Not long after Lord El-Melloi and Iskandar—begrudgingly—reached a half-formed understanding, the air suddenly grew restless.
"She's here. The King of Heroes."
Before the doctor could even warn her, Ritsuka had already looked up, sensing it.
The "Demon King" descended.
She was still dressed in modern clothes—out of place for this era, yet somehow utterly natural on her. Long hair that seemed to melt into the night streamed in the wind, and silver eyes fixed straight on where Chaldea stood.
With a faint smile, Ophis drifted down from the sky and came to a slow stop before them.
"So you really came…"
The Servants all raised their weapons at once. Ritsuka, however, showed no surprise at all.
"Senpai?!"
"I just had a feeling…"
To Mash's question, Ritsuka could only answer with a wry smile and a shake of her head.
No matter how hard she forced herself to stay calm, the moment she faced that black-haired girl, the trembling rising from her core refused to be suppressed.
That alien presence—something that surpassed any Servant she had ever seen.
But she had to face it. To survive.
"Hah… hah… hah…"
Two sets of footsteps—one heavy, one light—approached behind Ophis. Kariya Matou and his Berserker appeared, forming a pincer with Chaldea and the others, hemming Ophis in from both sides.
"So you came after all?"
Ophis flicked a glance back, still smiling.
Just as she'd expected. She had left back then because she couldn't be bothered dealing with him, but a beast ruled by obsession wouldn't stop until it burned itself out.
Whether this man should be allowed to destroy himself was a decision for Ishtar to make. Ophis looked once, then dismissed the two equally maddened figures entirely.
And for reasons no one could quite read, when Kariya saw Ritsuka and the others present as well, he stopped—he didn't charge like a berserker the way he had before.
"It's grown to this scale, has it?"
Ophis's gaze swept across Ritsuka's side.
Caster had already been eliminated. Lancer's Master had handed over control of his Servant and returned to the Clock Tower.
Saber, Rider, and even Berserker at the rear had allied with Chaldea, resolved to concentrate their strength and face Ophis together.
And under Ritsuka's command there were still Mash and Lily as well.
Assassin, who could hardly serve as a frontline combatant, didn't count—meaning seven against one, perhaps even worse in sheer numbers.
The situation looked grim, yet Ophis kept smiling with easy composure.
At least so far, the gap was only in numbers.
Combat power wasn't a simple sum of heads. Making that many Servants function at maximum efficiency was a strategist's skill—but turning numbers into true strength, forging quantity into quality, was a burden the Master had to shoulder.
"Ophis—whatever your goal is, please stop!"
Ritsuka pressed a hand to her chest and met Ophis's eyes—eyes that reflected the future.
"The Holy Grail in this world has been tainted. It's poison—something that can harm humanity. If the Grail is completed… all of humanity will be in danger!"
"Oh?"
At Ritsuka's words, Ophis's eyes narrowed slightly.
With the farseeing-like function of Sha Naqba Imuru sealed away, Ophis had known the Holy Grail's nature probably wasn't anything good—but she hadn't imagined it was dangerous to this extent.
Ophis fell silent. The atmosphere thickened and sank. Even Waver, the resident complainer, jolted at the truth and tried to speak—only to have the oppressive weight crush the words back down his throat.
"This isn't like the abomination from before! It's malice equal to the weight of humanity—an evil that can truly wipe out every human being. It's the strongest weapon against mankind. If the souls of more than five Servants are gathered and the Grail activates, stopping it becomes extremely difficult!"
When Ophis still didn't respond, Ritsuka stepped forward again and laid out the whole truth in a steady, earnest voice.
"You can't allow humanity to be wiped out, can you? Even so, are you going to keep fighting all the way to the end—risking something like that—and trigger a catastrophe?"
Forget defeating Ophis. Even if they somehow could beat her, no one could guarantee there wouldn't be casualties among the Servants here.
Assassin had to be defeated. Caster was already out. If three more Servants fell, the Grail would have enough fuel to start.
Killing two Heroic Spirits while being swarmed this brutally would be almost impossible for ordinary Servants—but for Ophis… no one could say what her odds really were.
Once the battle started, it would become a situation no one could control.
"It's useless, Master."
What surprised Ritsuka most was that Lord El-Melloi furrowed his brow and spoke up.
"The King of Heroes is an existence you cannot negotiate with. The more you provoke her, the more she'll move in exactly the direction you don't want. A king who ignores common sense and lacks all reason—how could someone like that ever stop over something like humanity's extinction?!"
"Lord El-Melloi II?"
Ritsuka turned in a hurry—
And Ophis's voice cut in.
"What an interesting judgment, strategist."
Sensing the hostility in Lord El-Melloi, Ophis answered with an untroubled smile.
"I believe I have shown no such signs, but if that is how you wish to see me, so be it. For it is true: I have no intention of stopping here."
"Ophis?!"
"Last Master of Humanity—saving humanity is your responsibility. I am the watcher of balance. My duty is to purge errors, not to spare mankind from every threat. With no error yet revealed, I will not change my actions for the sake of a mere possibility."
"That's—"
"Enough."
A violent, surging torrent of magical energy poured out like a tide, swallowing the entire riverbank in an instant. Even the ground split open, cracks racing across it.
When Ritsuka lowered her arm from shielding herself against the wave and looked up again, Ophis was no longer the same.
The modern outfit was gone without a trace. In its place was a black robe etched with vivid crimson patterns, and the once-muted silver of her eyes now glimmered with a pale, luminous sheen.
Ritsuka understood.
The make-believe was over.
"Words without the power to bear them are pale and empty. If you would stop me, then bar my road with sharp swords and steadfast shields. If you lack that strength, then talk of safeguarding Human Order is nothing but a castle in the air. Scatter here, and fall. It is nothing—only the future that would have come, brought forward."
What they faced now—and would face from here on—was the King of Heroes in earnest.
The merciless, unguarded, no-hesitation king of the Age of Gods—one who, as Lord El-Melloi had said, "should not exist."
"Hah… you really are impossible."
After a soft sigh, Ritsuka smiled—and her expression hardened again.
"I really am the type who can't leave myself any way out… fine, then. If we're doing this, we're doing it. I'll come at you head-on and knock you awake—properly, thoroughly—you insufferably chuuni, blabbering idiot who, in the end, doesn't even know what you actually want!"
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