"Everyone..."
Shiomi gripped Morgan's hand tightly, his gaze filled with gratitude as he looked around at the others.
"...Wait a second. I don't mean to throw cold water on this, but Tiamat—no, as a Beast—doesn't possess the concept of 'death' at all. Even with two thousand years' worth of Mana, there's no way Morgan could actually kill her..."
Romani took the opportunity to disclose Tiamat's Class as confirmed by Chaldea.
"That's why I said 'eliminate,'" Morgan replied. "It was the goddess of the underworld here who misunderstood."
"Huh?" Ereshkigal blinked, caught off guard.
"Not kill her, but erase the body she's manifested in this world—destroy it to the point that she can't quickly regenerate... or even reverse it into recovery," Morgan explained further. "Didn't the battle at sea already prove that? No matter what we do, we can't kill Tiamat."
It was an idealized scenario—a method that existed only in theory. Realistically, the best they could do now was to severely wound her.
"But why? Even goddesses like Quetzalcoatl or Ereshkigal can't manage to do that?" Mash circled back to the earlier question.
Everyone was thinking the same thing. Rather than focusing on their allies' identities, what mattered more now was uncovering more information about Tiamat.
"Nega-Genesis," Romani said. "It's an ability unique to Tiamat as a Beast—one that overturns fundamental concepts like evolution and Earth's creation myths. It's a conceptual barrier. Even if she's not actively deploying it, the mere fact that she possesses it allows her to nullify attacks from Heroic Spirits rooted in human history."
"But even if we manage to seriously injure her, we still can't kill her or retrieve the Holy Grail from the King of Magecraft... So what then?" Hakuno asked. "Dr. Romani, is there any follow-up strategy we could use after wounding her?"
"I'm afraid not," Romani replied with clear frustration. "It might sound irresponsible, but Tiamat is the mother of all existing life. The fact that we're alive proves her existence. As long as that's the case, Beast II cannot die."
"I see," Artoria murmured. "So unless Tiamat becomes the 'last death on Earth,' we can't force her to conform to the world's ordinary physical laws?"
"As long as any life still exists..." Scáthach mused, then turned toward Ereshkigal. "Mistress of the Underworld, what's your take?"
"Eh? Me?" Ereshkigal was startled.
"As someone who also governs the land of the dead, I don't think it's out of the question," Scáthach said. "But the gates I can open only work on large Servants. Tiamat far exceeds that in scale. And besides, the current state of the Land of Shadows..."
As she listened, Ereshkigal slowly began to grasp what was being suggested. She realized that everyone was now looking at her with the same expectant gaze—and finally understood what Scáthach was implying.
"No, no, no... You want to send Mother to my underworld?!" Ereshkigal panicked.
Though she had never laid eyes on Tiamat since the day she was born, she knew all too well what kind of existence the primordial Mother Goddess was.
"To push a heavily wounded Tiamat into the underworld... That's a rather merciless plan," Morgan said, casting a glance at Shiomi. "But if it's down there—"
"Tiamat would become the last living being?" Hakuno saw the implication immediately.
Ereshkigal slumped her shoulders. "Honestly, I knew it would come to this... Ever since I left the underworld and started hanging around with all of you, I had a feeling something like this would happen eventually."
"So you're agreeing, Ereshkigal?" Sakura asked excitedly.
Tiamat would reach Uruk in less than a day. Even counting the Mystic Code Morgan had set up there, they could only hold her off for two days at most.
There was no time left for hesitation.
"Well, since Sakura asked, of course I'll agree... But just managing Kutha keeps me plenty busy already. Linking the underworld to the surface of Uruk would normally take at least ten years."
In the days she'd spent in Uruk, Ereshkigal had gotten along so well with Sakura that she even felt replacing her sister Ishtar with this human girl might not be such a bad deal.
So, when Sakura looked at her with those hopeful eyes, Ereshkigal gave in.
"'Normally'?" Caren caught the slip immediately.
"It was supposed to take ten years... but I've hated Uruk for a long time, so I've been secretly digging tunnels underground. If I return to the underworld now... it should only take three days, tops." Ereshkigal held up three fingers shyly.
Now Hakuno felt a little awkward too. She'd thought Ereshkigal was just a kind-hearted version of Rin Tohsaka, but apparently the scheming side hadn't gone anywhere.
There was something a little disillusioning about it... maybe.
"You... if I were still alive, I'd be settling this with you after the war," Gilgamesh grumbled, his eye twitching.
As an old acquaintance, Ereshkigal's antics came as no surprise.
"But if you go back to the underworld now, won't that let Ishtar re-emerge?" Shiomi pointed out. "Can't we send someone else in your place?"
His question hit on exactly the problem that had been bothering everyone.
Ereshkigal's presence on the surface—and her activity—was suppressing Ishtar's divinity. If she returned to the underworld, the seal alone wouldn't be enough to keep Ishtar from awakening.
"About that... I have an idea," Ereshkigal said, pressing a hand to her chest. "Please give me a little time."
Back during the sea battle, she had been able to use her Noble Phantasm thanks to Ishtar's tacit approval.
Ishtar's divinity had already awakened—it just hadn't surfaced. Trapped within the seal, she had been watching Ereshkigal's every move in silence.
So... this might be her last chance. Ereshkigal wanted to speak to Ishtar directly.
"If it turns out we can't resolve this, we'll have to find another way," Shiomi added suddenly. "After all, given the current situation, there's no guarantee Ishtar would be willing to help us fight Tiamat."
"If it comes to that, I'll take this body with me into the underworld," Ereshkigal said. "That way, the rest of you can focus on dealing with Tiamat."
The only reason she hadn't offered this solution from the beginning was that she wanted to ensure they'd have enough strength left on the surface—even without her.
"I understand, but allow me to say this," Shiomi spoke up again. "Even after everything we've discussed, before we decide whether or not to kill Tiamat, I want to speak with the Mother of Origins myself—and then decide based on that."
Then, Shiomi voiced the thought on his mind.