The weapon could loosely be called a "sword." It had a hilt, a guard, and a length like a longsword, but its "blade" was strange; three cylinders locked together in a black-and-red spiral, more like coiled chains than anything sharp.
The first impression people have after seeing it : Was this really a sword?
Yet nothing defined "sword" more. It predated the very idea of swords, born at creation's dawn; the first blade of genesis.
Its name: Ea, the Sword of Rupture.
Even in Gilgamesh's endless treasury, it was unmatched; an EX-rank Anti-World Noble Phantasm.
At full strength, it could summon primordial chaos, dragging hell back to earth.
"Awaken, Ea! Your enemy's a worthy overlord!"
Gilgamesh lifted it high. The sword hummed, its cylinders spinning faster, churning out massive magical energy with every turn.
In an instant, raw power burst free, a cutting wind visible to the eye.
This force could tear space apart, shred the world's structure. Just Ea's buildup shook Rider's Reality Marble.
"This… is Ea…"
Haru stared, stunned. Standing safe beside Gilgamesh, he still felt the wind's crushing aura.
"Behold the heavens!"
"Enuma Elish!"
A strike to split the world; exactly as it sounded. The "world" broke open!
Spiraling winds swept through. The ground cracked, the sky collapsed, and space shattered like glass.
"That sword… an Anti-World Noble Phantasm that can destroy everything?" Waver said, voice shaking.
Rider's face was grim but steady against the end of days.
"Distant Tyranny!"
The Gordius Wheel pushed to its peak, an A+ Anti-Army Noble Phantasm embodying Rider's ideals and ambition in a wild surge of lightning.
Riding this violet storm, his chariot crossed the broken earth, smashed through the falling sky, and cut a path past spatial tears.
But no matter his courage, the "world" was crumbling. Thousands of his Heroic Spirit soldiers fell into the void, wiped out by the wind.
Rider's Reality Marble depended on his men. With them gone, it couldn't last.
The desert faded, dropping them onto the bridge. Nothing seemed different on the surface, but everyone knew: the fight was over.
Rider's strongest move had been shattered outright. Victory slipped from his grasp.
Rider set Waver down. "Don't shut your eyes, don't cry, don't blame yourself; that's my order!"
Waver, still young-looking, seemed to mature in a heartbeat. "Yes, my king."
Rider rallied for one last charge, his chariot glowing with lightning, bulls roaring like a final war drum.
Gilgamesh gave a quiet laugh. Golden ripples opened wide, unleashing a rain of treasures.
First wave: eight treasures bounced off the lightning.
Second wave: eleven broke through, three golden swords stabbing into the bulls' shoulders.
Third wave: the valiant bulls took more hits, their divine frames failing as they collapsed, reluctant.
Fourth wave: Rider, pierced yet unbroken, reached Gilgamesh.
"I, Iskandar, the Conqueror; strike for supremacy!"
He swung his sword high, aiming for her head.
She smirked. Ripples flashed, and sacred chains wrapped his powerful form.
Chains of Heaven!
It means "Divine law," binding anything with divinity tight.
Gilgamesh's most relied-upon treasure.
Ea stabbed through Rider's body, breaking his spiritual core.
"You… always come up with strange tricks."
Rider's form began to fade.
"Your journey ends here."
"Ends? No, it goes on. As long as my spirit holds, my path doesn't stop…"
"Still not giving up, Conqueror?" Gilgamesh said, a trace of pity in her tone. "Your dream's just a pretty illusion; empty. The endless sea you chase doesn't exist."
"Knowing that, can you still hold to your kingship?"
Rider paused, then laughed. "Archer, you don't get it. The endless sea… it's real!"
He declared, "That's my answer!"
Rider vanished. Gilgamesh sank into thought. "Real, he says… How can a mortal be so certain?"
Haru spoke softly. "Maybe he wasn't after the sea others talk about, but the one in his own heart…"
"Okeanos doesn't exist!"
"It does, great Hero-King."
Haru met her eyes, calm and firm. "The 'Okeanos' he sought isn't something others can just dismiss."
"You—" Gilgamesh almost snapped, then stilled.
She turned to Waver. "Rider's Master, tell me; what's this 'Okeanos' he chased?"
Waver faced the one who'd beaten his king, defiance in his stare. "I don't know."
Gilgamesh scoffed. "You don't know? Ridiculous. You call yourself his vassal and don't even know his goal?"
Waver didn't flinch. He thought of the sea in Rider's dreams, the sound of its waves…
Lost in memory, he said, "Maybe Rider didn't know either…"
"Absurd!" Gilgamesh snapped. "He gave his life for it, how could he not know?"
"That's why it's worth chasing!" Waver shot back firmly.
