"Nor had I ever known victory."
A storm of magical energy erupted around Ritsuka. Nearly half of her orange-red hair had turned silver-white. This was probably the result of consuming a massive amount of her own life force...
"I alone shall shatter ice atop the Sword Mound."
"Yet this life shall not end."
Wielding the ancient, heavy stone axe in her hand, Ritsuka drove Angelica back step by step, then slightly turned her head to glance at the increasingly brilliant halo behind her.
"This false body is still..."
"Made of swords!"
The stone axe was forced aside by countless divine weapons. Gate of Babylon fired over a dozen Divine Constructs, effortlessly deflecting the attack. Angelica then turned and slashed at Ritsuka with her sword.
The attack tore through the air, but struck nothing. Ice and snow swallowed the world.
Snowflakes fell onto Angelica's cheek, making her eyes widen instinctively as the scene before her transformed into something utterly extraordinary.
Her long hair danced in the gale, snow settling on the tip of her nose. Ritsuka tilted her head slightly upward and looked to the sky. The black-blue heavens formed a pitch-black snowy night. This was another of her trump cards, a power that, if used together with Alcides, would inevitably bring death swiftly upon her.
"Individual and world, fantasy and reality—replace everything with the shape of the heart. The ultimate mystery of magecraft—Inherent Domain."
Her eyes had nearly turned gold, no longer matching their usual amber hue. Silver-white strands now made up more than half her hair. She reached out and slowly pulled a sword from the ground.
"Hey! Angelica, how does this world feel? This desolate world, cold as a frozen wasteland, filled with endless sword-gravestones."
Blades and swords stretched as far as the eye could see. Ritsuka swept her gaze across the boundless world of swords, a smile at the corner of her mouth as she stopped several dozen meters from Angelica. A tiny crack quietly appeared on her arm.
Her "immortality until transferred to Prometheus" rapidly repaired it, but even more of her body began to break apart immediately afterward.
"Tch. This scenery, and that life of yours, lower even than a beast's... It seems I misunderstood..."
Angelica wore a look of disgust as she gazed upon the world of imitations before her. The personality imposed by the Class Card made her feel almost nauseated. This time, Gate of Babylon directly illuminated the snowy night sky.
There were hundreds—thousands—of weapons of every kind.
"You, who never even deserved the right to stand upon this stage... You truly are just like those things pretending to be human, and that Heracles who commits evil like filth. You make me sick!"
Enveloped by an endless array of Noble Phantasms, the swords around Ritsuka began to rise slowly. She aimed all her swords at Angelica. "Haha... Yeah. I never had the right to stand on this stage, but he gave me that right. That's enough."
A sea of swords surged forward. The false Noble Phantasms took the initiative, knocking down the rain of Noble Phantasms shot toward her.
The swords in her hands shattered amid the collisions. Gripping Alcides's stone axe once more, Ritsuka leaped high into the air with a crazed smile and brought it crashing down upon the stationary Angelica.
The stone axe was blocked by more than a dozen shields, each a famous piece of armor from myth. Angelica, the maiden bearing the name of the King of Heroes, drew them out. Then a massive blade burst from a ripple below her, and even its grazing strike sent Ritsuka flying.
Unable to control her balance, Ritsuka rolled through the snow. Once she steadied herself, she raised her head as countless projected swords wreathed in magical energy charged forth. "You really are an Heroic Spirit befitting a 'King,' aren't you? Tossing out Noble Phantasms that mortals could only look up to as if they were scrap!"
"But that's exactly why you look down on them, isn't it?!"
"The avenger who abandoned the gods himself, swore vengeance against them, willingly sullied himself, and honed his martial arts to the very limit with a human body—Alcides!!"
The stone axe in her hand swung down with ferocious force. Divine energy pouring from her belt flooded into it wildly, and the power she had gained from the Crystal Dice instantly reached its limit.
Her fingertips shattered, yet her five fingers clenched tightly around the axe handle. Countless shields broke apart, and Angelica's stunned expression entered her sight.
