Type-Moon, What Do You Mean You summoned Tiamat?!

The black stretched Lincoln quietly crossed the overpass of Snowfield City, heading straight toward the Crystal Mountain Hotel, which had turned into a sea of flames.

Marisbury, with his short silver hair, leaned elegantly against the leather back seat.

He wore a refined white suit, gently swirling the wine in his glass. He took a sip of the red wine and smiled as he looked at the screen in front of him.

Faldeus's cold face was displayed on the screen.

"Master, you are far too cautious..." Marisbury's voice was calm and steady. "Once this plan is complete, I have already promised to return the Holy Grail War to its original state."

"Don't you feel suffocated, always hiding in that stuffy underground room?"

The American high-ranking official on the screen sat deeply in his office chair, coldly staring at the surveillance footage as he spoke. "If I had your leisurely attitude, I would have already been torn to pieces by the monsters outside... Caster."

He paused for a moment, then secretly appraised the man in the suit a few times before asking, "Come to think of it, Matou Yuu is a heretic who defies the common sense of this world, an 'outsider' who came from beyond the cosmos... Where exactly did you learn that secret?"

"The source of the information is unimportant, Master."

Marisbury placed his glass down and gazed through the sun-tanned car window at the hotel building in the distance, from which pillars of destructive flames were erupting.

"What matters is... that you desperately wish to restore order to this city and continue your grand plan called the 'Fake Holy Grail War.' And I..."

He turned around and directed a quiet, deep gaze at Faldeus on the screen.

"I also want to fulfill my modest wish through this opportunity... This is truly a win-win cooperative relationship, isn't it?"

However, upon hearing this, Faldeus merely snorted. "Cooperation... Hmph?"

"Caster, you seem to be overestimating yourself."

So-called heroic spirits were, in the end, nothing more than shadows created by the Throne of Heroes.

For Faldeus, who was accustomed to controlling everything, the man before him was at best a "weapon" with its own consciousness and the ability to use magic. Nothing more, nothing less.

Marisbury showed no anger at this blatant contempt.

He gently traced the rim of the cup with his fingertips and smiled more deeply as he said, "If it were those arrogant knights or kings, they would have bared their fangs at you the moment they heard this, Master."

"However, as long as the final goal is achieved, I don't mind whether you treat me as a Servant or as a tool."

"Oh?"

Faldeus raised his eyebrows with interest and asked, "You wouldn't mind becoming a tool if it means achieving your own goals?"

He had originally hoped that the Servant he summoned would become an obedient tool. And the man calling himself "Marisbury" before him possessed, to some extent, the same kind of extreme realism as himself.

However...

"Are you truly confident? Matou Yuu is... a far more troublesome opponent than you imagine. Moreover, he also has——"

"I know."

Marisbury interrupted him with a chuckle. "The greatest obstacle in this Holy Grail War is the Goddess of Creation, Tiamat, isn't she?"

"As a god who has existed since the beginning of creation, as long as 'life' exists on this earth, she can never be granted the concept of death... To be honest, within the scope of conventional magical interference, that woman is truly an unsolvable system bug."

However...

The man paused for a moment, and a faint amusement appeared in his eyes.

What would happen if Tiamat's immortal vessel — the "Earth" — were to physically disappear?

Marisbury Animusphere.

He was once the Lord of the Clock Tower's Department of Astronomy and the first director who founded Chaldea.

On the surface, he claimed that Chaldea was a defensive line created to ensure humanity's survival by observing the state of the Earth for the next 100 years.

However, in reality, his ultimate goal was to accomplish the most outrageous magical feat in astrophysics — forcibly replacing the physical surface of the real Earth with the virtual alien planet Chaldea he had created.

Originally, in order to complete this replacement, which violated the laws of the universe, he would have needed to remain in an extremely long period of dormancy inside Chaldea until it accumulated enough magical energy to cover the entire planet.

But... during a recent observation, the man unexpectedly discovered a perfect shortcut.

In modern-day Snowfield City, an immense and terrifying magical power was stirring.

If he could forcibly analyze and purify this city and inject it all into Chaldea... his Humanity Protection Plan would be declared complete ahead of schedule, skipping the long preparation period.

