Technology and Magecraft have always stood as a pair of seeming opposites.
When human technology was still primitive and humanity lingered in ignorance, Magecraft was the embodiment of Mystery. Many feats of Magecraft could even be classified as true sorcery.
But as technology advanced step by step, things once achievable only through Magecraft gradually lost their Mystery, and the domain of sorcery steadily shrank.
In the end, Magecraft declined.
The changes that took place within the Clock Tower after the Industrial Revolution were one outward sign of that decline.
Among those developments, the technological invention that posed the greatest threat to Magi was the modern firearm.
Its appearance meant that ordinary people, non-Magi, now possessed an effective means to kill a Magus.
More lethal and efficient than any blade.
Shiomi himself did not favor firearms, but he believed weapons like guns and artillery should be used proactively when dealing with Magi—or even the Executors of the Holy Church.
Like now—
"Hmph..."
Scáthach, maintaining a magical barrier, let out a cold laugh.
"These bullets contain Mana. In a sense, they're saturated magical attacks given physical form and fired through modern weapons," Morgan remarked coolly, her gaze sweeping across the surrounding wasteland.
Just moments ago, there had been barely any combat beasts in sight. Now the barren plain was overflowing with them, surging forward like a tidal wave.
Thousands upon thousands—a terrifying, feral army armed with gunfire.
"Is it ready yet, Tenkei?" Artoria urged, rare impatience in her voice.
The numbers were overwhelming. Though Scáthach and Morgan's combined defenses kept the beasts from climbing the hillside, there was still the recreated Surtr to contend with.
Above them, the black sun was beginning to crack, and from within emerged the hand of the Flame Giant Surtr.
Even if they had once defeated him, focusing entirely on holding back this suffocating barrage would inevitably leave an opening against such an opponent.
"Almost," Shiomi replied.
Artoria was urging him about severing the Leylines.
Only by cutting off the Leylines could they stop the combat beasts and the recreated body from regenerating. Otherwise, even releasing a Noble Phantasm would do no more than wipe out a single wave.
Mana was finite. The enemy was not.
Like pest control, the infestation had to be eliminated at its source.
Boom—
The roar of an explosion suddenly rang out.
Startled, Scáthach and Morgan reinforced their defensive barriers.
Shells detonated overhead. The desolate hillside trembled, yet the shockwaves and flames failed to reach them.
"They even prepared artillery… no, missiles?" Scáthach said, almost impressed.
Amid the relentless gunfire, new combat beasts joined the assault—units capable of launching small missiles, bombarding the area from a distance.
"They're really that impatient," Shiomi sighed.
"I'm not," Scáthach replied evenly.
"I wasn't talking about you, Master," Shiomi added. "I meant Koyanskaya. Show even the slightest weakness, and she thinks she can finish us off here."
Taigong Wang's voice came through the still-active communication line.
"No. This is probably a display of strength. Or… perhaps it's fear."
"Fear?" Morgan looked momentarily surprised, then nodded as if it were only natural. "After suffering more than one loss at my husband's hands and knowing how powerful he is now, if I were the enemy, I would feel uneasy as well."
"Similar, but not quite the same," Taigong Wang said. "What the Beast fears is that its own fate is no longer within its control."
His words left Shiomi silent for a moment.
To control one's fate.
It sounded perfectly reasonable, yet impossibly extravagant.
There were only a handful of beings who could truly grasp their own destiny and decide it for themselves.
Even he, walking a path he believed he had chosen freely… was it truly a choice? Or had he merely selected the only answer available?
It was only natural for Koyanskaya to feel fear. Even a Beast had its natural enemy.
"…Artoria, prepare to unleash your Noble Phantasm's True Name," Shiomi said. "I'll take over the Magecraft defense my wife has deployed. You start preparing your Noble Phantasm as well."
The attack through the Leylines had already been severed. Though the army of combat beasts still stretched beyond sight, they could sense that their numbers were no longer increasing.
Morgan stepped back, standing back to back with Artoria, each facing a different direction as they gathered Mana.
The radiance of 'Inflaming Divinity' enveloped them.
"Holy Lance, speak of the end... 'Rhongomyniad'!"
"Sleep eternally in the wilderness, Beasts. 'Roadless Camelot'!"
Golden and azure light swept across both sides of the wasteland in an instant. The roaring combat beasts were completely swallowed by the raging torrent of Mana. The scale of the bombardment steadily diminished, then fell silent.
As the twin beams faded, the wilderness looked as though it had been plowed clean, the very surface stripped away.
The bloodstains that had yet to dry were gone. The fallen corpses of beasts had vanished as well.
What remained was an even more desolate wasteland.
At that very moment, Surtr emerged from within the black sun, wielding a flaming greatsword as he advanced toward Shiomi and the others.
"Be careful, Tenkei-dono!" Nikitich shouted in warning.
"Don't worry. They can handle it," Taigong Wang replied calmly, like a prophet who had already seen the outcome.
The flaming greatsword came crashing down toward them, only to halt above their heads.
Not because the attack had ceased, but because an equally massive Noble Phantasm had manifested and blocked its descent.
The Axe of Marduk.
"I feel like I've seen this before," Scáthach said.
"I have as well," Morgan agreed.
Their complete lack of tension nearly caused Shiomi to lose his breath and miss his timing to leap skyward.
Artoria gave him a wry smile.
"Don't mind them, Tenkei. Go ahead. If you fall, we'll catch you."
"Not this time. Back then, I just wasn't used to controlling that level of power." Shiomi shook his head.
With that, he leapt into the sky, rising even higher than Surtr and looking down at the giant as it slowly raised its head.
The reincarnation of Surtr Fenrir.
A fusion of ice and fire.
Judging by the strength of Ivan the Terrible's reincarnation, its vitality likely surpassed even the original.
That meant he would need precise control at full power.
As naturally as moving his own arm, Marduk's Axe shifted and transformed in sync with Shiomi's movements. Sacred light enveloped the massive blade, turning it into a Noble Phantasm capable of cleaving heaven and earth.
Taigong Wang watched the weapon, a trace of astonished admiration flickering in his eyes.
He did not know all of Shiomi's hidden cards.
"'Enuma Elish'!"