IBHJ 1079

Seizing the opportunity, his eyes flashed with prismatic light. A long song echoed through space as a shield like a cluster of stars formed around him. He transformed into a comet and plunged into the churning black mud.

"Keep it contained!" Manaka shouted, transforming into her black vortex state and splitting into countless black hands to suppress the black tree.

"I don't need a bad witch like you to tell me what to do!" Arcueid pouted, maintaining her endless Moon Fall despite the rapidly depleting magical energy.

Venus also increased her resistance, using her authority to push back against the black forest.

Inside the tree's trunk, Shirou found himself in a surprisingly normal-looking space. He'd expected to see something dark and disturbing, like rotting mud, but the interior resembled that of an ordinary tree.

"This is nothing like the inside of [All the World's Evil]."

He remembered the dark, unsettling swamp that All the World's Evil had been; this was completely different. Still, he knew better than to be deceived by appearances.

"So, where would Ort be?" he wondered, looking around for any sign of them.

He was inside the black tree, but he couldn't break it from the inside. It wasn't just a physical thing; it was made of authority and concepts. He could only win if he brought Ort back and attacked from both the inside and outside.

Suddenly—

"Splash...splash...splash..."

He heard the sound of thick mud churning. Turning, he saw black mud seeping from the walls around him.

"Oh? Finally decided to do something about me? It's too late."

Shirou smiled faintly. He held out his right hand, and white lightning crackled around it.

—Qliphoth Rhizome!

"Let's see if you like this," he said. "I bet the real owner of this Noble Phantasm would be happy to see it used to destroy the Lord of Salvation."

Shirou pushed the Qliphoth Rhizome into the ground. It spread rapidly, like weeds taking root in rich soil. White lightning, like twisting branches, snaked through the walls.

In an instant, the black mud went limp, falling to the ground with a "drip, drip" sound, like something had sucked all the life out of it. But then, just as quickly, the white lightning that had spread through the walls turned black, withering away with a "sizzle, sizzle" as though it had been doused in acid.

"It's being assimilated," he said. "It won't last long. But I expected this. I have to find Ort and wake her up before it's too late."

Clutching several fragments of Ort, he hurried through the tree's trunk, searching for her. Uranus had pulled her into the black tree, and he had to find her.

He didn't stop to think about what Abigail might say if she knew how he was using her Noble Phantasm. As someone who always used others to get what he wanted, such thoughts never crossed his mind.

—Over... here...

Shirou stopped abruptly, his expression uncertain as he scanned his surroundings.

—Over... here...

"Who's there?" he wondered aloud. After a moment's hesitation, he turned and ran towards the source of the voice.

The inside of the black tree was like a maze. Though Qliphoth Rhizome had disrupted the connection between Uranus and Velber, causing some instability, black mud still oozed from the walls. Luckily, it posed no real threat to him.

"That is..."

He reached the source of the voice and looked up, his eyebrows rising in surprise. A huge, black cocoon hung in the air. A blue-haired girl was trapped within, entangled by countless vines and sleeping soundly, like a butterfly caught in a spiderweb.

"Aqua...no," he shook his head. "That's Ort. I see, the remnants of Gaia within her led me here."

Shirou opened his hand, and several shimmering fragments appeared.

Ort's fragments.

He stared at the fragments in his hand. If he could get them to Ort, she would be restored and awakened. But would it be that easy?

He glanced at the black mud still oozing from the walls. Qliphoth Rhizome wouldn't hold out much longer. Easy or not, he had to try. The rest was up to fate.

Bending his knees, he launched himself toward Ort.

But then—

A silver light sliced through the air with a sharp "bang," shattering the shimmering barrier around him with a "crack" and rushing towards his right eye.

Danger—!

His instincts screamed at him. Without thinking, he reached out and grabbed the silver light that had so easily pierced Eternal Emperor's barrier. To his surprise, he caught it.