At that moment, behind the maiden screaming herself hoarse, Angelica seemed to see a towering black figure roaring at her as well. Its crimson eyes brimmed with mad intent as its stone axe split down toward her head.
Crack—!
Ritsuka's left hand shattered and vanished, blood scattering across the snow in great sprays. Angelica, struck by the stone axe, was transferred away through a glass-like scene.
Space twisted and shifted. The attack struck empty air.
An immense pain swept through her entire body. The side effects of immortality became terrifyingly severe. Having lost the vast magical energy she needed to suppress them, the accumulated effects erupted all at once, causing Ritsuka's face to twist slightly.
—At last, this moment had arrived.
It felt as though something incomparably important had suddenly snapped and disappeared.
Even when she had pushed her body to its limits to wield power beyond what it could bear, her magical energy had never once run dry. Now, she finally understood where it had come from.
Ritsuka closed her eyes—
"Miyu, you have to be happy."
A pillar of light illuminated the night inside the cave of Mt. Enzou. A massive circular magic circle enclosed the individual within that pillar.
At a certain moment, the power that had reached its critical point suddenly converged. The beam gradually contracted, the world opened, and Miyu, the embodiment of a wish, was sent out of this world.
Together with the Grail's connecting formation, Mt. Enzou was left completely empty.
A hole had opened above under the impact of the pillar of light. Within it lay the scene of another world: a bustling city and throngs of people, vivid and clear.
That, too, was Fuyuki City.
The seven Class Cards used for wishes passed through the opening.
At this moment, two similar yet different worlds connected with one another.
Within the Imaginary Number Space dwelling deep in her heart, Ritsuka knelt on one knee amid the frozen landscape, gasping continuously. Her right hand had shattered after reaching the boundary between worlds, blood splattering onto the white snow.
The supply of magical energy within her body—the Magic Circuits that had once worked tirelessly—had suddenly become somewhat restrained.
Her magical energy was beginning to run short.
Clearly, the nearly limitless magical energy she had possessed in the previous battle had not come from the Crystal Dice, but from Emiya Miyu—the Grail, the miracle.
"Heh... What a pathetic big sister I am. Even at the very end, I was still being looked after by my little sister..."
Unlimited Blade Works consumed an enormous amount of magical energy. Watching the Inherent Domain on the verge of collapse, Ritsuka decisively dismissed the Twelve Labors. She even withdrew Divine Beast's Fur and the military belt.
She was back in tattered clothes, like a female middle school student who had just been bullied.
"I won, King of Heroes."
Speaking words Angelica could not understand at all, Ritsuka wiped the corner of her mouth with her only remaining left hand, then raised it.
She pulled a sharp sword from the ground.
Angelica frowned, clearly sensing something as well. She glared furiously at the battered Emiya Ritsuka in the distance. "You..."
Clang—!
With a stomp, Ritsuka kicked up snow and slashed out with her sword.
A sword emerging from a golden ripple blocked Ritsuka's charge. Failing to land the blow, Ritsuka pulled back slightly.
With only one hand left to fight with, the situation had become somewhat troublesome, but it did not matter.
She was reaching her limit anyway.
Countless blades answered her call and rose from the ground. Swords and sabers hovered above Ritsuka's head. Within this Inherent Domain, even without her right hand, she could still retain formidable combat power.
Clang, clang, clang, clang...
Nearly every weapon from Gate of Babylon was intercepted the instant it emerged.
Ritsuka casually pulled out a Chinese longsword and charged Angelica, dropping low into a sliding kick to evade the threat of two guillotine blades.
She flipped herself upright and leaped, bringing her sword down from above. It collided with Angelica's greatsword, fierce sparks bursting from the point of impact as the two briefly locked blades.
The next instant, the sword in Ritsuka's hand suddenly shattered, and the greatsword grazed past her cheek.
The upturned corner of Ritsuka's mouth made Angelica's expression change drastically.
Bang—!
Twisting her body, Ritsuka drove a knee forward. Her leg joint became a weapon, slamming toward Angelica's head as the outline of spatial replacement enveloped her.
