To become a king and a magician

As if a huge hole had opened in the sky, a massive void suddenly appeared above Ishtar's head, projecting out a dazzling galaxy, accompanied by an incomparably brilliant golden light.

That's Venus, or rather, the concept of Venus.

From the boundless sky to the vast land!

The enormous, radiant celestial body contracted, condensed, and compressed, ultimately transforming into an arrow of light that filled Maanna's magazine.

This was Ishtar's all-out attack.

This is a Noble Phantasm that transforms the legend of Ishtar [who ravaged Mount Ebif, a sacred mountain revered even by the King of Gods, causing its entirety to perish].

"Shatter the gates of the underworld!"

Ishtar revealed the true name of her Noble Phantasm.

"—【Mountains Tremble, Starlight (Angalta Kigalshe)!!】"

The arrow of light, transformed from a conceptual celestial body, fell like a meteor in an instant!

The magic that had been building up for most of the day was unleashed in this moment!

"BOOM——————————————!!"

A strike from the heavens shattered the earth!

72. It said, "We can go now."

Inside the tower in Uruk.

The throne room where Gilgamesh conducted state affairs.

Feeling the tremors coming from afar, Merlin opened his eyes: "It seems the battle has begun. I should probably head over there soon. You can handle this alone, right, Morgan?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Morgan glanced at him coldly. "I really don't want to work with you again. I might as well just die in the battle with Tiamat."

"Haha~~~ You really don't want to give me a kind look at all. I thought our relationship had improved a bit, but it seems not." Merlin laughed. "However, I don't want to die yet. I have to wait until I attend Artoria's wedding ceremony... Well, you won't be able to see it, which is a real shame."

This singularity is Morgan's last meeting with everyone.

After this singularity ends, Morgan, who has appeared as a Servant for twenty years, will disappear, giving everything to "himself" and returning to the Throne of Heroes.

She probably won't be summoned again in the future, since she has no reason to respond to the summons since then.

"Well then, goodbye, Morgan."

"Get out of here, Merlin."

————————————————————————————————————

Underworld.

This is the first time Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mashu have been here.

Everything in the Age of Gods was on the same cloth; flying into the sky would take you to the heavens, and digging into the earth would take you to the underworld—and everything that is happening now is exactly as the words of that statement mean.

Because of the impact of Ishtar's Noble Phantasm, the Chaos Tide was completely burned away, the earth shattered, and just as originally planned, Tiamat fell into the hole blasted out by Ishtar. Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash, who were nearby, were also immediately caught in the impact and fell into the underworld.

"It's pitch black, I can't see anything at all... Is this the underworld?"

"Please grab my hand, Master, we're about to make an emergency landing!"

As Mashu spoke, she pointed her shield at the ground. However, the next moment, their bodies suddenly felt light, and they floated down like two feathers onto the nearest rock platform.

On the platform—

"Welcome to the Underworld, Fujimaru Ritsuka, Mash."

Holding a gun, Ereshkigal smiled and said to the two, "This is our first official meeting, isn't it? I am the mistress of the underworld, Ereshkigal."

Looking at the goddess before her, who was almost identical to Ishtar except for her hair and eye color, Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded slightly and said, "Nice to meet you, Goddess Ereshkigal. I'll be in your hands from now on."

"It's alright, that was already agreed upon. Furthermore, I'm temporarily granting you the right to move and exist in the Underworld—"

"Ah, that!" Fujimaru Ritsuka quickly patted her pocket and took out two flowers, one for herself and one for Mash. "Actually, Merlin has already made magical artifacts that can achieve a similar effect for us, so you don't need to sacrifice your power to grant us special privileges."

"Huh? That nightmare demon can even do something like this?"

Ereshkigal was somewhat surprised—she clearly wanted to show off her power as a goddess, so how did they know that her actions would require sacrificing her power?

However, this is also good, as it allows us to use more of our power to fight Tiamat without expending it.

“AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaa————————!!”

Tiamat's singing voice came from the depths of the underworld. Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash quickly came to the edge of the platform and looked down. They saw Tiamat crawling on all fours in the underworld, surrounded by bursts of lightning-like light, singing and shouting continuously.

[Is that the Underworld's defense mechanism? Every second, those beams of light are inflicting damage on Tiamat equivalent to Ishtar's Noble Phantasm!]

Roman's voice was filled with surprise; with this effort, even Tiamat would suffer severe injuries.

Ereshkigal came to the side: "After all, this is the order established by this Uruk world. Even if Mother comes to the Underworld, she is just an ordinary god... That's what they say, but it didn't really have any effect on Mother, did it?"

"Huh? How could that be?"

Fujimaru Ritsuka couldn't help but widen her eyes. Even the damage from the underworld couldn't hurt Tiamat?

