In response, Sakutsuki flashed a wild grin. Keeping his left hand raised high, he opened his mouth and began to chant:
"Arrival Here is Countless Research!"
The spoken incantation was merely a suggestion used to alter himself.
Mana rose around him, distorting even the sound of his voice.
Thousand Swords as Template
Piling Up Countless Sword Mounds
There was only one direction to guide it toward—before such Mystery, before such a "sword," there was no reason for the craftsman who had spent his entire life forging blades not to appear.
Through the medium of the blank card, the overflowing power instantly filled Sakutsuki, this vessel.
Arrival Here is the Convergence of All Things
Display Here is the Wish of All Creation
Gathered Here is All Karma
Everything in my life exists for the sake of reaching this blade.
Amid the air ground to pieces by mana, a startled voice came intermittently.
"Wha—what?"
What was she so shocked by?
Was it the heavy, crystalline sound of forging? Or... the completely different chant from last time?
The pulse of swords was here—
After creating a wasteland of countless swords, every blade shattered like snowflake crystals, leaving only this aurora in the man's hand.
The magic circles were withdrawn just before they collapsed. Facing the Star of Creation that had not lost any momentum, the man—who had somehow become half-naked—swung the light in his hand.
"Take this! This is my Tsumukari Muramasa!"
In the distant past, in the Age of Gods, the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi that had emerged from Yamata no Orochi's tail manifested at this moment.
Amid a roar, two pillars of light that reached from heaven to earth collided, illuminating all creation within their radiance.
And no one noticed that, at the end of that night brighter than day, a ray of dawn leaped over the horizon.
Sakutsuki's final moments in this world had come to an end.
Mugen no Kenzei (Tsumukari Muramasa) / Unlimited Sword Creation (Tsumukari Muramasa)
Rank: A+
Type: Anti-Personnel Noble Phantasm
Effective Range: 1–10
Maximum Targets: 10 people
Tsumukari Muramasa
A Noble Phantasm that created the ultimate single strike.
After deploying a special Reality Marble—said to resemble the scenery of Heroic Spirit Emiya's "Unlimited Blade Works"—and creating a wasteland of countless swords, every sword shattered like snowflake crystals, leaving only one blade in Senji Muramasa's hand.
A single slash capable of severing time, space, and causality alike.
The blade's name was "Tsumukari Muramasa."
Tsumukari referred to the Tsumukari Greatsword, the Tsumuha Greatsword.
In other words, it was the divine sword Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, or Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, which emerged from the tail of Yamata no Orochi—the greatest calamity dragon of Japan, a crimson-flamed monster with eight heads and eight tails, so enormous that its body spanned eight valleys and mountain peaks, slain by Susanoo.
This was Heroic Spirit Senji Muramasa's Noble Phantasm. It had once cleaved apart the sorcerer Amakusa Shirou's Reality Marble, Shimabara Hell Scroll, in a Lostbelt. All one could say was that the old man truly deserved the title of Emiya Superhero.
Fates Codex Updated 001: Angelica Einzbern (Gil-Girl) Character Information: A doll of the Einsworth Family (DOLL)... Hidden Information: B98/W62/H94 Record Conditions (2/3) 1. Escape Einzbern Castle (Completed) 2. Successfully flee for seven days while pursued by her (Completed) 3*. Receive Enuma Elish without dying (Completed) Condition 2 completed. Reward obtained: Leave this world and travel to Origin of Fate. Hidden record condition 3* completed. Reward obtained: Replacement Magic: Modified! Permission activated. Locking World Line... Lock successful. Beginning transfer
When the aftershock from the clash between Enuma Elish and Unlimited Sword Creation (Tsumukari Muramasa) faded, Sakutsuki was already gone from before Angelica. Only a few ashes from scorched cloth drifted through the air before vanishing in the sunlight rising over the horizon.
"So he's finally dead?" Angelica withdrew her weapon and erased all data concerning Sakutsuki from her mind.
The pursuit mission had been completed. Next, she would return to Einzbern Castle and await her next use.
Yet, as if deliberately refusing to let her forget, the seven magic circles Sakutsuki had set up rose again. Though their caster was already gone, under Angelica's furious gaze, they poured all the mana they had absorbed toward the same place.
That place was—Einzbern Castle, located at the very center of Fuyuki City!
"Sakutsuki—!!!" Her howl, like that of a vicious ghost, rang out across the morning ruins.
The young man's smug laughter seemed to still echo through the air, only to be swiftly carried away and dispersed by the wind.
Germany, the Alps, Lauterbrunnen.
White, white hospital beds.