The scenery in Angelica's vision shifted, and she was replaced into midair.
Halos unfolded, sealing off every direction in a 360-degree dead zone. Countless deadly knives, spears, swords, and halberds shot rapidly from the ripples, as though the battered girl would be turned into a pincushion the next moment.
Across the vast snowy plain, countless weapons rose and rushed toward Ritsuka.
Using the projected weapons that gradually approached her, Ritsuka leaped through the air, evading most of the attacks.
When she finally landed, only one sword was embedded in her body. She did not dare pull it out, even though it was draining her life force.
She had a feeling that if she pulled it out, she would die here immediately...
The Bow of the Hydra, bestowed by the Sun God Apollo and formed through the fusion of myths after slaying the Hydra, was drawn to its limit. In an instant, she fired dozens of arrows with divine-realm skill, every one of them reaching supersonic speed.
Angelica was forced to use Replacement Magic again and transfer herself away.
"Heh, you let your guard down. I can grasp every movement within the Inherent Domain."
"...What?"
The instant the replacement ended, Ritsuka had already appeared before Angelica. Then she directly discarded her weapon and launched a side kick.
Violent power poured into Angelica. As Ritsuka drew ever closer to her limit, her combat power began to soar. Though magical energy restrictions prevented her from using other Noble Phantasms, she was even stronger in close combat!
"Damn it!"
Angelica held a longsword horizontally before herself. The shattered blade pierced her abdomen, and an emergency second spatial replacement allowed her to escape the battle.
She was injured. The tyrannical personality imposed upon the puppet revealed itself at this moment.
"You bastard... This game ends here!"
The fury on Angelica's face was unmistakable. She waved her hand, and two gigantic halos appeared above her. "Come forth! Prison Scythe! Dust Saw!"
Ritsuka's eyes widened slightly in shock when she saw the weapons emerging from the halos.
Massive armaments, each at least several dozen meters long. Two Divine Constructs descended from the heavens—a black greatsword and a crimson longsword. The two unmatched divine weapons pointed directly at the tiny figure below.
The crushing pressure, along with the approaching heat, made Ritsuka narrow her eyes.
The attack range is too wide. There's no time to get out of range. Unless... I take it head-on!
"Trace On!"
Azure lightning gathered in her left hand, her eyes fixed entirely on the first divine weapon descending upon her.
Ritsuka roared, "Aaaahhh...!"
She rapidly analyzed the divine weapon and reconstructed its external composition. A weapon formed in her hand, lacking the divine weapon's inherent qualities but possessing the same hardness.
False—The Verdant Horizon That Carves Through a Thousand Mountains!!!
She violently swung her left hand upward. The projected armament had no power to carve through mountains, only hardness nearly equal to that of a divine weapon, yet it smashed fiercely upward.
Boom—!!
Amid the thunderous impact, Ritsuka's projected Mountain Breaker carved a notch into the real Mountain Breaker.
The second divine weapon followed immediately. Ritsuka's body began to crack in small areas as she squeezed out every last trace of magical energy within herself, madly projecting the second divine weapon.
Absolute—The Dawn Horizon That Scorches Through Ten Thousand Seas!!!
Once again, the projected divine weapon split the true divine weapon apart. The destroyed true divine weapon exploded, the concepts contained within turning into a sea of fire that crashed directly onto the snowy plains.
Among the wreckage of the divine weapons, Ritsuka coughed violently.
Her upper clothes had nearly been completely destroyed. Only half of a long sleeve and her underwear still hung from her body.
Her body, including her shoulder and left arm, had already begun to fall apart as well...
She had squeezed magical energy from her body, and there was almost none left even within her shattered frame. Ritsuka no longer had the strength to stand—
She barely walked out of the sea of flames that scorched her, then suddenly froze.
The woman who had unleashed two overwhelmingly powerful divine weapons, seemingly intending to finish her in a single strike, stood dozens of meters away and watched her coldly.
A halo of moderate size bloomed in her hand.
Immediately afterward, a crimson storm descended upon this world. The King of Heroes' true trump card was finally revealed.
Before you continue