Supreme light erupted as two ultimate powers collided.
The Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion, strong enough to shatter planets and split realms, against Avalon—the Absolute Protection that ignored all magic and physical force, even rebounding attacks.
At their first clash, who would triumph?!
The collision between sword pressure and absolute defense scattered waves of power. The mere aftershocks flattened the surrounding ground by several meters. Ocean waves surged outward for kilometers, swallowing reefs beneath the tide.
Amidst the brilliant radiance, Satsuki's sword arm trembled as Avalon reflected her own strikes back upon her. Yet she cared nothing for the backlash, pressing her blade down with merciless force.
With the immortal golden body of Demon Buddha Māra, not even such divine rebound could crease her brow.
And Avalon, under the might of the golden sword that could annihilate all, remained unmoved—serene, unshaken.
Even the King of Heroes, bathed in its light, broke free of Satsuki's binding and regained freedom of movement.
Yet faced with this battle of legends, rivaling even his strongest Noble Phantasm, he could no longer brandish the word "mongrel" at either combatant.
For at this moment, he lacked even the qualification to join the fight. His Master, Tokiomi Tohsaka, had already used a Command Seal to order his retreat.
"Woman! This king shall remember today's shame. When next we meet, I will show you no contempt."
Under Avalon's protection, the Hero King cast his wrath skyward toward Satsuki, then glared at the Heroic Spirits before him. His form dissolved into golden light, vanishing.
With his departure, Satsuki's golden sword slowly faded into eight golden orbs that floated behind her.
Her gaze turned upon the noble, dignified King of Knights before the crowd.
"I did not expect you to possess such a Noble Phantasm, Saber. Even my Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion cannot pierce it. It seems this battle will not end in easy victory."
Descending to the earth, Satsuki's eyes still shone with disdain. Even her praise carried cold indifference.
Yet the knight's gaze remained taut with vigilance. The Everdistant Utopia was without doubt the ultimate defense, invulnerable to all force, magic, or even spatial interference.
But its cost in mana rivaled its impossible power.
With both Irisviel supplying her energy and the core of a dragon furnace within her, she could maintain Avalon for only a few seconds.
Against ordinary foes, those seconds were enough. Their attacks would rebound, and her own Excalibur could then strike unhindered.
But against this mysterious Servant—Satsuki, who cared nothing for heaven-shaking backlash—it was different.
"Your praise rings hollow," Saber said, emerald eyes sharp. "Your gaze shows no intent of surrender."
Satsuki's eyes were void, yet absolute.
"This praise is sincere. And this gaze—indeed does not yield."
At her words, a crushing aura of supremacy swept across the battlefield.
The King of Knights immediately readied her stance. The golden sword appeared once more, while Avalon's sheath dissolved into invisible particles, wrapping her like unseen armor.
Behind Satsuki, three more golden spheres emerged, beginning to shift into the state of the orbs of the Vipralopa.
The clash was about to escalate again.
But then Satsuki felt it—a subtle, hidden killing intent. Death itself, heavy and profound, brushing against her. For the first time, curiosity stirred within her.
And in that instant of pause—
"Please stop, Lady Satsuki."
At last, El-Melloi, who had been unable to act beneath the oppressive force, found a breath of reprieve to speak.
"Archer has withdrawn. There is no need for us to continue. Excessive consumption will only grant our other enemies an opening."
"Fou~ Fou."
The white beast, hiding who knew where, once again climbed onto Mash's shoulder. Yet this time its gaze toward Satsuki was filled with wariness and fear.
"Oh?" Satsuki glanced at El-Melloi. "You wish to play mediator? Even after making it clear you stand before me as opposition?"
"This…"
Ritsuka Fujimaru and Mash fell silent. In the clash between Satsuki and the King of Heroes just now, their actions indeed had not been impartial.
"Satsuki, was it? Mysterious Servant. This should have been a battle between you and me, but it has turned into something else."
The King of Knights took the words. Her sacred bearing and resolute aura never wavered for even an instant. She was truly a sovereign worthy of the title of king.
"They are connected to my retainers. If you wish to hold anyone accountable, then direct it toward me, their king."
Before Satsuki could answer, El-Melloi hurried to extinguish the fire.