Tiamat was indeed invincible, but her invincibility was based on her deep connection with the laws of Gaia's Earth.

When Chaldea's alien texture completely covered the real world and the Earth reached a blank-slate state... the Goddess of Creation, having lost all her foundations, would instantly lose her immortality.

If nothing unexpected occurred, during the battle at the Crystal Mountain Hotel, all those sources of magical energy would soon gather here, right?

"You seem to be brimming with confidence."

Seeing the man's confident attitude, Faldeus couldn't help but lightly shake his head. "However, the 'plan' you just proposed seems a bit too far-fetched... I can't imagine the Counter Force accepting a summoning request from someone like you."

"Counter Force...?"

Marisbury stared at the bonfire light that dyed the night sky outside the window an ominous red and smiled meaningfully.

"In fact, it can be said that the existence of the 'unconscious,' which only wishes for humanity's survival, was a great help in allowing me to bypass the Holy Grail's system check and descend here."

…

Splash...

Accompanied by the earth-shaking roar of a colossal red dragon, the most magnificent building in Snowfield City violently shook. The massive floor-to-ceiling windows on the upper floors were instantly shattered by the terrifying sound waves.

Inside the magnificent hall, the decorated crystal chandeliers violently swayed before crashing down with a loud noise.

Flames spread throughout the entire hall.

Through the crackling charred debris and scattering sparks, Sajyou Manaka quietly stared at the purple-haired girl before her.

Matou Sakura stood in the sea of flames. Her long purple hair swayed violently in the scorching air, and her pure white dress fluttered in the wind, accentuating her elegant and toned curves.

However, her originally beautiful purple eyes now radiated a chilling pink light.

The girl held a bow in her left hand and nocked an arrow with her right. An arrow born from desire was once again aimed at Sajyou Manaka.

"What terrifying power." Sajyou Manaka smiled in a languid voice, as if casually chatting. "She manipulates the power of 'love and desire'... and has secretly woven a 'barrier' throughout the city, feeding on the emotions of the people living here. If left alone, the entire city will eventually be drawn into your 'domain of control,' won't it?"

After she finished speaking, she smiled and tilted her head. "But... you've been using this human girl's body as a disguise all this time and haven't even shown your true face... What exactly are you afraid of?"

"Let me guess... Tiamat?"

Matou Sakura's expression finally froze slightly, and her pink eyes narrowed dangerously.

Sajyou Manaka... It seemed the girl had seen through everything from the very beginning and had easily discerned even her deepest secrets.

Although both were Beasts, Kama was currently far too weak... Otherwise, she wouldn't have needed to control Matou Sakura's body through "possession," nor would she have plotted to seize the Greater Grail to complete her true "descent."

If it was discovered that Sakura had been secretly "possessed" and controlled, Matou Yuu...might very well resort to self-destruction.

For example... directly summoning Tiamat's true form.

Although the one before her was only the avatar of young Tiamat, Kama did not believe that her current incomplete spiritual body could directly confront her. The Goddess of Creation, who symbolized the principle of return.

"It seems my guess was correct..."

Sajyou Manaka smiled as she stared at the purple-haired girl. Even though she could clearly sense the intense killing intent gushing from the girl's eyes, her smile only grew brighter and more captivating.

"Let me guess again... You and Matou Sakura must have formed some kind of 'cooperative relationship,' right? In other words, she knew what you had done to the ordinary citizens of this city, but she turned a blind eye to it in order to stay by that person's side?"

She feigned a troubled expression and said, "If Matou-kun finds out about this, he'll... think you're an incorrigible delinquent, won't he?"

Boom—!

Almost the instant these words were spoken, Matou Sakura's body could no longer withstand that immense concept and underwent a complete qualitative change!

Her pure white dress instantly dyed into the color of a deep, mysterious cosmic starry sky.

Eerie blue demonic patterns violently spread across her white skin, and from beneath her feet, colossal pink illusory lotuses suddenly bloomed in full glory. Extremely evil black mud, symbolizing human evil, love, and desire, violently surged up from the void like a boiling swamp!

The terrifying spiritual origin belonging to Beast III finally revealed its true form within this narrow ruin — a calamity upon the nation and an endless source of decadence.

