"King Hassan, come out and strike!!"
Roy's shout echoed through the Underworld, but no matter how loudly he called, the Old Man of the Mountain remained absent.
"…"
"King Hassan?"
Ritsuka and Mash tilted their heads, a shadowy figure flashing in their minds.
The prolonged silence grew painfully awkward, prompting Gilgamesh's brow to twitch furiously.
"You mongrel! This is your trump card? Are you mocking this king?!!"
"Well…"
Roy scratched his head, embarrassed. "According to Ereshkigal, that old man should appear at the decisive moment. To face Tiamat's complete dragon form, the [Grand Assassin]'s concept of death is indispensable."
"So where is he?"
"No idea…"
"…"
Tezcatlipoca burst into laughter. "Hahaha, what a mess! Did that old man break his promise? This is quite the unexpected twist."
"Shut it, dead jaguar!"
"Roy-senpai…"
Ritsuka's voice carried worry.
"No, he'll show up. He's already here."
As the group's mood sank from the Old Man's absence, Merlin, with his EX-rank Clairvoyance and prior knowledge, smiled. Speaking as a narrator, he recounted Chaldea's arduous journey of Human Order restoration with admiration.
"No need to fret. The human Master who crossed six Singularities to reach this point, aided by countless Heroic Spirits' sacrifices, stalled Tiamat, using Uruk and its king's life as bait to push the Beast of Calamity into the Underworld. The Heroic Spirits' selfless assaults, the Underworld's punishments, and my mere decorative flowers, Ritsuka, Mash, and all you Heroic Spirits, you've endured immense hardship to reach this stage…"
The sacrifices of Uruk and humanity in the Seventh Singularity were incalculable, but so were Chaldea's efforts. Today's progress was a collective triumph.
"From the beginning in Fuyuki, I've watched you. Your spirit and beauty moved me, so I bent my oath slightly. With the Earth reduced to a blank slate by Human Order Incineration, I slipped from Avalon to Mesopotamia, just to not miss this critical battle and lend a hand at the pivotal moment."
Without Spiritron Transfer or Imaginary Number Submersion, Merlin shouldn't have crossed time to the Seventh Singularity. But in this unique circumstance, a slight maneuver allowed it.
Simply put, the Incineration of Human Order left only Singularities on Earth, reducing the barriers between Avalon on the Reverse Side of the World and the Singularities on its Outer Side. No longer separated by temporal faults or world walls, the distance was merely vast, like traveling from Asia to Africa.
No wonder it took him over ten days to reach Uruk.
"I despise sorrowful farewells, so even if it costs me everything, I won't end this with death."
"To aid you, I invited my best friend and fellow Magician of the Third Magic, Roy, my understanding one. Since it's my first appearance before him, I can't afford to falter~"
Though a touching tale, this wasn't a JoJo set, and Merlin lacked the ability to pause time for narration. Tiamat's dragon form wouldn't idly wait while they chatted.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"
With a wail, terrifying soundwaves pulsed through the Underworld, shattering mountains and cracking the earth.
Having reclaimed part of her power from the Underworld's soil via the Sea of Chaos, Tiamat's form grew more massive. Her wings, once broken by Roy's Marduk axe, were restored and spread, ready to take flight.
She aimed to escape the Underworld, devour the Human and Divine Realms, reclaim her full authority, and drown the world in black mud.
"You won't succeed!!"
Seeing Tiamat spread her wings, Quetzalcoatl gritted her teeth, ready to burn her power again to shatter them. But the terrifying black tide and surging mana forced her back.
Countless Lahmu, reborn from the black mud, descended, encircling the Heroic Spirits to prevent interference with Tiamat's escape. Some lunged for Tiamat Lily, aiming to reclaim her concept for their mother, but Merlin's holy sword gave them no chance.
A flash of swordlight cleaved the attacking Lahmu.
"Aaa… aaaaa…" (Thank you.)
"No need. Oh, if you'd go on a date with me later, that'd be nice…"
"Aaa… aaa?" (What?)
"Haha, just kidding."
"It's not enough… even now, it's not enough."
Merlin looked up at Tiamat's dragon form, her massive wings nearing the Underworld's sky, and continued:
"Even so, that one knows no fear, no dread of death…"
"This world lacks her natural enemy. The Beast of the Conception has no sense of self, only the primal urge to return, advancing toward the world."
"And knows not this death!!"
Tiamat's dragon form, soaring and closing the Underworld's distance to Uruk's surface, paused, her gaze startled.