"Knight King, and you as well, Einzbern Master. I suggest we end this here today. After all, we still share a common enemy to defeat. To waste our strength here is not the choice of the wise."
From the distance, Irisviel approached, still pale with lingering fear. "Indeed. There is no absolute need for hostility between us. But…"
Her gaze flickered uneasily toward the proud black-clad Servant.
El-Melloi turned to the seemingly distracted Satsuki and pressed on with a heavy heart. "Lady Satsuki, surely you are a wise Heroic Spirit."
"How amusing."
Satsuki's lips shaped strange words. Her eyes radiated a light wholly different from before.
"I thought this was merely a beginner's village where I could idle at leisure. Yet it seems there are still those who shine enough to catch my eye."
Moments earlier, Satsuki had tried to trace the source of that killing intent. If her guess was correct, it belonged to the one called Assassin.
From the density of that murderous aura, she could nearly surmise that this was a Heroic Spirit of a foundation wholly apart from the levels of the King of Knights and the King of Heroes.
Yet the strength of his concealment had already surpassed boundaries. Even with her Tenseigan, she could not glean a single trace of him.
With this thought, Satsuki dissolved into particles and departed on her own.
She had no desire to waste further words on Chaldea's group. Their actions earlier had already revealed cracks in their fragile alliance. Naturally, she would not continue entangling herself with them.
"Ah… what a pity." El-Melloi looked toward the direction Satsuki vanished, then turned his gaze upon Mash and Ritsuka. "Why did you two stand before that Servant? He is not one we can cooperate with. If Satsuki had slain him, it would have been for the best."
Recalling certain memories, El-Melloi admitted inwardly that he too had hoped for that Servant's disappearance. Yet the change in situation was beyond even his calculations.
"This…"
Ritsuka and Mash had no words in reply.
The King of Knights, meanwhile, lowered her stance and dismissed her Noble Phantasm. A glimmer of nostalgia flickered in her eyes as she looked upon the great shield in Mash's hands.
"…Iri, there are things I wish to say to this group. Please, grant me some time."
...
Returning to the hotel, Satsuki had already regained her usual composure—or rather, she had never lost it.
She lightly knocked on the door. Within, she could sense Angra Mainyu lying on the sofa, half-asleep. In all this time, aside from the few battles she had fought outside, she had hardly interacted or spoken properly with this so-called "Master."
But such was Satsuki's nature. She did not think it mattered. After all, in the shinobi world, she had often secluded herself within her own castle for years at a time.
"I'm back."
Though her spiritualized body could phase through the door, the groceries she carried could not. So, using her Tenseigan's power, she manipulated the key to unlock it instead.
"No need to say it—you must have gone off fighting again. That uproar was no small matter. Likely all of Japan witnessed it."
Angra Mainyu rubbed her sleepy eyes and took the breakfast from her hands.
"First a bombing at a restaurant, then restoration magecraft before countless eyes, and finally, a sword that split the sky. Ordinary people in this era truly live in misery."
"You care for ordinary people of this age? As the All the World's Evil?"
Satsuki loosened the sash of her kimono, unbinding her waist. After an entire night of battle—facing first the King of Knights, Artoria, and then the King of Heroes, Gilgamesh—though she had never once revealed her true strength, it had been a sufficient warm-up.
And it had been some time since she last enjoyed a hot bath. Having come to a modern world, she could at last indulge in such a luxury.
So she thought with ease.
"As I've said, 'All the World's Evil' is but a title forced upon me." Angra Mainyu reflexively retorted. But when her eyes flicked toward Satsuki's movements, her face flushed red. Her once sharp tongue grew clumsy. "Y-you… what are you doing? In broad daylight?"
Her kimono slipped from her shoulders as she slipped off her high heels. One after the other came off, followed by the sight of her pantyhose peeling away from shapely legs. The simple act left an alluring impression that silenced Angra Mainyu further.
"Setting aside that I am still wearing undergarments, your reaction is quite amusing." Though she had not turned directly toward her, the Tenseigan's perception left no blind spots. Naturally, she saw her expression clearly.
"Outwardly, we are both women."
