundary from another.
Within this world, all five senses were being consumed by the Rose Princess's poisonous Mana.
"Bestow pleasure upon those who visit."
"Inflict depravity upon those held captive."
"Behold the decaying inlay, a phantom lasting but a single night, an incurable love that can never end."
"Hand in hand, let us enter the space between dreams."
Rapidly scrolling strips of film appeared along both sides of Shirou's vision.
When everything finally stopped, his eyes widened in disbelief.
...
The battle elsewhere ended quickly.
Calling it a one-sided rout would not have been an exaggeration.
Yvette did not even last a minute before exhausting all her gemstone Mystic Eyes.
One after another, the gemstones produced by the Lehrman family shattered and lost their luster from overuse. The Lolita-clad girl eventually collapsed unconscious beneath the Dead Apostles' assault.
Surrounded by more than a dozen Dead Apostles, Rin Tohsaka and Luviagelita had completely lost the composure and elegance they had displayed earlier against the Child of Einnashe.
After all, the Gandr they took the greatest pride in was a spell that compressed a Curse and fired it from the fingertips.
It was Magecraft specialized for use against humans.
Their enemies this time, however, were not living humans but vampires. In terms of compatibility, the matchup could hardly have been worse.
Even setting Magecraft compatibility aside, their current strength still fell far short of Louvre's servants.
To the Dead Apostle of the Lake, who had slain more than a hundred Magi, the three girls before him ranked among the most talented individuals he had ever encountered.
That was particularly true of the black-haired girl and the girl with golden curls, both of whom were still resisting stubbornly.
To possess such outstanding combat skills and mastery of Magecraft at only sixteen was unheard of, even among Dead Apostles who had lived for countless years.
They were true rising stars. Given twenty years... no, even ten would be enough for them to become some of the finest Magi in the world.
But that future would never come.
Louvre had decided to make them his servants.
With the aptitude these two young girls possessed, it would not take long for them to become Greater Dead Apostles of the seventh or even eighth tier.
When that day came, it would also be the day Louvre, as their master, became a King (Ancestor) of the Dead Apostles.
The Dead Apostle of the Lake stroked his beard and smiled with satisfaction.
Suddenly, a commanding female voice rang out from the forest.
"Anfang Set (Set)!"
The Mana-infused incantation echoed across the snowy plain.
Rin Tohsaka pulled several gems from her coat pocket, held them between her fingers, and hurled them all at once.
The glowing gems danced through the air, tracing spiraling paths.
"Sechs (Six), fünf (Five), vier (Four), Verzehren Sie den Schatz (Cast All)!
"Vernichten Sie den Schatten des Feindes (Eradicate the Shadow of My Enemy)!"
The Magecraft, resembling a magnificent kaleidoscope, swept past Louvre's servants and flew directly toward him.
"Hmph. Do you think defeating me will be enough to secure your victory?"
Louvre smiled contemptuously.
The gems contained an immense amount of Mana, enough to harm a Heroic Spirit, and exploded the instant they surrounded the Dead Apostle of the Lake.
"Father!" his servants cried.
The Dead Apostle of the Lake merely waved his hand as though shooing away insects, effortlessly knocking the attack aside.
Ordinarily, only an Ancestor could accomplish such a feat.
Even for Louvre, a High-Ranking Dead Apostle who stood close to the twenty-seven Ancestors, casually doing so was no simple matter.
Over the course of his long life, however, he had slaughtered so many Magi that he had become exceptionally skilled at fighting human Magi.
Although he had never encountered peerless geniuses like Rin Tohsaka and Luviagelita, there had been no shortage of Magi whose immediate combat strength surpassed theirs.
He had even escaped the hunt of Barthomeloi, Queen of the Clock Tower and the pinnacle of modern Magecraft.
Lost in memories of his former glory, Louvre initially failed to notice the girls' movements.
Rin Tohsaka and Luviagelita began sprinting across the snow.
Each of them kicked aside a Dead Apostle blocking her path, then rapidly closed in on Louvre from opposite sides.
It was close-quarters combat.
Rin Tohsaka and Luviagelita had quickly realized that their enemy was a Dead Apostle specialized in fighting Magi.
They therefore abandoned the family-inherited Jewel Magecraft in which they took such pride and prepared to engage Louvre in hand-to-hand combat.
The physical disparity between humans and vampires was enormous. Choosing to engage a vampire in close combat was enough to make anyone question their sanity.
Even so, Rin and Luvia trusted in the grueling training they had undergone.
Yet Rin Tohsaka's elbow strike and Luvia's kick never reached the vampire.
The Dead Apostle Louvre merely snapped his fingers, sending both approaching girls flying.
It was probably not even a special ability, merely the manifestation of a Dead Apostle's power as a Transcendent Being.
That single blow hurled Rin and Luvia more than ten meters. They screamed as they crashed into the snow.
Their Magic Crests lit up and automatically began healing their injuries as they lay unconscious.
However, under the influence of Vlov's "Idea Blood," the extreme cold had severely impaired their Magic Crests. They were no longer capable of fighting.
The difference in strength was overwhelming.
Rin Tohsaka and Luvia possessed extraordinary talent and combat instincts far beyond their age, while Yvette was also a prodigy of the El-Melloi Class.
Yet none of those gifts meant anything before the ancient Mystery wielded by the Dead Apostles.
Magecraft was, at its core, the inheritance and accumulation of knowledge.
Within the realm of Mystery, how could mere humans ever hope to rival vampires who did not know death?
