The moment Avalon devoured Excalibur, Shirou experienced a surge of heat.
He could feel every single strand of his Magic Circuits. They were screaming, half in pain, half in joy, mostly in absurd thrill. A power was coursing through them, ready to explode, whether he willed it or not.
Mana.
Beyond measure.
Shirou's bloody, brown pupils carried a blue glint.
Through that blueness, he saw the Witch turning around to escape through the Exit behind her.
What happened?
How did Avalon from his world consume Excalibur from this foreign world?
Shirou knew that if he began thinking of these questions, all he would find were more questions, with no clear answers.
By then, the momentary silence brought upon the battlefield by the shocking incident would have already ended.
By then, the Pillar Witch, who had all but killed him if it hadn't been for the surprising miracle, would be gone as well, her presence piling up on Black's worries outside.
No.
There was a reason that Black had kept him here, letting the enemy come for him.
His friend wanted him to handle these people in this place.
So, Shirou couldn't have any of the soldiers, especially the Witch, running out on him.
If it were before, then perhaps he would have had no way of stopping her, given how vast her magical abilities seemed.
With the soldiers protecting her with constant firing, he doubted he would have even managed to reach her.
But things had changed after what happened just a moment ago.
His Mana, which had been dwindling ever since his use of Avalon to survive the Witch's very first attack, was brimming…
No.
Not just brimming.
It felt like if he didn't use it, he would explode.
Thus, it was better to cause the explosion himself, Shirou believed.
"I am the bone of my sword—" Emiya's voice boomed, instantly changing the colors of the surroundings. "—Unlimited Blade Works!"
Dry, hot wind blasted across the desert sodden with swords.
Far into the horizon, large gears turned, smithing imagination.
Shirou became a blur, his eyes leaving behind two extremely sharp blue trails.
The Witch was still turning around, half terrified because of what had happened earlier, half confused about what was happening currently.
Of course, the blue-armored soldiers reacted as if nothing had surprised or terrified them at all.
In fact, even as Shirou had been casting his Reality Marble, they had already fired.
Bolter rounds, including jets of flames, missiles, and several different kinds of special ammunition, boomed toward him, seemingly covering the entire Reality Marble from one end to another.
In response, the blueness within Shirou's eyes shone bluer.
The gears turned.
The reality responded.
Instantly, around Shirou, hundreds of similar ammunition rounds took shape before meeting the incoming onslaught head-on.
The resulting explosion blinded the eyes and deafened the ears.
Balls of fire, as large as several mansions piled on top of each other, blanketed the entire sky, raining a skin-melting heat.
Tearing through that heat, fire, and dust, Shirou came out, blasting himself over the Marines.
His speed was so insane, his momentum so unstoppable, that despite being Pillars, all the Ultramarines could do was record it happening and prepare their counter, their Power Armors failing to let them react at the speed of their thoughts.
Only one of them, perhaps the leader of the Marines, had managed to move.
That, too, only because he had moved before Shirou had traced the Marines' attacks, causing a blinding diversion.
It didn't matter, though.
The leader of armored giants taking out a massive sword, radiating blueness, to protect the Witch didn't matter, either.
"Ahhhhhhh!" Shirou let out a shout.
Raising Kanshou, he hacked, the black sword in his left hand meeting the giant's sword with a BOOM.
Simultaneously, the Bakuya in his right hand traced a blurry arc, its white blade biting into the Witch's shoulder, opening her to the waist.
As the Witch screamed, the blood-sodden white blade also stopped at her waist, instead of bisecting her into two parts as Shirou had intended.
Because the armored soldier had put his weight behind his massive sword and sent Shirou flying, the rest of the soldiers finally grouping around the Witch as well.
Shirou's feet skidded as he came to a stop, drops of blood dripping off Bakuya as Kanshou hummed loudly.
Along with that hum, Shirou also realized that he could barely feel his left hand.
He looked at the monster that towered tall in front of the Witch, who was screaming painfully while spraying a Potion onto herself.
Almost as powerful as Berserker's raw power, Shirou confirmed, cleaning the blood off his mouth with the back of his right hand. I… must finish it fast.
So, with no chance of him reaching the Witch again, he let go of the two swords.
Meanwhile, the Marines had already begun firing, the Witch healing her gaping wound.
"Buy me a moment!" she screamed, raising her Wand. "Let's see how long he can maintain this Reality under my wrath!"
Unconcerned by another volley of several hundred ammunition rounds, Shirou raised his numb left hand, Archer's signature, red-black, twin-blade bow appearing in it with one thought.
In his right hand, he did not wield any arrow, but a sword; a sword that had an uncharacteristically spiral blade.
Then, taking a deep breath, Shirou nocked Caladbolg II on the bow.
Sensing something ominous, perhaps, the leader of the armored giants raised his sword, putting himself at the very front.
[Astartes!] the red-helmeted leader shouted. [BRACE!!!]
In response, Shirou, ever so softly, let the held breath go, including the sword-arrow.
There was a screech.
Caladbolg II twisted space, drawing in all the ammunition, lighting the sky on fire.
Then, just as the screech became a barely audible hum, the Broken Phantasm landed on the group of Pillars.
Outside, in the real world, for the first time after World War 2, a familiar BOOM appeared on a continent…
… the mushroom cloud of a nuclear blast rising high where MACUSA had once stood!