"Hey, Avenger."
Gilgamesh spoke coldly.
Though his tone remained arrogant, it lacked its previous disdain.
"Is this filth a specialty from your side?"
Even though he had frantically unleashed his fury, the killing intent in his eyes had not diminished in the slightest.
"Erase him completely! I do not wish to see even a single speck of his dust remaining in this world!"
"Ah, with pleasure."
*Hum—*
The Zanpakuto seemed to sense its master's will, letting out a thirsty cry.
With a casual swipe of Asuka's wolf claws, that wisp of remnant soul was illuminated by the Heart Mirror and flew directly into his grasp.
"My name is Asuka."
He tossed the remnant soul into the air.
"Remember this name. When you get to hell, don't forget who you should be holding a grudge against."
*Shing!*
He swung his blade and slashed downward.
A thin black line that seemed capable of slicing through space instantly passed through the mass of the remnant soul.
"Avici・Black Rope Hell."
[----!!!!]
[No—]
Amidst its final agonizing scream, the thin black line instantly transformed into a massive wolf's maw, swallowing Metastacia's remnant soul whole in a single bite.
Chewing, swallowing.
Not a single trace of Reishi spilled out.
The Hollow that had brought nightmares to Kaien Shiba and nearly destroyed Fuyuki City using a demigod's body completely vanished from existence.
Asuka exhaled a long breath of turbid air and dispelled the domain surrounding him.
As the Heart Mirror dissipated, the oppressive atmosphere looming over Ryuudou Temple didn't entirely recede, but the suffocating sense of despair significantly lessened.
Freed from the parasite's interference, the frantic black aura around Gilgamesh rapidly faded.
Brilliant, yet even colder golden Reishi surfaced around him.
He didn't look at Asuka, instead glaring fixedly at the massive cavern overhead that was still continuously pouring out black mud.
On the ground, as the purifying flames of Asuka's Bankai spread, the black mud that had covered the entire temple began to disintegrate at a visible rate.
Those trapped in their nightmares finally began to struggle free from the bottomless illusions one by one.
"Hah... Hah..."
Kiritsugu Emiya suddenly fell to his knees, his hands gripping the muddy ground so tightly that his fingernails drew blood.
His pupils trembled violently, cold sweat pouring down like rain.
That final scene in the dream... that so-called peace built upon countless corpses...
That was the answer the Holy Grail had given him.
And it was the endpoint of the justice he had pursued his entire life.
"What a joke... It was all a lie..."
Kiritsugu's voice was hoarse and filled with despair.
He abruptly raised his head, looking at Irisviel suspended in midair.
His deeply beloved wife had now become completely transparent, with only a faint outline remaining in this world.
As the vessel for the Lesser Grail, she was being forcibly assimilated by the massive source of malice overhead.
"That thing... is no miracle at all..."
Kiritsugu staggered to his feet.
"Saber."
His voice was as cold as ice.
Not far away, Artoria had just awakened from the looping nightmare of her kingdom's ruin. Before she could even recover from her mental daze, she heard her Master's callous command.
"Master...?"
"Use your Noble Phantasm." Kiritsugu didn't look at her, his gaze locked solely on Irisviel. "Destroy the Lesser Grail... along with everything inside it. Completely."
"What?!"
Artoria paled in shock, the holy sword in her hands trembling. "Are you saying... you want to kill Irisviel?! She is your wife!"
"She isn't anymore."
Kiritsugu's hands were shaking, but his tone didn't waver in the slightest. "...If we don't close this door, everything in this world will be swallowed by that black mud."
"To save the world... she must be sacrificed."
'This again. This damn multiple-choice question again.'
Asuka frowned, glaring at Kiritsugu Emiya in dissatisfaction.
"..."
Artoria looked at Kiritsugu's face, twisted in agony, and an indescribable sorrow welled up in her heart.
She gripped her sword, but she couldn't bring herself to raise it.
"...By the name of the Command Spell."
Seeing her remain motionless, Kiritsugu raised his right hand, the Command Spell on the back of his hand emitting a blinding red light.
"Calm down a bit, old man."
A wolf claw suddenly pressed down on Kiritsugu's glowing right hand, forcefully interrupting his casting.
Kiritsugu's pupils shrank as he instinctively reached for the submachine gun at his waist, but due to his previous injuries, his movements were noticeably stiff.
Asuka stood beside him, using his wolf claw wreathed in golden flames to gesture for him not to do anything rash.
"Don't be in such a rush to make sacrifices."
"I don't know what's going through your head, but if your first reaction to a problem is to kill your own wife... then you've lived a pretty pathetic life."
"What do you know?!"
Kiritsugu violently shook off Asuka's hand, his eyes bloodshot. "That cup is filled with All the World's Evils! If it's allowed to fully descend, the death toll will be beyond measure!"
"Compared to that, a single life..."
"Like I said, that kind of math is completely meaningless."
Asuka cut him off, then extended a finger, pointing at the shattered sky above.
"Since that hole is the source, wouldn't it be fine to just blow the hole up directly?"
Kiritsugu froze. "...What?"
"I said, rather than agonizing over whether to kill your wife here, it'd be better if we all worked together and took that broken hole hanging in the sky..."
"...and blasted it into scrap, along with all the malice inside."
Asuka's voice wasn't loud, but it echoed across the entire dead-silent plaza.
"What did you say...?!"
Nearby, Tokiomi Tohsaka, who had just awakened and was holding his forehead to ease his dizziness, was so startled by these words that he nearly dropped his cane.
"Do you have any idea what you're saying?! That is the path to the Root—"
"That's a cesspool leading to hell," Asuka corrected mercilessly. "You saw it too, right? With that kind of stuff pouring out, forget about the Root, you won't even have bone fragments left."
Tokiomi opened his mouth, wanting to retort, but the nightmare fresh in his mind left him speechless.
He looked at the groggy Rin beside him, then thought of the rest of his family, and gritted his teeth bitterly.
This system had been completely broken since sixty years ago.
"But..." Artoria stepped forward, gazing up at the massive cavern. "That hole connects to the outer side of the world. The Magical Energy it contains is unimaginably vast."
"With my Noble Phantasm alone, I'm afraid I won't be able to destroy it."
Facing that Great Cavern, which was continuously siphoning Magical Energy from the Spiritual Leylines, relying on a single holy sword indeed seemed somewhat inadequate.
"Who said you were the only one?"
Asuka looked toward the golden figure who had remained silent all this time.
"Hey, Goldie over there."
He called out unceremoniously, "You've been fighting all night and watching the show for half the day. You must be fed up by now, right?"
"How did it feel being possessed by that filth just now? Want to join me and punch a hole in the sky?"
Gilgamesh's eyelid twitched.
He slowly turned his head, staring coldly at Asuka with those crimson eyes.
If it were any other time, anyone who dared to speak to him in such a tone would have long been skewered by ten thousand swords.
But now...