Moriarty's End / The Phantom Demon Appears

Thus, Shirou and the others smoothly entered the tower.

The center of the tower was empty, with scarcely any furnishings. In one corner stood a narrow, winding staircase leading upward.

After reaching the second floor, they found that the stairs to the third floor were on the opposite side. The floor's guards stood in the middle, waiting for them.

The magically modified Palace Guardian King Lear, the altered Demonic Beast Chimera, and the black shadow Servant Macbeth? Only by defeating these guards could they reach the top of the tower.

At that moment, a black shadow Servant appeared before them.

"My name is Macbeth. I am invincible, yet I fell beneath the wheels of fate."

"Macbeth?" Gudako looked at the black shadow in confusion.

"This guy says he's Macbeth? Did something go wrong with his brain?" Da Vinci said with a laugh.

"No matter how you look at him, isn't he that Indian king whose wife looked exactly like him, yet he could never find her?" Mash quipped.

"I don't know who you're talking about, but that voice sounds familiar. It reminds me of someone. Anyway, let's give her a thorough beating first!" Artoria said, drawing her holy sword.

"I am invincible!" the black shadow Saber shouted, raising her weapon.

All five charged forward at once. A few minutes later, Macbeth vanished from this world.

Back in Chaldea, Mash and Da Vinci made snide remarks from the side.

"She called herself invincible, but it seems she could only withstand a dozen extra attacks."

"Miss Artoria is terrifying. She didn't hold back with a single strike. She hacked at her head more than ten times. And she was sneering while she did it..."

"In the end, she was just a shoddy product Shakespeare had obviously rushed out."

"We defeated her! So after King Lear and Romeo and Juliet, we've met Macbeth too."

"That means we only need one more of the four great tragedies to complete the set. What a boring little trick," Jeanne d'Arc said.

"Oh...? So someone who couldn't read has now studied Shakespeare's plays too?" Artoria asked with a wicked grin, casting a surprised glance at the silver-haired girl.

Jeanne d'Arc folded her arms and turned her head aside. "Hmph, I've studied properly too. I'm just naturally bad at math, so you can't blame me!" That was right—she had merely skimmed them to confirm the evidence of the great writer being burned at the stake.

"Miss Jeanne d'Arc, that's not right. Although Romeo and Juliet is very famous, Shakespeare's four great tragedies are Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello," the honest Mash corrected her.

"Eh? Is that so!?" Gudako cried in surprise as well.

"Urgh..." Jeanne d'Arc gritted her teeth in embarrassment.

"Hmph." Artoria smiled.

"It's fine, it's fine. Most people wouldn't deliberately look into something that old. Plenty of people in China can't even remember the Four Books and Five Classics," Shirou comforted her.

"Gudako-senpai, so you didn't know either! You were given Shakespeare's one hundred and fifty-fifth sonnet. If he heard that, he would be heartbroken," Mash said mournfully.

End Moriarty

Da Vinci interjected from Chaldea, "I think it's fine. Optimistic and narcissistic Shakespeare would definitely take this as tsundere behavior, then write it down as material for his work. Ah... but if it were Andersen, with his opposite personality, he might be so crushed that he'd curse himself and the world to die."

"Why are we even talking about that! Let's just burn them!" Jeanne d'Arc impatiently raised her flag and sent several streams of magical flames flying forward, setting the three giant Palace Guardians, "King Lear," ablaze.

"Hahahahaha!!" Bearded Uncle continuously fired bullets and shells, blocking the giants' vision.

Shirou and Artoria rushed in at the same time.

The Palace Guardians, the Foot Gods, possessed hard bodies and enormous strength. They swung several-meter-long bronze pillar greatswords in attack, and even more terrifying were their sudden explosive kicks, which could kill a Servant in a single blow.

To deal with such terrifying monsters, all they needed was to find the trick. Then it would not be too difficult.

Artoria raised her holy sword and unleashed Vassal's Iron Hammer, smashing it into the giant's foot and leaving a crack.

The giant's broken bronze pillar sword came down at the girl.

Artoria leaped backward to evade it. At that moment, the Youth on the other side had also circled around to the giant's feet.

"Ad, hammer!" Shirou shouted. The Box Artifact instantly unfolded, this time transforming into Battering Ram form. The Youth twisted his body, tightening the muscles around his waist. Magical flames burst from behind the giant hammer to propel the attack as he slammed it fiercely into the wound on the giant's foot.

The foot suddenly shattered with a deafening crash like exploding stone. The giant, who had been raising its greatsword, lost its balance and fell backward onto its back.

Artoria raised her holy sword, aimed at the giant's vulnerable neck, and brought it down in a heavy slash.

The Palace Guardian's head fell away. Its body twitched twice, then stopped moving.

The three giants were each stronger and tougher than the last. After a fierce battle, they finally defeated them all.

After dealing with those monsters, they finally reached the top floor of the tower.

Inside was a diamond-shaped crystal resembling butterfly wings. Beneath it stood a richly dressed, bearded middle-aged man who looked exactly like the Moriarty beside Gudako.