Haru stepped up. "Maybe what he wanted to conquer wasn't 'Okeanos,' but his own limits… Humans set their own walls, and he was the kind of man who kept pushing past them!"
Gilgamesh fell quiet, barely noticing Waver slip away.
At last, she murmured, "The Conqueror… didn't fall the way I thought. Even I, all-knowing, can't control everything?"
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ma… Madam… Madam…"
Maiya's voice was faint, blood spilling with every word.
"It's fine, Maiya… Easy now. I'll ask, you just nod or shake your head," Emiya Kiritsugu said, holding his assistant close. Her blood soaked his suit, but he didn't seem to care. A slight tremble hid in his voice.
He'd told himself over and over to treat her like a tool; cold, efficient. Emotions only dulled the blade. But now… why did he…
Steeling himself, he said flatly, "What happened to Illya? Dead or taken? Nod for dead, shake for taken."
Maiya's head shifted faintly side to side.
"Taken, then… Who did it? Rider wouldn't, Archer's too proud… Berserker or Assassin?"
Maiya shook her head again. Kiritsugu nodded to himself. "Assassin… that Servant…"
For some reason, the red-clad Assassin felt more dangerous than the two kings.
"Ki… Kiritsugu… I'm sor…" Maiya's eyes dimmed.
She'd clung to life not by grit, but because Assassin left her just alive enough to deliver the message. It was a part of his scheme.
Kiritsugu closed her eyes, then lit a cigarette with steady hands… but his mind was far from steady.
"Again… lost again… Damn it!"
Even iron rusts let alone the Magus Killer, Emiya Kiritsugu who was at his core a child playing tough; a man gentler than most, and because of that he suffers more than anyone else.
Wail,
Weep,
Struggle,
Despair in the pit of regret…
The Grail craves twisted souls like his.
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"…Ugh, where am I?" Irisviel blinked awake, staring at an unfamiliar ceiling.
"Are you awake, Einzbern puppet?" A stern priest emerged from the shadows.
"You're… Kirei Kotomine!" Irisviel said, recognizing him. Then she noticed she was on a stage.
She pieced it together fast. "You didn't kill me, just brought me here. So you know what 'I' am. Why do this?"
Her question made sense; snatching the prize mid-game would rile the other players, a risky move.
But Kirei shook his head. "Madam, you've got it wrong. My Servant, Assassin, brought you here, not me."
"Your Servant… isn't it your order?"
"No, it was my choice," the red-clad Assassin said, stepping forward. "Betraying Tokiomi, Risei, posing as Emiya Kiritsugu to snipe Lancer's Master's fiancee, fraying his tie with Saber, arranging Rider's exit… all me."
Irisviel's eyes widened. "Kirei… why didn't you stop him? You know what he's done?"
"Of course. My mentor, my father, the two I respected most, killed by my own Servant. I know."
Kirei's face was empty. "I watched it all happen… but so what?"
Irisviel went quiet, chilled by his hollow stare, like gazing into a void.
"Should I be angry?"
Kirei mused, "Most would be. Killing him would be normal. But I feel nothing. My body hums like a snake stirring from sleep, yet my heart's still as dead water… Why?"
He kissed his cross, then asked the Assassin, "What should I do? Fake anger and crush you? Use a Command Seal to make you end yourself, or pin you down and carve you up with Black Keys?"
He wasn't joking. Three Black Keys slid from his sleeve, their anti-magic blades able to wound even Servants.
Assassin stepped closer, gently taking Kirei's hand. Their touch clashed in temperature.
Kirei's hand was cold, like untouched ice. Assassin's was cold too, but not the same; not innate, but a chill chosen, forged by casting warmth aside into a frozen abyss.
"You don't need to do anything," Assassin said. "You don't know what to do yet, but he will show you. Just wait."
He eased the Black Keys from Kirei's grip one by one. Kirei didn't resist, as if he was a doll.
Irisviel propped herself up. "He… you mean Kiritsugu? Why are you so obsessed with him? You've never met."
"He carries something totally different yet strangely like my Master. I think he can give him answers."
Assassin knelt, meeting her eyes. "Madam, please, become the Grail here."
His stance was knightly, but his words were anything but.
Irisviel's face tightened. "The Grail… it's not for you. Only Kiritsugu…"
"You're mistaken, Madam." Assassin pulled off his hood and mask, showing his true face.
"The Grail will choose me; it's fate!"
"You—!"
Irisviel's eyes widened, then brimmed with tears. "You… This is too cruel. Why… why won't the world spare you even a shred of kindness?"
Assassin silently masked himself again, muttering to Kirei, or maybe himself "He'll come… and then he will break the cause and effect and reconnect it!"
Emiya Kiritsugu; his name, "severing and connecting," might be the first omen of tragedy.