"Stop spouting nonsense... If you have something to say, go to hell!"

A cold and cruel smile appeared on Kama's lips.

She drew the longbow in her hand — a bow woven from petals and cosmic desire — and the space of the entire hall seemed to stretch and distort with her movement.

"Without love, there is no understanding. Without stars, there is no time. It is a bottomless abyss..."

As magical energy surged like a tsunami, Kama released the bowstring. Her soft yet world-destroying whisper echoed thunderously through the sea of flames.

"—Samsara Kama!"

Whoosh!

Accompanied by a terrifying shriek that shattered space, an arrow wrapped in endless desire and black mud gushing from a sea of stars charged straight toward Sajyou Manaka's heart like a meteor piercing the cosmos, radiating a dazzling decadent brilliance!

However, the golden-haired girl did not dodge. Instead, she gently stroked the rough scales of the colossal beast beside her.

"Uoooooooooh!!!"

The apocalyptic beast Beast VI/G, symbolizing the other half of the Beast of 666, let out a roar!

It was the half that bore the burden of original sin and destruction. As long as it did not confront Draco, the so-called God of Love was nothing more than prey that dared to challenge its majesty.

With its master's understanding, what it should do now was thoroughly crush this arrogant challenger!

The colossal red dragon did not hesitate for even a moment.

Faced with the pink arrow tearing through space, it leaped like an erupting volcano, opened its blood-red maw, and charged straight at Kama while carrying flames of karma that could burn everything away, biting down fiercely!

Faced with this overwhelming attack, Kama remained completely calm.

She merely sneered and skillfully dodged the attack at the last moment, transforming into a streak of light and swiftly soaring into the vast night sky outside the hall.

As a god who governed the principle of love, the human city outside, filled with complex desires, was the perfect hunting ground for her to exert her power.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Almost the instant the colossal red dragon flew out of the hall, countless pink arrows of light born from desire rained down from the sky like a storm, assaulting the roaring beast!

…

At the same time.

On the upper floors of the hotel, Matou Yuu tightly held Tiamat and jumped down from hundreds of meters in the air!

The wind roared violently in his ears.

Despite being human, at the life-or-death moment just before crashing into the ground, Matou Yuu unhesitatingly activated Reinforcement Magecraft.

Pale blue magic circuits ran through his entire body, flowing into his legs and spine, instantly and forcibly increasing the density of his bones and muscles.

Bang!

With a dull sound, Matou Yuu slammed violently into the ground like a meteor, and spiderweb-like cracks spread out from beneath him.

He calmly withstood the terrifying impact, then gently pulled the blue-haired girl into his arms and placed her beside him.

And when he raised his face, he couldn't help but catch his breath at the terrifying sight unfolding before him.

The scene was catastrophic.

This hotel — the most luxurious building in Snowfield City — had been fully equipped with explosion-proof measures and had extremely high security levels.

But now...

All the security guards had collapsed on the cold floor, and the front desk staff had also lost consciousness.

The once magnificent and spacious hall had long since been completely destroyed by intense magic. Amid the charred debris, the precious red carpet was still burning with dazzling flames.

"Aaaaah..."

Tiamat lightly snorted and quickly turned her pure red eyes toward the night sky outside the hotel. "I can smell that little red lizard."

Little red lizard...?

Matou Yuu was initially surprised, but quickly understood and quietly said, "You mean... the Great Red Dragon of the Apocalypse?"

If the Great Red Dragon was here, didn't that mean Sajyou Manaka had also been at this hotel until recently?!

It was important to understand that the very existence of that Root Princess was an extremely unreasonable and major bug.

Just what kind of terrifying monster possessed the power to make her summon the Great Red Dragon and fight?

At that moment, Matou Yuu caught a glimpse of something strange in the darkness at the back of the hall from the corner of his eye.

There, it looked as if space had been forcibly cut away by some kind of power, leaving a gap in an imaginary door that hadn't fully closed.

"Imaginary Number Magic..."

Matou Yuu's expression changed slightly. He suddenly turned his face outward and said, "Wait... Could it be... Sakura?!"

Imaginary Numbers was a rare attribute, and even across the entire Type-Moon world, there were only a few individuals who possessed it.