Her massive dragon pupils locked onto an elder atop the Underworld's peak, on Uruk's surface, shrouded in a deathly presence capable of unraveling her authority, staring coldly at her.
A foreign emotion stirred within her.
"Behold the heavens! Sea of Origin, Tiamat, Beast of Calamity! Your reaper stands there!"
With Merlin's cry, all eyes turned skyward. Pale blue flames burned in the Underworld's sky. Aided by Merlin's magecraft, even Ritsuka's sight pierced kilometers, glimpsing the reaper poised to end this war.
"Finally, the Old Man shows up. He sure picks his moments."
"My entrance as a Grand Servant and was so plain. Doesn't that make me inferior? That won't do…"
Seeing the Old Man, Tezcatlipoca laughed heartily, clutching his head. "Hahaha! Our final key is here. For victory, it's time I exerted some effort. Watch closely!!"
"Allow me to reintroduce myself: the great Almighty, the fearsome Lord of Heaven and Earth."
"Black, Red, Blue, White, the living death, Yayauhqui Tezcatlipoca!!"
"I manifest here as a Almighty God! Mortals, tremble!!"
Unwilling to let King Hassan steal the spotlight, the quiet Tezcatlipoca laughed, raising his hand to chant a complex incantation.
Black ice enveloped the Underworld's mana enveloped him, shrouding his form.
"Hahaha, that's it!!"
He emerged wearing a black jaguar mask and cloak, a terrifying figure.
The ground beneath was no longer Mesopotamia's Underworld but his Mictlán!!
"You summoned an Underworld here?! Impossible!"
Sensing the shift, Quetzalcoatl gasped.
"Unthinkable, unheard of, right?"
"Normally, I couldn't do this, overriding the local mistress's pressure to shift realms. But…"
Tezcatlipoca explained, "Thanks to Tiamat's dragon form seizing the Underworld's authority, destabilizing its concept and draining much of Ereshkigal's power, the Mesopotamian Underworld's concept is at its weakest. With Ereshkigal out of the fight, I made a small deal, trading for partial control."
"I didn't expect that young goddess to be so desperate, agreeing to such a deal. In exchange for aiding the Master against Tiamat, she lent me the Underworld. Isn't she fearless, risking me not returning it and rebuilding my pantheon here? Not that I would."
"Ereshkigal…"
Roy fell silent at her sacrifice.
"Enough idle talk. Now, for the second phase of the boss fight. Tiamat, taste my Mictlán punishment!!"
With a hearty laugh, Tezcatlipoca raised his sharp jaguar claws, plunging them into the Underworld's earth.
A ferocious storm erupted!!
Invisible wind blades swept Mictlán's Underworld, tearing apart every wandering Lahmu like steel knives.
As the lord of storms and terror, Tezcatlipoca unleashed his divine might in his own Underworld.
"Aaaaaaa!!!"
The invisible, impermanent blades ignored space and flesh, reaping the Lahmu like a reaper's scythe.
"Not bad. Using another's Underworld feels odd, but it's enough."
"Go, Master! I've used my trump card. Don't forget our deal!!"
"I understand."
Roy nodded. nodded.
"Good. Let's open this Mother of Genesis's eyes."
Meanwhile, in the Underworld's sky, the Old Man's illusory form solidified.
An aged, solemn voice echoed through the void.
"Where there's no life, there's no death; where life exists, death follows."
The cycle of life and death is inevitable, bound, reflecting the natural order.
"Eternity for thee is not progress, but eternal rest."
"Beast of Calamity, evil born from humanity… thy longing for return is the root that resists thee, rejecting thy core."
Bang bang bang!!
The impermanent winds stirred by Tezcatlipoca surged upward, striking Tiamat's massive dragon form, ringing like clashing blades.
But more than the winds, what the Beast of Calamity feared was "death", the Old Man of Death before her.
The Hassansin Order held a maxim: To see the Old Man's face is to see thy death.
Each Hassan leader saw the first mask only at death's door, for meeting the Order's founder, the First Hassan, meant their end was near.
Now, the self-proclaimed Mother of Genesis felt the terror of death firsthand.
This Old Man was death incarnate!!
"The title of Grand is not my desire. With this strike, I etch the proof of the strongest."
Shedding the decayed form of Ziusudra's elder, vibrant blue flames surged, manifesting as the First Hassan, the legendary [Grand Assassin], the Reaper of the Valley.
"That's… the First Hassan from the Sixth Singularity's Evening Bell Temple?!"
