Black mud writhed through the city streets,
The flames devoured every life they engulfed, burning everything away.
The once-prosperous streets were now filled with nothing but ruins.
The place where people had once gathered to laugh had become a sea of fire.
This was the tragedy wrought by the rampaging Black Holy Grail at the end of the Fourth Holy Grail War.
But now, the tragedy had come to an end. A golden light shot into the heavens, like salvation from the gods.
The Black Holy Grail was destroyed, slowly vanishing amid a tremendous rumble...
Rain fell from the sky, gradually putting out the flames.
The black mud on the streets slowly receded.
The trees burned to charcoal, the bodies reduced to blackened lumps, the people's harrowing cries as they faced death—all gradually disappeared beneath the rain.
Along with their precious lives...
The girl holding the golden sword stood alone atop the ruins of a building.
She let the icy rain falling from the sky soak her body.
Creak...
Footsteps sounded behind the girl, and a man in a black trench coat appeared.
His eyes, filled with exhaustion and regret, quietly watched the girl before him.
The determination that had once filled her gaze was gone. Her golden hair, once dazzling beneath the sun, had lost its luster.
"Saber... ah!" The man began to speak, wanting to say something to comfort the girl, but her hand clamped around his throat and lifted him high into the air.
BOOM!!
With a tremendous crash, the girl slammed the trench-coated man into the ground, still gripping his throat with one hand.
"Kiritsugu Emiya!!!" The girl roared at the man like a beast that had been provoked, her eyes bloodshot. Her hand tightened so forcefully that she nearly snapped the neck of the man called Kiritsugu Emiya.
"Why did you do this?! Why did you treat Xia and me this way?! Why would you so easily destroy someone else's happiness and hope?! Why?! Answer me!!! Kiritsugu Emiya!!!" The grief-stricken girl was gradually losing her reason.
"I'm the man who'll stay by your side forever! As the great king of the future, please, at least put a little faith in me!"
"My name is Drake D. Xia! I'm a man who will never betray you!"
"Artoria... please don't be so sad. It hurts me to see you like this..."
"Standing before you and protecting you from every threat—that's the thing I'm proudest and happiest to have done in my life!"
"My Goddess, even if I must erase the sorrowful soul within this body completely, I will pass through the gates of time and space! I'll return to your side once more."
The boy's heartfelt words echoed through the heartbroken girl's mind, one after another.
Unstoppable tears streamed from the girl's reddened eyes. Anger and regret twisted her once-lovely face.
The happy times she had shared with the boy in the past replayed endlessly in her mind.
But the man she questioned could not answer. He had no time to answer...
Driven mad by rage and sorrow, the girl swung her golden sword with one hand and slashed at the man's neck!
"Ah!!!!"
A hoarse voice, an angry scream, and glimmers of tears hidden beneath her dull golden hair.
The golden sword's blade had touched the man's skin. Its icy, murderous presence made the man, still held aloft by the girl, close his eyes in despair.
Go ahead and hate me. If it makes your heart, dead as it is, feel even a little better... the despairing man thought in the final moment of his life.
Click!
It was like the sound of a gear suddenly grinding to a halt.
The blade, which had drawn thin lines of blood, bizarrely traced a perfect arc through the air and swiftly returned along its original path, as though time had reversed.
And it wasn't just the golden sword that had turned back time.
Now, across this whole neighborhood, this city, this country, this world! Time was reversing on a massive scale.
The Holy Sword that had unleashed a golden radiance.
The city engulfed in flames. The castle buried beneath ice and snow. The arrogant king laughing in midair. The boy who had called out "Artoria" in a forest park. The boy who had emerged from a magic circle clad in red armor.
Time was turning back! Back! Further back!
The events that had brought him into being as the Ninth Heroic Spirit, the "Returner"; the countless reincarnations he had endured; his true feelings; his fury when Artoria lost her memories.
And then...
The most precious memories of all...
"Xia, you'll stay with me forever, right?" The girl had said, relying on him...
"Xia, you're so overbearing! I'm trying hard to get stronger, you know!" The girl had said, determined to stand on her own...
"Xia! Where did you go?!" The girl had said, frightened...
"Xia! Are you going to leave me?" The girl had said, worried...
As those countless fragments of memory captured the beautiful girl, each showing a different emotion in his heart,
all those expressions eventually came together in a single image.
Blue skies and drifting white clouds.
Beneath a tree, the golden-haired girl smiled at him and opened her arms. She called softly,
"Xia~~~"
Thump!
His heart gave a forceful beat. Xia felt his groggy consciousness gradually begin to clear.
His weak, powerless awareness floated out of a mysterious forest, passing through the clouds, the blue sky, the distant stars, and the endless universe.
Xia, slumped on the ground, suddenly had a golden light burst from his eyes!
"I remember... everything..." Xia murmured, puzzling the golden-haired girl standing before him.
Xia sprang to his feet in an instant and thrust out one hand, pulling the slightly startled golden-haired girl into his arms.
"I am the man named Drake D. Xia! I am the one who will always remain by my king's side!!"
---------------------------OVER--------------------
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