In the current Snowfield City, only two people were known to be capable of using Imaginary Number Magic.

One was himself, and the other was Matou Sakura!

Just as Matou Yuu was about to rush out of the hall with Tiamat, a golden light as dazzling as the sun suddenly and unexpectedly shone from the shadows of the charred ruins.

Matou Yuu's footsteps suddenly stopped.

Without turning around, he simply stopped and slowly said, "If you've been watching from the shadows for so long, then come out. Or have you developed the habit of spying from the shadows at some point... Gilgamesh?"

The moment he finished speaking, accompanied by ripples of golden light, a figure clad in dazzling golden armor silently appeared behind the young man.

Immediately after, a voice filled with arrogance and dissatisfaction could be heard.

"How truly infuriating, Matou Yuu. Whenever you're around, those filthy people always mess up my garden."

Matou Yuu paused for a moment before quietly asking, "Your garden...?"

"What else could it be?" Gilgamesh sneered. A look of condescending contempt appeared in his crimson snake-like eyes. "Did you not even notice that this king was deliberately staying in the suite on the floor above yours?"

Matou Yuu was momentarily surprised, then shrugged and said, "Who would bother investigating such a trivial matter as who lives on the floor above?"

After all, he had only wanted to move Tiamat to a better environment and improve their quality of life... He never imagined he would be this unlucky. Not only had he jumped straight into the middle of a battlefield, but the oldest Hero King was living on the floor above.

Moreover, there had just been a huge commotion downstairs.

"Were Sajyou Manaka and Sakura the ones fighting in the hall just now?" Matou Yuu asked, furrowing his brows.

"Hmph, just two mongrels fighting over territory."

Gilgamesh crossed his arms with a completely uninterested expression and said indifferently, "My gaze has always been directed solely toward the future and the overall picture of humanity. I have absolutely no interest in turning my eyes toward such vulgar and aesthetically unappealing farces."

At this moment, Gilgamesh's tone suddenly changed.

His eyes, which seemed to see through everything, stared at the young man as he slowly said, "Matou Yuu, do your eyes only see what is right in front of you?"

"Within this narrow space, is everything trivial?"

"The real problem isn't those two."

"It's..."

Before Gilgamesh could finish speaking, a clear voice — dreamily beautiful yet carrying a faint laugh — suddenly reached his ears.

"He's a terrible man. He plans to use this region as a furnace and forcibly refine everything."

The moment these words were spoken, the tense atmosphere in the hall changed as if under a spell.

Accompanied by a rich fragrance, countless sparkling pink petals danced down from the sky.

An elegant female figure surrounded by petals quietly appeared in the dimly lit hall.

She wore a light and pure white dress, and her long silver hair flowed smoothly over her shoulders like a waterfall.

A bright smile — like spring sunlight — shone on her breathtakingly beautiful face.

Her gaze lightly swept over the people present before finally stopping on Matou Yuu.

"…Merlin?" Matou Yuu was slightly surprised and unconsciously raised his eyebrows. "Why are you here?"

He had originally thought that after his extremely deep petting, this nightmare woman would at least behave herself for a while.

"Hey, don't make such a cold face."

Merlin raised one eyebrow and leaned forward without hesitation. The mysterious bright smile was still on her face. "Because my intuition tells me that a truly wonderful scene is about to unfold. As the most enthusiastic witness, I cannot miss this wonderful opportunity to watch the movie from the front row, can I?"

Finally, she calmly accepted Matou Yuu's sharp gaze and winked mischievously. "What? Won't you welcome me?"

"By the way, Onee-chan actually has a pretty bad memory," she added while deliberately dragging out the last syllable.

When the sun rose, she would forget all about yesterday's embarrassment and lessons...

That was what the ultimate cheerful person, Miss Nightmare, believed.

However, after meeting Matou Yuu's eyes for an instant, she casually averted her gaze and pretended to be indifferent.

It seemed she wasn't as cold-hearted as he had thought...

After secretly observing Merlin for a while, Matou Yuu asked directly, "You said earlier that there's a man trying to use this place as a furnace to refine things... Who exactly is he?"

