Black sludge writhed along the city streets,
Flames blazed, consuming and destroying every life they swallowed.
The once-prosperous streets were now littered with ruins.
The places where people had once gathered to laugh had become seas 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 sky, like salvation from the gods.
The Black Holy Grail was destroyed, slowly vanishing amid a thunderous roar...
Rain fell from the sky, gradually extinguishing the flames.
The black sludge on the roads slowly receded to the sides.
The charred trees, the corpses reduced to blackened lumps, and the wretched screams of people facing death all gradually disappeared beneath the rain.
Along with their precious lives...
The girl holding a golden sword stood alone atop the ruins of a building.
She let the cold 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 resolute look in his eyes was gone, and his golden hair, once radiant beneath the sun, had lost its luster.
"Sab... ah!" The man opened his mouth, wanting to say something to persuade the girl, but her hand closed around his throat and lifted him high into the air.
BOOM!!
With a thunderous crash, the girl slammed the trench-coated man into the ground, still gripping his throat with one hand.
"Kiritsugu Emiya!!!!" Like a beast provoked, the girl roared at the man, her eyes bloodshot. Her hand tightened with such force that she nearly snapped the neck of the man known as Kiritsugu Emiya.
"Why did you do this?! Why did you treat Xia and me this way?! Why did you so easily destroy other people's happiness and hopes?! Why?! Answer me!!! Kiritsugu Emiya!!!" The grief-stricken girl was gradually losing her reason.
"But I'm the man who'll stay by your side forever! As the great king of the future, please at least give me that much trust!"
"My name is Drake D. Xia! I'll never betray you!"
"Artoria... please don't be so sad. It'll make me sad too..."
"Standing before you and shielding you from every threat—that's what I've been proudest and happiest to do in my life!"
"My Goddess, even if I must erase the sorrowful soul within this body completely, I will cross the gates of time and space! I will return to your side once more."
The boy's words, each one expressing his feelings, echoed through the heartbroken girl's mind.
Unstoppable tears streamed from the girl's reddened eyes. Her face twisted slightly, contorted by anger and regret.
The happy times she and the boy had shared in the past replayed endlessly in her mind.
But the man she questioned couldn't answer. He couldn't answer, because he had no time left...
The girl, driven mad with anger and grief, swung her golden sword with one hand and brought it down toward the man's neck!
"Ah!!!!"
A hoarse voice, an angry roar, and glimmers of tears hidden beneath dull golden hair.
The blade of the golden sword had already touched the man's skin. Its chill and murderous aura made the man, lifted in the girl's grasp, close his eyes in despair.
Hate me all you want. If it makes that heart of yours, dead with grief, feel even a little better... the despairing man thought in the last moments of his life.
Crack!
It sounded like some gear had suddenly stopped turning.
The blade, which had drawn thin lines of blood, strangely traced a perfect arc through the air, swiftly retracing its original path as if time itself had reversed.
And it wasn't just the golden sword that seemed to be moving backward through time.
Now, across this neighborhood, this city, this country, this world! Time was reversing on a massive scale.
The Holy Sword that had unleashed a golden light.
The burning city streets. The snowbound castle. The arrogant king laughing in midair. The boy in a forested park calling out the name "Artoria." The boy in red armor stepping out of a magic circle.
Time kept moving backward! Backward! Further backward!
His appearance as the Ninth Heroic Spirit, the Returner. His countless lifetimes of reincarnation. The truth of his own heart. His anger when Artoria lost her memories.
And then...
There was also the most precious thing in his memories...
"Xia, you'll stay with me forever, right?" That was the girl when she relied on him...
"Xia, you're so overbearing! I'm trying hard to get stronger!" That was the girl when she wanted to stand on her own...
"Xia! Where did you go?!" That was the girl when she was afraid...
"Xia! Will you leave me?" That was the girl when she was worried...
As countless fragments of memory fixed in his heart the beautiful girl expressing all those different feelings,
all those expressions finally gathered into a single image.
A blue sky, with white clouds drifting by.
Beneath the trees stood a golden-haired girl, smiling as she opened her arms to him. She softly called out,
"Xia~~~"
Thump!
His heart gave a powerful beat. Xia felt his dazed consciousness gradually begin to clear.
His weak, powerless consciousness drifted out of a mysterious forest, passing through the white clouds, the blue sky, the distant stars, and the boundless universe.
Xia, collapsed on the ground, suddenly saw a golden light burst from his eyes!
"I remember... everything..." Xia murmured, making the golden-haired girl standing before him look at him in confusion.
Xia sprang to his feet and reached out with one hand, wrapping his arms around the slightly startled golden-haired girl before him.
"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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