It was neither Magecraft nor the summoning of a Noble Phantasm, but the very light that had struck down Artemis earlier, now returning to his hand.
『Gungnir』.
"Now that we've stepped onto the battlefield, there's no room left for hesitation," Shiomi said, lightly sweeping the spear before him.
A violent gale tore across the drifting warship. Even Xiang Yu, standing behind Demeter, was thrown off balance, forcing Yu Mei-ren and Lanling Wang to grab onto him to keep their footing.
"So in the end, the only path left is to stand as enemies," Demeter murmured.
"It doesn't have to be that way. If you choose to aid Chaldea now, you can spare everyone this meaningless bloodshed," Shiomi said, extending his hand in an attempt to persuade her.
"This matter…" Demeter's brows drew together briefly before relaxing again, her smile now edged with cold resolve. "Impossible. A good child who has committed the sin of slaying a god must receive the proper punishment from me."
Shiomi understood and said no more. He turned his head slightly and spoke in a low voice to Artoria.
"Take them to the island. Master is still holding Aphrodite at the temple, and she only has Orion as support," Shiomi said.
"You're planning to fight alone—" Artoria began.
"Not alone." Shiomi's spear traced a clean, elegant arc before him. "Everyone is here."
Storm Border and Drake's warship had already moved into the vicinity.
The prolonged fighting had left everyone exhausted, yet the taste of victory kept their spirits burning.
"How truly sorrowful…" Demeter raised her scythe and spoke slowly. "Sorrow is death, and death is the end."
As her words fell, the scythe swung with deceptive casualness. Melusine's instincts screamed in warning.
That was the very strike Demeter had used to knock her out of the sky.
Absolute authority, the divine might of the Goddess of Abundance.
"Go, now!"
Shiomi raised his spear and intercepted the blow, urging them on.
At that moment, the Leylines-blocking armament activated once more. Together with Drake's warship, it locked onto the side of the vessel where Demeter stood.
Artoria did not hesitate again. She and Gray broke away from the warship at once, one after the other, with Melusine and Bag St. following close behind.
Once no allies remained at his back, Shiomi twisted his body and forcefully knocked Demeter's attack aside, charging forward in the same motion.
Lanling Wang and Xiang Yu tried to intercept him, shielding Demeter, but neither could withstand a single strike from Shiomi's spear. They were driven back outright.
The scythe of harvest and the spear that never missed collided again and again on a ship that could sink at any moment. Each clash unleashed a massive shockwave, leaving no space for anyone else to stand nearby.
Yu Mei-ren and the others immediately chose to withdraw, pulling back and leaving the battlefield to Demeter.
Chaldea caught their movement at once and launched pursuit fire, forcing them to flee across the remaining warships and wreckage. They tried to widen the distance, but they couldn't outrun the expanding coverage of the Leylines-blocking armament. Their route was cut off, preventing them from regrouping with Peperoncino.
Shiomi spared Yu Mei-ren and the others a brief glance, then dismissed them from his mind and focused entirely on facing Demeter.
He braced his spear against the scythe hooked around its shaft and spoke as they strained against each other:
"For a goddess of abundance, you're quite skilled in a fight."
"Combat is the duty of all gods, even those who do not preside over war," Demeter replied, her voice dignified and forceful, fully embodying a goddess's authority.
That said, Demeter was not truly adept at close combat. Her stubborn resilience came partly from being a living god, possessing strength far beyond that of Heroic Spirits or humans, and partly from her Authority as a goddess of the earth.
In terms of pure technique, Demeter was no match for Shiomi. Yet no matter how many times he broke through her guard, he could not push her into decline through accumulated damage alone.
When it came to regeneration and self-repair, Demeter and Shiomi were evenly matched.
As he pulled back to create distance, Shiomi muttered under his breath.
He felt he finally understood the opponents who had once stood against him.
"That's only natural. In this regard, you and I are the same. As long as my Authority remains, I will not allow you to break through," Demeter declared, her brows drawn tight, her tone firm and unyielding.
She raised her scythe high. Emerald light flared and spread outward…
Everything within sight was being torn apart. The already unsteady warship, battered by wave after wave of attacks, finally lost the capacity to serve as a battlefield and began sinking into the sea.
The change in footing did nothing to slow the fierce clash between Shiomi and Demeter.
Watching the battle through the monitors on the Storm Border's bridge, Morgan clenched her teeth. She wanted to leave and aid Shiomi, but without her, the Storm Border would become nothing more than a defenseless moving target.
Touko Aozaki's automated dolls had already been completely expended in the fighting, and the backup units could not be deployed immediately.
"Leave the ship's defense to Nemo for now. I'll go support him."
Skadi's voice came through the comms.
The Storm Border had its own defensive capabilities, but compared to what Skadi could provide, they were negligible.
With the enemy fleet nearly annihilated, there was no longer any need for her to maintain them.
"But Skadi-sama, your Mana—" Olga Marie began.
"It's still more than sufficient," Skadi replied with a confident smile.
The line of Morgan's lips curved upward slightly. "Then go. Just don't interfere with my husband's battle."
Just as Skadi was about to deploy, Melusine, who was monitoring communications, shouted in alarm.
"Temporal-spatial distortion detected fifty meters directly ahead of Storm Border!"
"That reaction… a Command Spell?!" Romani immediately began analyzing the data.
"To think things have become this troublesome… truly astonishing, Chaldea."
A voice rang out, unfamiliar yet oddly familiar to Olga Marie and Romani, veterans of Chaldea.
"That voice is—" Olga Marie gasped.
"Even with two goddesses supporting you, you still couldn't secure victory. Worse still, you lost the crucial Artemis… I regret it deeply, but I cannot allow you to advance any further, everyone at Chaldea."
In an instant, the azure sky changed color. After a blinding flash, an endless aurora spread across the vast sky above Hecate Island.
Appearing within that light, floating in the air, was none other than the leader of Team A and the head of the Crypters.
Kirschtaria Wodime.
The man who bore the weight of this Lostbelt.
Taking advantage of the opening to put distance between himself and Demeter, Shiomi leapt and landed back on the Storm Border. He stepped forward to stand in front of Sakura Shiomi and the others on the deck, facing Kirschtaria head-on.
On both their faces, a confident, assured smile appeared at the same time.