"What are you trying to do, Aoko?"
Touko called out, stopping her sister as she tried to step out of the barrier.
"That's what I should be asking you," Aoko shot back. "Are you really going to let your… important person fight alone?" She couldn't accept it. "If it's too risky for you, then let me go. Once the Singularity is resolved, the debt of death will be offset anyway."
"You're not going." Touko took off her glasses, her voice icy. "Magic may be a divine truth beyond this world, but get this straight. This time, our opponent isn't me, or another Magus, or any human. It's a god, through and through."
"Aoko…" Alice pressed a hand to Aoko's shoulder, shaking her head to stop her.
Touko kept her eyes on the state of the barrier.
This authority outcome was linked directly to Shiomi himself. If it showed even the slightest sign of cracking, it meant Shiomi was losing ground and was in real danger.
"If you want to go, then step forward and try," Touko said quietly. "Even your body can't endure Authority running rampant when it's already injured."
As Touko spoke, Aoko took a defiant half-step forward. The moment she left the barrier, an indescribable terror washed over her.
If she kept going, even she would be remade into something inhuman.
The ecosystem the "New God" was trying to create would no longer have any need for humanity as it currently existed.
What it would become was something no one could predict.
"Look, inside the storm—" Skadi called out.
But aside from Touko, still arguing with her sister, everyone else was already focused on the battle they couldn't see into.
They all noticed the change at the same time.
Inside that scroll of light formed by the mana wind, streaks of different colors kept flashing through.
At first it was one strike at a time, but soon the attacks became dense.
As the number of slashes increased, the tornado of mana wind began to weaken.
When it finally dispersed, what appeared before them was only the "New God," its divine body torn into pieces, and Shiomi rising into the sky with Gungnir and Longinus in hand.
It had been Shiomi, inside that vortex, attacking the "New God" without pause, wave after wave.
The divine body could no longer stand. It could only reach out with both hands, trying to catch Shiomi as he slipped beyond its range.
Countless meteors sprang up from the earth out of nowhere, racing toward Shiomi.
But it was already too late.
"The core's position is finally fully exposed. Now it's simple. We strip it out before it gets covered again!"
Shiomi released his grip. The instant the two spears left his hands, they vanished.
Mana gathered in his palms, then surged higher into the sky, forming a colossal axe that blotted out the heavens.
It was a Noble Phantasm that only a divine body could truly wield. Even he couldn't take it in hand and use it as a weapon in close combat. For him, it could only be a single decisive strike.
If he wanted to swing that hand axe freely at will, he would probably have to become something like the thing in front of him.
And that was… a hard pass.
He looked down at the "New God" below.
The future that had sought to become a god had become a god in the past.
The only one who could cut down the self was another self.
But—
This wasn't for slaughter.
It was for salvation.
Not only to save himself, but to save her, the one he could not afford to lose.
"…So this is why you ended up like this, 'me'. Struggle, anger, despair—I understand all of it now." Shiomi ignored the countless meteors rapidly closing in. "It's still too early to ascend the throne of gods. For now, being human is enough! 'Enuma Elish'!"
The giant axe transformed into a sacred radiance and cleaved forward, cutting diagonally from the divine body's shoulder. Along a line just a thin layer away from the core, the false body was split apart.
A blow that tore through heaven and earth. The incomplete divine form, the 'New God' that had failed to become a Beast, had its power to resist stripped away by its future self.
Before the body could even strike the ground, it had already begun to scatter into the wind.
Only the core remained.
Seizing that instant, Shiomi plunged downward, closing in on the divine core.
Through the clear, amber-like shell, he saw what lay inside.
'1999 Tenkei Shiomi' and '1999 Servant Morgan' lay nestled together like sleeping infants, their hands tightly clasped.
"Time to wake up, sleepyhead!"
Shiomi slammed his fist into the divine core. Cracks spread instantly across the shell, branching outward until it finally shattered.
Thud!
'1999 Tenkei Shiomi' fell limply onto the ground. '1999 Servant Morgan', meanwhile, was caught in Shiomi's arms. He descended slowly and gently laid her down.
"Be a little kinder to yourself, my husband…"
With the disappearance of the 'New God', the laws of the land began to restore themselves, no longer at risk of erosion.
Morgan was the first to notice. She rushed over, only to see this clear difference in treatment, and couldn't help but feel both amused and exasperated.
"After all, 'I' won't die… what matters is 'you'."
Shiomi raised his hand, holding it above her chest. The power capable of healing all things flowed continuously into the dying Servant Morgan.
"Well?"
"Your Spirit Core was on the verge of collapse. Any slower and you would've retreated," Shiomi said quietly. "At this point in time, there was nothing I could do to fix it."
"So that's why you went into a frenzy?" Morgan frowned slightly, both moved and aching inside.
"Authority was something I'd already grasped back in the Land of Shadows. I only managed to awaken part of it after being killed by the Demon God King," Shiomi said, lowering his hand. "It's fine now."
"But my drowning—and your own helplessness—drove you into that berserk state back then. That's exactly why this power couldn't heal me," Morgan sighed. "Could you value yourself just a little more?"
"Don't say things that unrealistic," Shiomi muttered as he stood up. "You know how much you mean to me."
"I do. But what needs to be said still has to be said," Morgan shook her head.
The 'Morgan' lying on the ground, her Spirit Origin fully restored, began to show signs of waking. She slowly opened her eyes, then startled when she saw the two of them.
As she sat up, she noticed 'Shiomi' collapsed nearby. Holding his forehead, he looked thoroughly confused.
"If this isn't an illusion… then you aren't the 'us' of this era." 'Morgan' picked up 'Shiomi', finally relaxing once she confirmed he was unharmed.
"This place has become a Singularity. You'll forget everything that happened here afterward," Morgan said, tracing a small circle beside her temple.
"But… you appearing here means that… it worked, didn't it?"
"Of course. You can rest easy."
After saying that, Morgan watched her Servant self cradle the unconscious him and silently sob. Her nose stung.
But when she turned her head and saw the faintly mischievous look on Shiomi's face, that surge of emotion quickly dissipated. Without saying a word, she reached out and gave him a sharp pinch at the small of his back.