Golden, golden morning sunlight.
The bleating of cattle and sheep, birdsong in the mountains, seventy-two waterfalls singing softly, and coffee by the table giving off a hazy fragrance.
This was the model for the Elven city of "Rivendell."
Every courtyard here was adorned with flowers.
Every house here was fit to appear on a postcard.
Half his body wrapped in bandages, the young man reclined against the hospital bed and looked up toward the window. The breeze lifted his short white hair, and even his eyes were tinged with a warm glow.
What a peaceful, beautiful little town, wasn't it?
Unfortunately, the town was currently caught in an undercurrent of panic—an evil serial killer seemed to have entered the town, committing several murders in only three days. The victims had died in all sorts of bizarre ways, but their one shared trait was that every death had been utterly horrific.
It was as if the killer regarded human bodies as canvases, freely splashing them with his imagination and creativity—a vicious joke that was impossible to laugh at.
Yet the young man had no interest in the name of that serial killer, another uninvited guest like himself, nor did he care whose head death would fall upon next.
Having only awakened this morning, he was immersed in the joy of being alive.
"Codex, open."
Fates Codex activated
A dark-blue panel appeared before the young man.
Heroic Spirit Status Name: Sakutsuki (Damage being repaired) True Name: Hidden Gender: Male Height · Weight: 175 cm · 65 kg Alignment: Chaotic · Neutral Parameters Strength: E Endurance: D Agility: D Mana: B+ Luck: B Noble Phantasm: ? Personal Skills Mind's Eye (True): B Clairvoyance: C Reinforcement Magecraft: C Projection Magecraft: A+ Displacement Magic: B → Replacement Magic: Modified: A+ Noble Phantasm: Unlimited Blade Works Rank: E–A++ Type: ???
Anyone familiar with the setting could easily see the traces Heroic Spirit Emiya had left upon this panel. However, unlike Emiya's original parameters, every stat except Mana and Luck had dropped by one rank. His original magecraft skills had also been further strengthened, separated, and altered.
The young man lying in the hospital bed was Sakutsuki, who had crossed into another world with the help of the Fates Codex after exchanging beams with Angelica.
He greedily admired the scenery outside the window. Only after a long, long time did he withdraw his gaze and take a blank card covered in cracks from his pocket.
"Even though I'd prepared for it, in that final instant, I really thought I was going to die... Thanks a lot, old man Muramasa."
As though it had completed its final mission, the card that had once borne the power of a Heroic Spirit shattered inch by inch, turning to powder and vanishing.
The young man silently watched the card disappear, then closed his eyes, as if once again immersed in the lingering aftermath of that battle.
He had injured Angelica's left hand, drained her mana, concealed himself with a grand magecraft ritual, and finally used the divine Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi to hold his ground against Ea—yet Sakutsuki's own body, his vessel, had also begun to collapse from the mana eruption. If the deadlock had continued, this much weaker body would likely have shattered first.
"Still not strong enough..." the young man murmured. Mana circulated, and two black-and-white blades, rotating like Taiji Rotation, appeared in his hands.
The moment he gripped them, a sense of security naturally arose in his heart. It was the confidence Heroic Spirit Emiya had naturally accumulated through countless battles.
Yet the foundation supporting that "confidence," the base qualities of this body, was already on the verge of collapse.
"How can I recover my original strength..." the young man muttered in distress.
Just then, the hospital room door was pushed open, and an orange-haired man in leopard-print clothing with a cheerful disposition walked in.
What exactly was death?
As a human, Ryunosuke Uryu was fated never to fully understand death in his lifetime. Even if he comprehended its mysteries in his final moment, all the realizations that surfaced then would sink with the man called Ryunosuke Uryu into the endless Yellow Springs River.
Humans took pride in their "wisdom" and feared the "unknown." Therefore, no matter how terrifying something was, as long as they accumulated "experience" and could "understand" it, they could overcome their fear and conquer it with reason.
But death alone... people could not experience "death" in life and could not truly understand it. So humanity could only observe the deaths of others, imagine death's essence, and attempt to experience it through simulation.
Even though experiencing death was so difficult, Ryunosuke Uryu could not suppress his curiosity. He truly wished to understand what "death" was—the vivid red of arterial bleeding, the texture and temperature of the things inside the abdominal cavity, the agony victims felt after their organs were torn out, and the symphony of screams they composed until shortly before death...
To Ryunosuke, this was the pursuit of his life, the enjoyment of his life.
When a person's curiosity swelled to an uncontrollable degree, worldly morals and laws could no longer restrain him.
Before you continue