Uncertainty gripped him. He felt something cold in his hand, something that felt like silver.

Landing on a thick branch, he opened his palm and stared down in surprise.

—A bullet!

An actual silver bullet!

He was inside the black tree created by the Lord of Salvation. The only human who had been absorbed into it was Archimedes, and Archimedes was essentially Velber controlling a starship. Where had the bullet come from?

Wait!

This bullet...

He tightened his grip on the bullet and looked up. A humanoid figure made of disturbing, shifting mud had appeared on the cocoon, pointing a silver handgun at him.

Shirou's eyes narrowed as he focused on the gun.

There was no mistaking it.

He knew that gun!

That silver gun...it was the same one that had killed him in one of the reset loops that Surtr had destroyed!

And the owner of that gun had been with Sixth Seat!

In that loop destroyed by Surtr, the endless resets had led to him being chosen by Odin and granted the Runes of Wisdom. It had allowed him to foresee Surtr's invasion and fight against it endlessly. But in the end, Sixth Seat had killed Scathach, his Servant, and he had been shot dead by that very gun.

With his dying breath, he had given all the divinity from the Norse Connection Point that Odin had left him to Scathach, allowing her to be reborn as the Supreme Goddess Skadi. He, however, had fallen into another reset loop because of the Enlightened One's power.

He couldn't be wrong.

That was the gun that had killed him!

The mud figure twisted and made a strange sound. "I truly underestimated you, Fujimaru Shirou. I thought that as the inheritor of that false vortex, you were nothing more than a special blank soul that Tethys desperately sought. I never imagined you would interfere with my work of salvation to this extent."

"You're—!" His eyes widened with realization.

"My true name has become taboo, impossible to speak in any language. But those who know of my existence call me the Lord of Salvation."

The mud figure made distorted, disturbing sounds that could somehow be understood. But the more Shirou understood, the more his mind twisted.

A disturbing voice echoed deep within his mind.

—That is what I will become. That is where I will return.

It was his own inner voice.

Seeing the mud figure and hearing its voice had triggered these thoughts. It was worse than Oraclization!

Shirou shook his head, breaking free from the sound's influence. He glared at the mud figure.

Eternal Emperor couldn't escape its influence because it was something born from the Root. But Shirou was different. His soul wasn't a product of the Root; it was the only thing that existed outside of it. That was why he could break free so easily.

So...this was the Lord of Salvation!

He had seen it long, long ago!

His eyes burned as he glared at the mud figure, his teeth clenched. This was what he had been fighting against all this time, his ultimate enemy.

A ghost from ancient times. An evil spirit from the past. The thing that gripped the world, strangled time itself, and erased the future.

Absolute Evil!

"Such beautiful eyes," the mud figure rasped, its voice warped and wrong. "They burn like fire. I want them for my collection. No wonder that Mesopotamian king wanted them. But more than your eyes, I want your soul."

His eyes narrowed. "You...you exist within human cognition?"

"Of course. I am [Akasha]. Humans, heroic spirits, divine spirits, cosmic horrors, wandering stars, every world and every thought...everything is [Akasha], everything is [Me]. Nothing can oppose [Me]. Except you, a soul from another realm, a soul that is not [Akasha]."

"I dismissed you at first," the mud figure continued. "Even when Tethys chose you, I didn't care. But now I see you differently. I must admit, Tethys did one thing right. You've grown strong. Your soul is still human, but you're more impressive than that Manaka outside and that vessel the humans in the Council created. So I've decided, I want you to become my body!"

Shirou said nothing. He stared coldly at the mud figure and walked towards it.

"Oh?" The figure seemed genuinely surprised. "You're approaching me? Walking straight toward the origin of all things?" There was dark amusement in its voice, as if watching a child make an adorably fatal mistake.

"If I don't get closer," Shirou said flatly, "how can I destroy you?"

"How bold," the figure replied, its form spreading wider. "Then by all means, come closer. Let me show you what it means to become my vessel."