Chapter 25: Don't You Know the Sky is My Domain?

The earth splintered. The fragmented palace began to collapse.

Above, the sky, reflecting the crimson hues of the Netherworld, tore open, revealing a jagged, cosmic rift. This pocket world was in the throes of total disintegration. All of this world-shattering power emanated from the Anti-World Noble Phantasm gripped in the hand of the King of Heroes: Ea, the Sword of Rupture.

This was precisely why Zoran had remained skeptical of the outcome even after seeing Shendu's power. Gilgamesh's Ea held a conceptual, overwhelming advantage over Reality Marbles. And Shendu, having manifested in the Caster class, had channeled the vast majority of his essence into his Reality Marble-type Noble Phantasm.

But one could hardly blame the demon. His abilities had been passively locked the moment he was summoned into this vessel. Without the interference of a weapon like Ea, he was undoubtedly the strongest entity on the field.

The ground continued to fracture, the yawning chasms resembling the maws of abyssal beasts, swallowing everything whole. Palaces and slaves vanished into the sinking terrain. The wings of the dragon legion seemed bound by invisible chains as they plummeted from the reddened sky.

The destructive force of the Sword of Rupture surged toward Shendu. Watching the ancient imperial residence he had finally seen again crumble into dust, Shendu's expression remained devoid of both grief and joy. As the "glory" faded, he stood alone in the center of a collapsing world.

In his past life, he might have let out a raspy roar, a curse of vengeance or a boast of grand ambition. That was his way. But strangely, in this moment, his heart was at peace.

This place was always "false," wasn't it?

He had lived through this history once before. Demons were creatures of flesh and blood, and as the sixth of the Eight Demon Sorcerers, his temperament had never been particularly stable. Every time he was defeated, sealed by Lo Pei or thwarted by Jackie Chan, his exit was always undignified, a frantic struggle against the inevitable.

But this time...

Clearly, he had failed again. He had been defeated by the one weapon that countered his existence perfectly. Yet, his heart was like a placid lake, undisturbed.

Why?

Standing amidst the ruin, he looked into the distance, his gaze landing on the figure clad in the noble Taoist robes.

Perhaps it was because he was here.

Throughout his countless escapes from the Netherworld, Shendu had fought alone. He had grown so accustomed to the isolation that he had almost forgotten the seven suffering siblings he had left behind in the demon portal. His reputation among his kind was wretched; betrayal was as natural to him as breathing. He had betrayed demons and humans alike.

But this time, he was profoundly grateful for one correct decision: helping Tso Lan leave their original world.

The result was manifest. After a lifetime of solitary war, he finally had a brother standing behind him! An elder. A brother who belonged to the Eight Demon Sorcerers. A peer who had been called "brother" since the very dawn of their existence.

He could now accept failure with grace, because he knew the price was no longer a century of agonizing loneliness within a stone seal.

"My brother..." Shendu curled his lip into a smile and whispered a call.

Zoran replied, "I am here."

Shendu glanced around at the remains of his past palace, now vanishing into cinders. He joked, "It seems I've learned a bit of composure from my elder."

"You have learned well," Zoran said.

As the catastrophic power of Ea reached him, Shendu unhinged his jaw. The power of the Noble Phantasm-grade Dragon Talisman erupted. This was his most primal essence as the Flame Demon. Within the Reality Marble, it had been bolstered to a level of power equivalent to Saber's Excalibur.

The fire met the destruction.

In the distance, Zoran took one last look at the crumbling world and turned his back on it.

…

"It's over. It looks like Caster lost," Kiritsugu Emiya said hesitantly. He had grown used to reading nothing from Zoran's face. This being felt like the moon in the sky: eternal, distant, and perpetually calm. No matter how dire the situation or how dark the "night" of danger became, the moon simply hung there, serene in the heavens.

Zoran smoothed his wide sleeves and shook his head with a smile. "I'll say it's over when it's actually over."

"What do you mean?" Kiritsugu glanced back. Caster's Reality Marble had vanished, and the Servant himself was locked in a grueling, losing struggle of raw energy. How was the situation anything but obvious?

Zoran didn't dignify the doubt with an answer. His floating form began to drift slowly toward the center of the conflict. "The Holy Grail War is a battle between one Master and Servant against the rest, is it not?"

"You mean…?" A thought struck Kiritsugu, but he dared not believe it.

Zoran's silhouette began to fade into the smoke of the dissolving world, leaving only one final sentence echoing in the air:

"It's my turn to take the stage."

Kiritsugu's face paled, his pupils trembling.

…

Night.

Following the collapse of the Glory of the Ancient Demon, everyone caught within was spat back out onto the familiar wharf.

Gilgamesh stood on high ground, the Sword of Rupture slowly ceasing its rotation in his hand. He looked down with disdain at Shendu, who remained standing in the center of the battlefield.

The demon was not dead. His aura had merely dipped slightly.

"How resilient!" even Gilgamesh couldn't help but praise.

To have one's Noble Phantasm shattered and survive a direct impact from Ea... even so, Shendu stood firm. His condition actually seemed better than many of the other Servants. Lancer, being closest to the epicenter, was covered in wounds despite his best efforts to dodge the shockwave. Faint glows of healing magecraft began to shimmer on his skin.

Saber, having fought the dragon legion for so long, was breathing heavily. Her wrist was still plagued by the unhealable wound, and she had been forced to expend extra energy protecting Irisviel. Only Iskandar and Waver, who had stayed on the periphery from the start, appeared relatively unscathed.

"To have fought this King to such an extent... I have acknowledged your will and your strength," Gilgamesh declared. "You call yourself a demon. Then now, Demon, it is time for this to end!"

Gilgamesh raised Ea once more.

In the center of the fray, Shendu raised his head. He had already sensed Zoran's approach; his expression was entirely unhurried. A second later, beside his massive frame, Zoran drifted down to the ground with measured grace.

"Demon? Are you calling me?" Zoran asked with a smile, looking up at Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh's pupils contracted for a fraction of a second. He looked down grimly at the figure standing beside Shendu. The Command Seals on the back of the newcomer's hand revealed his identity.

Caster's Master.

"Mongrel!" Gilgamesh frowned. "To appear before this King now... you are too late!" He had acknowledged Shendu, but that did not mean he acknowledged this Master.

Zoran's lips curled. He slowly extended a hand. Shendu might not care about insults, but Zoran had little patience for others barking at him.

"Noisy," he said simply.

In the next heartbeat, a massive beam of violet-black energy descended, striking Gilgamesh almost instantly. There was not a millisecond of reaction time. Carrying an irresistible force, the impact slammed him down from his high perch, burying his golden armor deep into the concrete.

Gilgamesh used Ea as a brace against the ground, his expression shifting violently. A titanic gravity had seized him, dragging him from the heights to the dirt, making even the act of standing a luxury.

"Who gave you permission to look down on me from the sky?" Zoran flicked his palm.

A repulsive force detonated. It violently pulverized the ground beneath Gilgamesh, shoving him away from the wharf with unstoppable momentum until he plummeted into the sea.

It was the sensation of being hit head-on by a hundred-ton truck on a highway—total, crushing helplessness.

A splash sounded, not particularly loud, but definitive.

The participants who had just emerged from the Reality Marble stood frozen as if time itself had congealed. Their eyes were glued to the terrifying trench plowed into the earth.

"Wait... you've got to be kidding me..." Waver stammered in terror.