"Hmph... Looks like a few rats have slipped in. Men who cling too stubbornly are hardly popular, you know."
Shirou had only just steadied himself and begun surveying his surroundings when a seductive woman's voice came from nowhere.
"You're the Assassin of 'Red'!"
Jeanne immediately looked around on guard, but there was no one in sight.
The voice had not traveled through the air. It had appeared directly in the intruders' minds.
Either the Queen of Assyria was using some kind of Magecraft, or they had, in the truest sense, become Assassin's playthings.
"To abandon an external battlefield that favors you and willingly enter my domain...
Even I must commend your courage... Did you think I would say that?
Hahahahahaha! How hopelessly foolish!"
"Oh, there's a sword here. Looks like it's two thousand years old. It's mine now."
Shirou took a longsword down from the corridor wall and was about to put it into his own collection.
"Stop! You wretch! Do not touch the furnishings in my Garden without permission!"
"Come on, how petty... But never mind. I've already analyzed its structure."
Shirou hung the longsword back on the wall.
"You wretch... How far do you intend to mock me?
Hmph, very well. Your arrogance ends here.
The surface is one thing, but this is my domain. Do not think you will leave alive."
The Empress delivered her threat with absolute confidence.
And that confidence was not unfounded.
The "Hanging Gardens of Babylon" is a "World-Class Noble Phantasm."
It is a "World" that materializes the legend, or rather the misconception, of the Queen of Assyria constructing the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
The Hanging Gardens themselves are a battleship with overwhelming EX-class firepower, and their interior is also the Witch Semiramis's ultimate Magical Workshop.
With infinite space and the rules of "inversion," they raise all of Semiramis's abilities to their highest level and even enable near-magical feats such as "spatial teleportation."
As long as she remains within the Hanging Gardens, Semiramis is absolute. Every phenomenon works in her favor, and even Karna, the great hero of India, would be easily suppressed by the Empress.
That was why, when Shirou proposed making the Hanging Gardens the site of the final battle, most people opposed him.
The "Black" faction was already at a disadvantage in overall strength, and now they were willingly stepping onto the enemy's home ground. It was clearly walking into a trap.
In the end, it was the acting clan leader, Fiore, who stepped forward to support Shirou.
She pushed back against the objections and persuaded the Magi of Yggdmillennia.
"Then... Assassin of 'Red'! You're hiding somewhere in this fortress right now, aren't you?
Can you let me speak with your Master, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada?
I already know who he is! I came here to uncover his true purpose!"
Jeanne raised her voice, shouting into the empty air.
Perhaps her words had reached them, because Semiramis's voice, laced with contempt and mockery, echoed all around.
"Heh. How desperate you are, little girl... Do you think I would answer you honestly?
If so, that head of yours is almost adorably naive... No, wait.
Perhaps that is exactly why you can spout nonsense about hearing an oracle. Hahahaha!"
As expected, Semiramis refused to talk and launched an attack on the intruders.
The first to greet them were monsters from the Age of Myths.
Two of the Eleven Offspring of Tiamat, the Mother of Genesis in Mesopotamian myth: Mushḫuššu, the Dragon of Babylon, and Ugallu, the Giant Lion.
The Magical Beasts swarmed in, scattering the Heroic Spirits and forcing them to fight on their own.
Shirou drew his Holy Sword, fighting the monsters while keeping watch over the area.
For Shirou, battling this horde was not especially difficult, but for Frankenstein and Astolfo, it was an exhausting struggle.
Frankenstein had originally been a weak modern Servant. By relying on the "Mad Enhancement" skill to raise her stats, she had only barely reached the average level of a Heroic Spirit.
But in raw strength alone, each of these Magical Beasts surpassed even a Heroic Spirit.
They were embodiments of the Mother of Genesis's wrath, biological weapons created by Tiamat to destroy the gods who had betrayed their mother.
A lapse of even 0.1 seconds would allow the Magical Beasts' claws and fangs to tear apart the Spirit Core of a Heroic Spirit, manifested in the physical world through an Ether body.
"!"
Shirou pierced the heart of a Mushḫuššu with his Holy Sword, which was wreathed in a storm, only for another Magical Beast to pounce at once.
Looks like the "Red" faction plans to use these Magical Beasts to wear us down first.
Once everyone on our side is exhausted, they can move in fresh and finish us off.
This was something Shirou had not anticipated. Semiramis still had this much strength in reserve.
If she possessed such a powerful army of Magical Beasts, why had she not used them from the start? Why send out those Dragon Tooth Soldiers that were good for nothing but cannon fodder?
Shirou felt that something was off, but he had no time to think about it further.
The battle went on for twenty minutes, and the situation grew increasingly grim.
Shirou, Chiron, and Mordred all had extensive experience fighting Phantasmal Species, so they only felt somewhat pressured, but Frankenstein and Astolfo were already on the verge of collapse.