Just how powerful is this creator goddess?!

Don't worry, Fujimaru, things are still going according to plan, aren't they?

Roman comforted her.

[Judging by the time, it should be almost here. The Marduk Handaxe that Quetzalcoatl has deployed will greatly weaken Tiamat's divinity.]

"Lord Fujimaru! Lord Mash!"

Just then, Oda Nobunaga's voice suddenly came from above. Riding on a musket, he flew down from the sky and arrived in front of the three. Oda Nobunaga said, "Marduk's hand axe is about to be thrown down. Be prepared to dodge, and be careful not to get hit!"

———————————————————————————————————

The earth's surface.

Directly above the gate to the underworld that Ishtar blasted open.

Sitting atop a Quetzalcoatl with a pale face, Ishtar looked at Quetzal in front of her and said, "The rest is up to you, Quetzal Koyatl. I'm completely out of magic after that last attack."

"Okay, thank you for your hard work. Now, I'll take over from here!"

Quetzal said with a smile, while beside her, Marduk's hand axe, which was over forty meters long, was being carried in the air by dozens of Quetzalcoatlus.

Throwing the axe with all its might into the gates of the underworld, striking Tiamat from an absolute height—that's all Quetzal has to do.

"Alright, it's time for me to show off my skills—children, break free of your restraints!"

At Quetzal's command, the Quetzalcoatlus carrying Marduk's hand axes released their grip from the thick ropes. Just as the hand axes began to fall, Quetzal suddenly leaped up and instantly soared above them!

(Simply throwing won't work; to cause greater damage, you need to deliver the biggest impact at the very beginning.)

Thinking this, Quetzalcoatl's entire body was suddenly engulfed in flames as intense as the sun.

(That child burned away the sea of ​​life with the flames of the sun; now, I will shatter the gates of the underworld with a single strike from the sun!)

"Behold the power of the great conflict that has caused the extinction of countless lives in the underworld of South America!"

Aiming at Marduk's hand axe below, Quetzal, his entire body wreathed in blazing sunlight, unleashed his Noble Phantasm with all his might!

"—【Blazing flames, too, consume the gods (Xiuhcoatl)!】"

Falling from a height of one thousand meters, the burning sun flames converged at a single point, and Quetzalcoatl's all-out flying kick, falling like a meteorite, slammed into Marduk's hand axe!

"Thump~~~~~Bang——————————!"

With a dull thud, the massive hand axe suddenly transformed into a real meteorite! It hurtled down at full speed toward the Gate of the Underworld below!

"Crack crack crack crack crack crack crack————————!!"

The sharp blade cleaved through the rock layer, as if a crack had been cut open. The Gate of the Underworld was actually split in two by Quetzalcoatl's kick!

After plummeting rapidly for several seconds, to the astonishment of Fujimaru Ritsuka and the others—

"Thump—!!"

Like something out of a myth, Marduk's hand axe slammed down with tremendous force onto Tiamat's head!

“AAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa——————————————!!”

This time, Tiamat's singing voice carried a noticeable emotional fluctuation for the first time.

She felt the pain.

Grand Temple of Time - Solomon

1. Before the final battle

Chaldea, Central Control Room.

The time was three hours after Natsukawa Torato returned from the Seventh Singularity.

"Buzz~~~~Buzz~~~~Buzz~~~~"

The entire control room is now filled with piercing alarms, and numerous screens within the control room are flashing red lights that signify danger. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Sheba Lens, Chaldea, which has gradually returned to normal over the past six months and represents the beacon of Earth's civilization, has once again returned to a fiery red state.

"Outside Chaldea, the seventh to third offensive theories have been eliminated! The proof of non-existence has failed!"

"The intensity of the pseudo-spiritual particles formed inside the building is vibrating! They are being pulled by the quantum recording fixation belt!"

"There are -4368 hours remaining until the outer reaches of Chaldea are confirmed to be in 2016!"

.......

Reports came one after another from the overwhelmed staff. In the six months since the burning of humanity, the situation at this moment was the most serious that Chaldea had ever faced!

Just after all the recovered Holy Grails were analyzed and the coordinates of a previously unobserved singularity were unexpectedly obtained, Chaldea received an external interference that should have been impossible!

Standing in front of the command center, Roman supported himself on the table with both hands, staring intently at the rapidly scrolling analytical data on the screen.

"Finally... is this the day we're about to arrive?"

Yes, we're almost there.

For the others in Chaldea, the current situation is an unprecedented emergency, but for Roman, it is a situation that has finally arrived.

Since the Holy Grail War ended ten years ago, when Natsukawa Torato told him about the burning of humanity and he witnessed everything with his last clairvoyance, Roman has been waiting for this day to come.