Seeing the black reaper, Dr. Roman and Ritsuka, who'd met him once, shouted in shock.
They hadn't expected Roy's final trump card to be this Old Man, the legendary reaper, a [Grand Assassin] equal to Tezcatlipoca.
"If he acts, we might actually do this!!"
Dr. Roman's eyes lit up, rallying.
Buzz buzz buzz!!
As the First Hassan, Reaper of the Valley, King Hassan slowly raised his black greatsword, wreathed in pale blue flames. His Saint Graph's reaction and overflowing deathly aura formed a terrifying pressure, slowing Tiamat's flight.
The valley's mist and deep blue flames became invisible shackles, hindering the Mother of Genesis's escape from the Underworld.
The solemn evening bell tolled in their ears.
"Though fallen from god to beast, thou art still the Mother of Genesis. Thus, I shall declare my name."
"From the abyss of the valley, racing through darkened death! I am the Old Man of the Mountain, Hassan-i-Sabbah!!"
Not summoned by the Grail, nor dispatched by the Counter Force, nor commissioned by Uruk's king, the Grand Assassin bearing the strongest title came for humanity's last Master, Ritsuka, to repay a debt from the Sixth Singularity.
For this, he'd forsake his Grand title.
"The evening bell has tolled thy name!!"
The black swordsman raised his heavy blade above the valley's abyss, leaping skyward and plunging downward.
From the human world to the Underworld, a mere kilometer was nothing to the valley's guest.
Pale blue flames cloaked his grim black armor, accompanied by the rushing airflow and billowing cloak. King Hassan gave Tiamat's dragon form no chance to evade. His speed was blinding, his form ghostly, arriving in an instant.
Though their sizes were worlds apart, victory wasn't decided by crude measures like stature.
As evidenced by Tiamat's dragon form, wailing in fear.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!"
"By divine mandate, I strip thee of thy wings!!!"
The next moment, the dark world seemed frozen, consumed by the concept of [Death], slaying all.
This strike was unavoidable, unendurable by flesh. In this time filled with darkened death, only the black greatsword bearing the Grand's death descended.
Buzz!!
The blade fell, devoid of dazzling colors or earth-shaking force. The sword, imbued with the Grand's death, descended plainly.
Yet this unadorned strike severed Tiamat's dragon wings effortlessly, sending her plummeting from the Underworld's sky to the ground, granting her the concept of death.
Boom!!
The evil dragon crashed into the abyss, stirring a massive quake. Though the kilometer fall was trivial for a Beast, Roy, Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, Gilgamesh, and Merlin's eyes gleamed.
Dr. Roman's ecstatic report heralded a stunning reversal.
"Perfect! Beast II's Saint Graph mode has shifted! Not only were Tiamat's dragon wings severed, but the Old Man forcibly imposed the concept of 'death,' drastically altering her core! It's regressed from Jurassic to the Age of Gods!"
"Though Tiamat's scale remains immense, it's now a standard Servant's Saint Graph mode!!"
"She's just a terrifying divine monster, not an invincible Mother of Genesis!!"
King Hassan's sacrifice of his Grand title turned despair into hope, transforming an unbeatable foe into a defeatable one. This seismic shift sent Dr. Roman into a jubilant dance.
"We can defeat her! Now, Beast II can be fully eliminated! Seize this chance!!"
This was the moment Roy and Tezcatlipoca awaited, Tiamat imbued with death's concept.
Hearing the news, all Servants erupted in excitement, reigniting their resolve.
"Hahahahahaha!!"
Gilgamesh, once furious, now laughed heartily at the situation.
"The outcome's clear now!"
"Behold, Mother of Genesis!!"
The golden king laughed, his hand reaching into a golden portal, drawing his ultimate Noble Phantasm.
A powerful gust erupted. This weapon, predating the concept of swords, lacked a conventional blade. Its rounded, three-segmented head rotated inversely around the hilt, generating a mana storm that could tear space, [Enuma Elish · Ea].
Its appearance signaled the end.
For their lineup, a Tiamat without the Goddess of Fate and imbued with death was no longer a major threat.
"Ready, everyone? This is our last chance! We can't fail!"
Witnessing King Hassan's Grand-sacrificing strike, Roy's voice surged with fervor. Raising Gilgamesh's borrowed golden microphone, he rallied everyone.
Lacking Gilgamesh's commanding charisma, Roy's pure words nonetheless stirred morale as the group's backbone.
In this final moment, none held back, unleashing their ultimate trump cards with one shared goal.
"Strike together, end her now!!"
___
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