It was not only because they were slightly weaker, but also because of their Masters.
They were putting everything they had into dodging and attacking the Magical Beasts, without holding anything back.
No matter how powerful a Heroic Spirit's own Mana might be, what determines their endurance and movement in the end is the Mana of their Magus Master, in other words, the human's Magic Circuits. And their Masters were not especially outstanding.
If the only threat had been the Magical Beasts, that would have been one thing.
But on top of that, the curse of the Ancient Poisoner, which filled the interior of the Hanging Gardens, was also corroding everyone's bodies.
The various toxins could kill any ordinary living creature within seconds. Although they could not directly kill Heroic Spirits, they lowered all their stats by one rank, and even weakened certain skills, such as Shirou and Mordred's "Instinct."
How much longer could they hold out?
Just as Shirou was considering whether to activate his Reality Marble, which could at least neutralize the curse the Hanging Gardens itself had placed upon them, the Magical Beasts that had been attacking them in a frenzy moments earlier withdrew in an orderly fashion, as though they had received a command.
"What the hell...!"
Mordred braced both hands on their knees and wiped the sweat from their forehead with the back of one hand.
"Let's go, Ruler. We're dragging Her Majesty the Queen and her Master out of there and beating the crap out of them. I won't feel better until we do."
Jeanne hurried after Mordred.
"Ah, wait, wait for me! Mordred!"
"Didn't I tell you not to call me that!"
The time had come for them to split up.
Jeanne and Mordred shared the same goal: the Audience Hall in the deepest part of the aerial fortress.
Ruler suddenly stopped and turned to Shirou.
"Artorius, I'm going that way... Be careful yourself, all right?"
The red-haired boy rolled his eyes and waved her off. "Yeah, yeah. What are you, my mom?"
He had thought Ruler would make her usual cute, annoyed face, but her expression was solemn.
As if she had made up her mind, Jeanne said, "If we can still meet again after tonight's battle...
"Um, there's something I want to confess to you."
"A confession?"
"No! Well... not exactly, but close."
Shirou nodded. "All right. Once tonight's battle is over, I'll listen properly."
"Then it's a promise."
They made the promise, but both of them knew it could never be kept.
When tonight's decisive battle ended, everything would likely end with it.
Heroic Spirits were like summer morning dew, vanishing into nothing before the sun could rise.
Shirou and Jeanne would never meet again. This conversation was probably their final exchange.
"Archer, what are you going to do next?"
While treating Frankenstein's injuries, Shirou looked toward the strategist of the "Black" faction.
But Archer's gaze had turned toward another direction in the labyrinthine corridor. From there came a presence he knew all too well from life, radiating fighting spirit as if in provocation.
"My apologies, Saber. I already have a prior engagement. He is calling me over."
"Honestly, he never did fix that impatient streak of his."
"I see. Don't lose."
The centaur Sage nodded, then said to Shirou, "If I do not return, I leave Fiore in your hands."
The red-haired boy frowned. "Are you kidding me? I just told you not to lose."
"The 'Red' Rider, Achilles, hero of the Trojan War…"
"He is a student I take pride in. And naturally, as his teacher, there is no way I will lose."
Archer left behind a meaningful smile, then turned and walked away without hesitation.
As a result, Shirou became the designated caretaker for Frankenstein and Astolfo.
That was what they meant by "with great power comes great responsibility," apparently.
The three of them chose one of the branching paths and headed deeper into the Garden.
The "Black" Rider walked at the front. From behind, he showed not the slightest tension, humming as if he were a middle school student on a field trip.
But at a certain moment, he suddenly stopped, and his expression stiffened.
Even Astolfo, that carefree, cheerful Heroic Spirit, went pale before the terrifying solar Mana.
"The 'Red' Lancer... and two others!"
"Who are you calling 'others'?"
Blocking Shirou, Astolfo, and Frankenstein were three figures as well.
Karna, Atalanta, and the "Red" Sorcerer, Shakespeare.
"Hello, everyone!"
The middle-aged gentleman in red greeted them cheerfully, but Shirou and Rider treated him like air, keeping their attention fixed on the far more dangerous Lancer.
"Uuuh... It's you!"
A jade-green current shot through the corridor.
"Fran!"
Berserker recognized the Caster who had used that Nightmare Noble Phantasm on her a few days earlier, and she charged without a second thought.
Shakespeare immediately turned and ran.
"Don't run!"
"Hahahaha! I have no intention of leaving the stage before I see the ending!"
Shirou thought it was a bad idea to let Berserker chase after that sly fraud alone and tried to follow, but Lancer blocked his path.
"My apologies, Saber... Your opponent is me."
As he spoke, Karna spun the divine spear in one hand. His Mana became flames coiling around his body, and he leapt into the air.
At this point, there was no longer any reason to probe each other.
Karna knew exactly how powerful the "Black" Saber was as a Heroic Spirit.
If they fought a contest of martial skill, the two of them could continue for a thousand days without deciding a victor.