Human Magecraft and pride were trampled underfoot with ease. The Dead Apostles had won.
Now it was time to turn the girls into vampires as well.
With the aptitude of those three, they would probably skip the first three ranks entirely and be reborn directly as "Undead" or "Nightkin."
Louvre's lips curled into a smile. This truly was a day worth celebrating.
"Talented Magi such as yourselves should never be bound by the fleeting lifespan of humanity. Becoming Dead Apostles could be considered a form of salvation..."
At that moment, Louvre abruptly fell silent.
He had noticed something strange.
This was the world of ice created by the Nineteenth of the Twenty Seven Ancestors. Although they stood near its outskirts, fierce winds should still have been howling around them.
Yet the wind had suddenly stopped.
The surroundings were utterly silent.
Snow was said to absorb sound, but this was far too quiet.
The silence was unnatural, like a graveyard in the dead of winter.
"........."
The still snowfield sent a chill down the spine. Could even a Dead Apostle experience such a feeling?
At last, the Dead Apostle of the Lake turned his gaze in one direction.
An old man stood upon the pure white snow, wearing glasses, with long white hair and a flowing beard.
A pendant fashioned from a massive gemstone hung from his chest. His fingers, thin as withered branches, were covered in rings, each set with gems of various colors.
Despite all that splendor, the old man seemed as though he had emerged from a bleak realm of death.
"Miss Rin! Miss Luvia!"
"Yvette!"
Two petite girls rushed out from behind the old man. They ran to the unconscious girls and helped them sit up.
"Miss Olga Marie? Miss Reines?"
Rin Tohsaka blinked as she was shaken awake.
"What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to stay on the train?"
"What an impudent brat, ordering an old man around as he pleases..."
The old man with white hair, Lord Eulyphis, slowly walked onto the snowy plain with the aid of his cane.
This had happened several minutes before the exploration party entered the Child of Einnashe.
Shirou had knocked on the door of Rufleus Nazareth Eulyphis's guest room.
"Old man, if I'm not back within an hour, I'll leave the rest to you."
Before Rufleus could even answer, Shirou walked away, leaving the old man staring after him in disbelief.
"Saying whatever he pleases... How irritating..."
The old man twisted his deeply wrinkled lips into a cold smile.
Why should he, one of the Twelve Lords of the Clock Tower, help look after a group of children?
Why should a Magus help someone who had nothing to do with him in the first place?
The path of Magecraft leading to The Root was long and distant, with no end in sight, while the life of a Magus passed in an instant.
That was precisely why one should uphold the creed of "selfishness" to the very end.
A true Magus would never waste precious effort on the trivial affairs of others. Even a child of one's own blood was merely a vessel meant to inherit one's knowledge and legacy.
Until recently, Rufleus had firmly believed that.
Everything changed eight years ago, after Kayneth and Sola-Ui returned from Japan.
Kayneth and Sola-Ui seemed like entirely different people. Rufleus could barely recognize them.
Kayneth began to question his belief in the Aristocratic Faction. He started teaching students of common birth in earnest and was no longer as arrogant or contemptuous of others as he had once been.
Rufleus had never thought there was anything wrong with Kayneth's pride. His talent justified it. Such aloofness was only natural for a child prodigy.
Yet after Kayneth seemed to gain a new lease on life, Rufleus inexplicably found him less unpleasant as well.
As for his daughter, Sola-Ui...
Soon after returning to London, she had gotten into a furious argument with him, shouting things like, "I'm not your puppet!" and "Kayneth and I truly love each other! Stop interfering with us!"
It was the first time Rufleus had ever been overwhelmed by his daughter's force of personality.
As people grew older, they came to dislike change.
No. It would be more accurate to say they feared it.
The person responsible for all those changes was a young man named "Shirou Amamiya."
Rufleus had assumed he would despise the boy. Yet after meeting him in person, he found that he did not hate him at all.
He had even begun to understand, at least in part, why Kayneth and Sola-Ui had changed.
Hmph. He may be an arrogant brat, but he is still my student's and my daughter's benefactor.
The Eulyphis were not so cold blooded that they would completely disregard a debt of gratitude. For this one occasion, he supposed he could put his old bones to work.
Rufleus stopped around twenty meters away from the Dead Apostle Louvre.
"......"
The Dead Apostle of the Lake and his kin stared at the old man, who looked ready to breathe his last at any moment. An inexplicable sense of tension rose within them.
"Who are you? State your name."
"Rufleus Nuada-Re Eulyphis..."
Lord Eulyphis raised his hollow, empty eyes.
"You have caused our king... Barthomeloi... quite enough trouble already...
"I will clean up the mess left behind by that man's daughter..."
...
"Guh...!"
Shirou clutched his head, which felt ready to burst, and pushed himself upright in bed.
"...Where am I?"
He found himself inside a luxurious room. The bewitching moonlight streaming through the window dyed everything crimson.
He clearly remembered fighting Nrvnqsr Chaos and Vlov Arkhangel only moments earlier. Rita Rozay-en had taken advantage of his vulnerability and unleashed her Mystic Eyes.
Then where exactly was he?
"Shirou... are you awake?"
A somewhat familiar voice reached him.
Shirou turned toward it.
A woman stood in the doorway, her long silver hair cascading all the way to the floor.
She had flawless white skin, the full curves of a mature woman, and beauty so extraordinary that even the black veil covering her face could not conceal it.
".........Morgan, the Fairy Queen!?"
The Fairy Consort pushed Shirou down onto the bed.
***
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