Stripped to her underwear, Satsuki slowly approached her seated on the sofa. Her alluring figure was boldly revealed, the generous curves of her chest standing out as she leaned close. One hand lifted Angra Mainyu's chin, tilting her face upward. "Inwardly, you are the All the World's Evil, and I am a Heroic Spirit. Your reaction is far too human."
Angra Mainyu could not reply. Her essence had been that of an ordinary young man. Even after all these years, branded as the Evil of Humanity, her thought patterns remained the same as before.
"As the All the World's Evil, your resolve is insufficient. Or perhaps, as a conceptual existence, you lack awareness of what you are."
With those words, she released her, her body fading into spirit form as she stepped into the bath.
"Treat all equally. If you cannot, then your emotions will only wound you in the end."
Inside the bathroom, Satsuki did not immediately bathe. Instead, she stood before the full-length mirror, gazing at her reflection.
Her signature Tenseigan, the Ōtsutsuki earrings at her ears, and her maturing body—all of it undeniable.
Compared to herself years ago, bathing at a mountain spring in the shinobi world, the transformation was vast. Both inwardly and outwardly, she had undergone a metamorphosis.
Since deciding to intervene in the shinobi world until now, much had proceeded according to plan, while some had strayed beyond expectation.
The outcomes had not been poor, yet the risks had far exceeded her foresight. This was something she knew she must reflect upon with caution.
Her gaze then shifted to her Tenseigan and the crimson jewel upon her forehead.
It was the vessel of her Ōtsutsuki senjutsu chakra. She had stored much within it. Yet in this world, recklessly revealing such alien, planetary power would hardly be wise.
"In these battles with Heroic Spirits, my Tenseigan has already gathered much information about the nature of power in this world. The conversion of senjutsu energy is only one step away. Even if I cannot draw on this world's natural energy, the reserves I've stored will suffice."
With that thought, the crimson jewel upon Satsuki's forehead began to glow faintly. Strange lines spread swiftly across her body, intersecting and weaving together into an intricate lattice. They formed a thin, delicate barrier upon her skin.
This was the Dead Line Boundary—born from the fusion of the power of the Vipralopa, Ōtsutsuki senjutsu chakra, and the giant Tenseigan's mastery of space.
It was not the instant-death lines that would kill upon being struck. Such concepts had long been purged from her being back when she became Demon Buddha Māra, master of the power of the Vipralopa and the three authorities.
Here, the so-called "dead line" was a zone where the speed of light was reduced to zero. All particles lost vibration. All motion ceased. Escape was impossible.
Take a stone, for instance. According to relativity, once within this boundary, light speed fell to zero. The stone's initial velocity thus exceeded light speed many times over. Time would halt. At superluminal speed, its length would contract toward zero, and the stone would vanish.
This was the defense Satsuki had been developing. No, it had transcended mere technique—it was a concept. Any attack that entered her Dead Line Boundary would vanish. This was why, when facing Gilgamesh's treasures, she had not needed to evade.
But its use was harshly restrictive. She had only just managed to sustain this boundary upon her own body, and she could not yet invoke it at will.
In truth, it could also serve as offense, erasing an opponent entirely—not death, but the erasure of existence itself. Against those immune to instant-death concepts, it was exceedingly effective.
—You may not die, but your existence is erased. What difference is there?
Yet Satsuki cared little for such methods. In this world, what she valued was the process of battle, not the result of victory.
If further developed, this power could form a so-called "Black Domain"—a low-light-speed singularity. In the future, it might serve as her trump card against the Ōtsutsuki clan.
But that possibility was distant. Her current strength and calculations were not yet enough.
Such thoughts passed in an instant. That was her formidable mind at work.
Soon, the sound of falling water filled the bathroom.
Outside, Angra Mainyu, as usual, turned on the television to watch the news.
Nearly every channel broadcast footage of the previous night's battle in Fuyuki. Such a spectacle was far too great to conceal.
Yet the anchors and officials all steered the narrative toward "movie special effects" and similar explanations. The intact hotel served as supporting evidence. With money or other methods silencing witnesses, suppressing the incident would not be difficult.
"It seems I still don't understand how this world deals with such things. Even chaos of this scale can be covered up," Angra Mainyu muttered bitterly.
The people of this world were far too obedient.
And just then, from outside the door came the sound of knocking.