Then he would entrust the outcome to the one thing that most decisively made a Heroic Spirit what they were: the Noble Phantasm.
Karna had thought this through carefully.
He had lived through many battles praised as myth. Of course, he could proudly state without hesitation that he had always fought with everything he had, never once holding back, and never once insulting an opponent.
...But that was still his full strength under constraints.
Just as, in the past, at his mother's request, he had declared that he would only fight the third of the Pandava brothers, Arjuna.
It felt as though every battle he had fought in life had bound him with layer upon layer of shackles.
Curses from the gods, blessings from the gods, morality, or human obligation.
That was only natural. That was what it meant to live, and what it meant to fight as a warrior, a Kshatriya.
At times, those things became strength. At other times, they became burdens.
But either way, they were unmistakably excess weight... Yes, in the battles of his past, there had always been goals that had to be fulfilled.
He had to win victory for the king he served, Duryodhana, and defeat the five Pandava brothers.
...No, more importantly, he had to defeat his archrival, Arjuna.
To fight his younger brother by blood, and to win.
That was indeed a heavy fate worthy of being called a shackle.
But not now.
Summoned as a Servant, the only thing expected of him was absolute power.
This was a miraculous moment he had never known in life, and likely never would again.
For the first time, Karna, the great hero who had borne heavy shackles all his life, had the chance to use his full strength without caring about the consequences.
Fate, justice, belief, hatred...
All of those were footnotes people added to dress up battle.
To Karna, they did not matter. The battle itself was the greatest meaning.
"O' Brahma, Curse Me, Brahmastra Kundala."
This was Karna's hidden trump card, and his strongest Noble Phantasm at this stage.
It imbued the "Indestructible Blade (Brahmastra)" with the scorching flame that was Karna's attribute, then fired it.
It further expanded the already vast range of the Anti-Army, Anti-Nation Noble Phantasm "Indestructible Blade," greatly increasing its destructive power until its performance could be likened to a nuclear weapon.
In the "Red" faction's original plan, Semiramis had hoped to use this attack to destroy the stronghold of Yggdmillennia.
In life, Karna had once been cursed.
At critical moments, he would sometimes forget how to use the Brahmastra. Likewise, when facing "an opponent stronger than himself," he would become unable to use it.
He was in exactly that state now. Was the reason the former, or the latter?
Bathed in the blazing vortex, the beautiful man smiled.
Without a doubt, it was the latter.
This red-haired boy was, in the literal sense, an unprecedented and unrepeatable foe.
Karna had never faced a stronger opponent before, and likely never would again.
Yet even the divine spear capable of vaporizing a thousand-year-old impregnable fortress could not be used against him.
No, even if he could use it, it likely would not defeat him.
Every tremor running through his body told him that truth.
He could only use "that."
"Hey... Lancer! What are you planning? Don't do anything reckless!"
Atalanta frowned. The wild instincts of the huntress had already sensed something.
"Huh? What? What's going on?"
Astolfo, meanwhile, had no idea that destruction was about to descend upon him.
"Even if I pour all my strength into the 'Brahmastra,' I doubt it would be enough to defeat you."
Karna spoke calmly.
"Therefore, I need an absolute strike capable of completely crushing you."
Hearing that, Shirou's expression did not change. He answered with a fearless smile.
"Fine. Bring it out, Hero Karna…"
"I'll take responsibility and witness it. The radiance of the sun no one has ever seen."
On the night before the final battle, Shirou had undergone an intensive study session with Caules on the Servants of the "Red" faction.
The highest priority, naturally, was the enemy ace, Lancer, whom Shirou was meant to handle.
The great hero Karna of Indian myth had not originally wielded a spear.
Originally, he drove a chariot and drew a bow. In short, he was praised as a warrior with the qualifications of both Archer and Rider. Of course, that did not mean he was unskilled with spears or swords.
Then why had Karna been summoned as Lancer?
Before the final battle against the Pandava brothers, in other words Arjuna, a Brahmin monk came to Karna, who was then the commander-in-chief of Duryodhana's army.
The monk asked Karna, who was bathing at the time, for his golden armor.
The monk had no reason to ask for the golden armor, but Karna had once sworn that whatever a Brahmin monk asked of him while he was bathing, he would give, no matter what it was.
Indra, King of the Gods and father of the five Pandavas, knew of that vow. He disguised himself as a monk and asked Karna for the golden armor.
The God King, who understood just how powerful Karna was, refused to risk anything that might lead to Arjuna's death.
And Karna knew all of this in advance, yet still tore off the golden armor fused with his body and handed it to Indra.
Ashamed before Karna's noble act, Indra produced a spear.
What Karna received in exchange for the golden armor was the strongest spear, said to be capable of killing a god with a single swing.
With that spear in hand, Karna became the strongest Lancer.
And so...
Now was the moment for Karna to reveal the true face of the strongest spear.
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