But his aura was far more violent. His expression was stiff and cold, his eyes fierce and cunning. One look was enough to tell that the man before them was extremely dangerous.

"Evil Moriarty... sir?" Mash asked uncertainly.

"You can drop the honorific," Moriarty on the opposite side said.

"Ah... yes, you're right," Mash said in sudden realization.

"Mash, be quiet and stay obediently to the side. The rare tense atmosphere just disappeared like that," Shirou and Gudako said together as they looked at the pink-haired girl.

"..." Mash stood there aggrievedly and silently zipped her mouth shut.

"Hmph, I thought you would be some kind of monster, but you're really no different," Artoria said.

"There is no difference. A person's good and evil are merely products of a single thought. Rather, the insignificant good intentions separated from me somehow survived until now and even came here to oppose me. That is what is truly unbelievable," Moriarty said.

"Hahahahaha!! Indeed! Even I myself am astonished by this kind heart!" Bearded Uncle beside Gudako said with a hearty laugh.

"Hahahahaha!" Gudako laughed along with her hands on her hips. Then she looked at the evil Servant opposite her and said very seriously, "Uncle is a good person!"

"To be honest, I'm quite surprised as well," Holmes said as he looked at the two mortal enemies, feeling that something was strange. Though his own Gudako was rather strange too.

Moriarty on the opposite side watched them, pondered for a moment, and then declared, "Well... it seems I'm rather popular. However, none of that matters anymore. The only one I care about is you, Gudako, Master of Chaldea! You were captured and brought to me before, then rescued by Holmes. And now you have appeared before me once again..."

"...This is not fate at work, but the result finally reached through extreme calculation."

"You mean... it was inevitable that we came here?" Gudako asked with a frown.

"Precisely. As long as my calculations are correct, there will not be the slightest deviation in the result," Moriarty said.

"Gudako, Master of Chaldea! There is already an asteroid flying this way in the sky above. With the power of my Phantom Devil Shooter, as long as I choose it as my bullet, that meteorite will be loaded into this Spear Body without the slightest error! Though I do not wish to die, destroying this place is more important than my own life!" Moriarty declared excitedly, spreading his arms.

"He's completely insane. Shirou, hurry up and deal with him. Let's end this," Artoria said, gripping her holy sword and staring coldly at the enemy.

"This is the only time I've ever shared the same opinion as that cold-blooded woman. Burn him," Jeanne d'Arc said, raising her flag as well.

"Let the battle begin! There is only one unknown outcome: either you will be executed by me and perish along with this world, or I will be defeated by you. That is all!" Moriarty raised the white coffin behind him, its muzzle aimed at the boys and girls.

"This guy is enough for me alone."

Shirou opened his Magic Eye and charged straight toward the muzzle. He swung the scythe's blade at a spot to one side in front of him, knocking every bullet aside as though he had known from the beginning where they would be fired.

"The next shot will come this way." The instant the muzzle turned toward him, Shirou nimbly ran to the other side and continued charging forward.

"Hm?" Thinking it might be an illusion, Moriarty raised his gun and attacked the Youth, retreating to widen the distance.

Empowered by the scythe's magic, Shirou accelerated continuously as he rushed toward Moriarty.

In Moriarty's eyes, the Youth's steps were fast—unexpectedly fast—practically as fast as the instant Shinjuku Assassin unleashed his Noble Phantasm.

"How can he be this fast?" Moriarty raised his gun with a grim expression. Since he could not hit him by aiming directly, he would lock onto where the Youth would appear in the next moment.

Shirou abruptly changed directions one second before, and in the next second, the place where he had just been moving was blanketed by machine-gun fire.

"What!?" Moriarty launched tracking magical missiles in surprise, trying to stop the Youth from continuing to approach.

But Shirou once again predicted his opponent's movements. He projected two flying swords, which exploded with a roar less than half a meter after the missiles left the gun.

Moriarty leaped backward to evade the blast, but smoke and dust obscured his vision. The instant his feet touched the ground, he felt the sky darken above him.

The Youth had already appeared over his head. The raised scythe blade flashed with cold light as it descended and cut down in an instant.

At the very last moment, Moriarty finally understood. The Youth himself had not been fast; Moriarty had been slow from the very beginning. His movements had been seen through before he even moved.

He had been half a second too slow from the start. Half a second was enough for the Youth to effortlessly seize victory.

Blood splashed as the sound of a blade tearing through bone echoed inside the tower...

Phantom Demon Appears

"Ugh... I never expected it... Did I really lose so easily..." Moriarty stared wide-eyed in disbelief. His body had already been cut open by the scythe from the shoulder down through his ribs.

"Though I had always been suspicious, we fought side by side with Uncle for several days. Your fighting style is exactly the same as his. I saw through it long ago!" Shirou said calmly, closing his Seven-Colored Mystic Eyes and resting the scythe on his shoulder.

"No matter how precise your calculations are, if the process and goal are known by the other side from the start, then it all becomes meaningless, Moriarty! This is your complete defeat!" Holmes declared.