Merlin abandoned her somewhat flippant attitude and avoided giving a direct answer. Instead, she posed a seemingly trivial yet chilling question. "Just the other day, I witnessed a very interesting sight."

She gently stared at the young man, her voice soft yet powerful. "Faldeus summoned a Servant who should never have appeared under the normal Holy Grail system."

"To be precise... it was that existence who successfully manifested in this world by exploiting a loophole in the system and receiving Alaya's implicit approval."

"Who exactly is it?"

"Caster... Marisbury Animusphere."

Matou Yuu drew in a breath.

His expression froze for an instant, but after a moment of silence, the emotion in his eyes gradually became unbelievably vivid.

"Marisbury?!"

This name could be said to have appeared throughout the entire FGO series.

The grand plan this man had plotted was truly vicious.

First it was the Second Beast Tiamat, then the Beast I Goetia... and now even the ultimate mastermind trying to rewrite the entire history of Earth had intervened personally?

More importantly, if what Merlin said was true... did Marisbury's appearance actually receive implicit approval from Alaya?

Matou Yuu's mind worked at an astonishing speed and instantly understood the terrifying logical loop behind it.

When he thought about it carefully, it was indeed true.

Marisbury's final plan was to forcibly replace the real Earth with the virtual alien planet Chaldea.

From a physical perspective, this was equivalent to completely erasing Gaia, who symbolized the will of the planet.

However, during this process, all of humanity would be safely housed within that virtual space, and there would be no direct threat to the survival of Human Order.

Therefore, for Alaya, who only cared about whether humanity was alive or not, Marisbury was not an enemy that needed to be eliminated. In an extreme sense, he had become an ally.

Matou Yuu slowly lowered his head and looked at his right hand.

There existed a weapon forged from stars, known as the "Star Holy Sword."

Whether it was his imagination or not, he felt as though the sword sleeping inside his body was faintly pulsating.

Like the planet itself, it was quietly raging in the darkness.

After organizing his thoughts for a moment, Matou Yuu suddenly raised his face and asked, "Merlin, how many Beasts have gathered in this Snowfield City right now?"

Merlin fell silent for a moment, then raised her face and began counting on her fingers like an innocent girl.

"Let's see... 1, 2, 3... There are 5 in total."

"5... That might not be enough..." Matou Yuu muttered to himself.

"What are you trying to do?" Seeing this, Merlin's eyes shone with excitement as she stared at the young man with curiosity.

"You said earlier that the other side is trying to use this region as a giant furnace and melt and purify all the high-dimensional concepts existing here, right?"

Matou Yuu slowly said, "The magical energy in this city is truly dense, and it has repeatedly distorted the entire turning point of history... From the past until now, I have never seen a 'Singularity' with such extremely dense magical energy."

"I don't know what they're plotting... but if Marisbury is preparing such a big surprise... then I intend to return the favor with a surprise of my own," Matou Yuu said with a smile.

"What kind of surprise?" Merlin asked eagerly.

Gilgamesh, who was standing nearby, also seemed intrigued and cast a curious gaze at him.

He was omniscient and could foresee the future and discern his enemies' weaknesses... Yet even under his omniscient gaze, Matou Yuu's fate had always been an exceptional existence shrouded in mystery.

Therefore, even this Hero King had begun to take some interest in the young man's plan.

It was truly so.

"Didn't he want to melt all the living beings in this region?"

Matou Yuu looked up at Merlin and smiled. "Perfect... Let's take him with us."

"But before that, I have a small request... There's a woman living next to the hotel I was staying at before... Please call her and tell her that I'm in a very mentally unstable state and urgently need her professional psychological counseling."

"Next door is...?" Merlin paused, seemingly not understanding.

Matou Yuu grinned and pronounced each word clearly. "That woman's name is... Sesshōin Kiara."

Gilgamesh initially furrowed his brows contemptuously, but the moment his Sha Naqba Imuru activated, his crimson snake-like eyes sharply narrowed, and he instinctively blurted out, "Again... a Beast?!"

"What exactly are you trying to do?" He stared at Matou Yuu.

"Nothing much."

Matou Yuu looked up at the sky outside.

"I just wanted to surprise him."

…

…

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