"So I lost... Then again, your appearance had disrupted my plans from the beginning... The Master of Chaldea is truly hateful, but Shirou Emiya is hateful as well... Urgh." Moriarty vanished from that place.

"He lost... What a terrifying Youth in every sense," Bearded Uncle beside Gudako said with a sigh.

Mash looked at the readings, her face lighting up with joy. She unzipped her mouth and happily reported, "Evil Moriarty, confirmed eliminated! Great! We did it! Gudako-senpai! Shirou-senpai!"

"Thank you, everyone! This is a victory we earned together!" Gudako shouted happily.

"No... it isn't over yet!" Holmes said with a wary look. The feeling of unease he had been sensing was indeed real; there seemed to be some flaw in his deductions.

"That's right! The Holy Grail...!" Shirou looked at the place beneath his scythe where Moriarty had vanished. There was no Holy Grail left behind.

"No Holy Grail? Then where did this power come from...?" Even Holmes could not immediately deduce the answer.

"Spirit Origin detected! This pattern is... How can this be!?" Mash cried out.

At that moment, the entire space suddenly darkened. A twisted black hole appeared, and from it emerged a humanoid demon, with rows of diamond-shaped blood-red vertical eyes floating behind it.

"Hahahahaha!

Hahahahaha!

I remember! I remember!

I finally waited for you! Detestable Master of Chaldea! Gudako!"

The orange-haired girl looked at the demon in shock and asked, "Could it be Goetia?"

Da Vinci analyzed the data and said, "No, it isn't! This is a Demon Pillar! It has taken human form, but there is no mistaking this Spirit Origin pattern!"

"Weren't all the Demon Pillars wiped out?" Gudako asked.

The demon looked at Gudako and said furiously, "Wiped out! Our entire race had long since lost hope! We could not revive, nor could we return. From the moment you ruined the plan from three thousand years ago, everything ended! Even so, I endured humiliation and survived until now, all for this moment! All to take your life!!"

"That won't do. Even if we did it all again, I would still defeat you," Shirou said as he stepped in front of Gudako.

Artoria walked to the Youth's side and stood shoulder to shoulder with him. "Hmph! So you are a remnant that escaped. Even now, you cling to us and claim you want Gudako's life. How shameless can you be?"

Jeanne d'Arc said angrily, "After making me suffer so much before, you turned out to be a defeated dog who lost yet still cannot forget revenge. You're really making me mad!"

"I know! It is humiliating and ugly! But there is a fire in my chest that has tortured me constantly. Not because the plan from three thousand years ago was destroyed, not because the Demon Pillars were slaughtered by the gathered Servants, and not because of that detestable Solomon. The plan was complete, its progress perfect, yet its collapse was decided from the very beginning. That's right! It was you, Gudako!" the demon roared.

"Me?" Gudako pointed at herself in confusion.

"That's right, Master of Chaldea. You are the only one for whom I cannot suppress my hatred! Why was it you who reached that place! This planet, this era! Why did it have to be you! If it had been a hero beyond humanity, I would have had nothing to say. If it had been a monster more evil than a demon god, I would have accepted my fate."

"But why did it have to be an ordinary, utterly mediocre human like you! You ruined everything. I fled in disgrace and survived miserably until now for only one purpose—to kill you, even if it means destroying this world," the demon howled hysterically.

"I only wanted to survive!" Gudako said, meeting the demon's gaze.

"That's right, Gudako did nothing wrong! Whether it's Demon Pillars, black mud Servants, or whoever else, they show up out of nowhere and start talking about revenge. What a headache. Let me deal with him for you now!" Shirou said with a smile as he turned to the girl behind him.

"Okay! I'll support you, Shirou-senpai!" Gudako said, pulling herself together and clenching her fists.

"A revenge that has brewed for three thousand years since escaping the Temple of Time?" Holmes said.

"Exactly so, famous detective! What I gained over three thousand years was the technology to combine Servants and Phantoms. Those remnants with shallow histories, lacking faith, abandoned by humanity—they too possess tremendous value. Ghost stories! Fairy tales! Beasts driven to extinction! The thirst for retribution, the obsession with revenge. These are the elements that make up me, Demon Baal, today!"

"Then I have another question. What connection do you have with Moriarty?" Holmes asked.

"As much as you could possibly want, my lifelong enemy, Holmes," Moriarty said coldly from behind the detective.

A blade pierced a vital point in Holmes's back.

"Moriarty... you... I see. You had turned against us from the beginning. What a miscalculation. I never expected you to take such a risk for victory. Gudako, I'm sorry. My deductions were wrong. Shirou! Kill me quickly! There's still time!"

"What is going on!?" Shirou and the girls asked in shock.

"I won't let you pass." The demon blocked the Youth's path.

"Unfortunately, your companions cannot keep up with your thoughts and decisive actions. I have won! Farewell, my kindred, the world's greatest famous detective. Let me use your power to claim victory!" Moriarty said, absorbing Holmes into his body.

"Spirit Origin... Holmes has been fused with Moriarty!" Da Vinci said.