Unsummon program start.

(Finally, we’re here. About to end it all.)

Spiritron conversion start.

(In just a moment, I’ll be able to get back at that coward for what happened back then...)

Rayshift starting in 3...

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The waves crashing against the coastline a short distance away beyond the cliff. An impossibly blue sky with just the right amount of cloud. A light breeze, cool enough to ward off heat, and yet not chilly. In other words, quite the perfect day for the outing they had chosen to go on. Well, the Goddess had ordered, and her Master complied, really. After all, her Master was still in the final stages of rest from her previous ordeal, unintentionally caused by the Goddess. And the pathway to the final singularity, supposedly located in Babylonia, was almost open. And so, they had come here for a relaxing picnic, to a peaceful island in one of the Singularities they had already successfully set on the path to restoration.

The Goddess leaned slightly forward, extending her hand towards her Master, holding a small piece of fresh fruit in her fingers. “Say ‘aaaaa’, Master.” Her Master closed her eyes and obediently opened her mouth an appropriate amount. However, just as her Master had done this, the Goddess instead turned her hand around and slipped the delicious fruit in her own mouth instead, grinning a devilish, satisfied grin as her Master realized she had been so cruelly deceived, a look of mild shock and surprise spreading across her face for a moment, before returning to her earlier content smile.

And so they continued eating until their small feast was over, with the Goddess only occasionally teasing her Master in such a way. Having eaten the truly delicious meal prepared mostly by Cat and Emiya, with some help from the rest of Chaldea’s kitchen staff, they sat there in the spot they had chosen, not far from the cliff edge, overlooking the sea, with the colours of the sky and the sea almost mixing together, and they simply relaxed and enjoyed the scenery.

After a while, seeing her Master was getting slightly tired after eating, the Goddess rose up slightly, and adjusted herself into a position that seemed to imply something extraordinarily rare...a lap pillow. “Here, Master, if you so desire...a reward for your continuing devotion. You must be tired, right?”

Glancing at the Goddess’ eyes to see if she truly meant it, her Master could read another message hidden within them: “If you don’t take this chance now, then no more shall be offered.”

And so her Master gladly complied, and, ever so gently, laid her head in the Goddess’ lap, with her head facing slightly towards the sea. The Goddess smiled mysteriously, with her hand half-poking, and half-stroking her Master’s head. They stayed like this for a short while, simply relaxing as the day went on, the Goddess’ Master was almost about to fall asleep, when the Goddess spoke up.

“Master...there is something I have been wondering if I should ask you about.”

“Oh? What is it, my Goddess?”

“I have noticed, during the time I have been at Chaldea...there is a certain aspect of your attraction to others that is...absent, as compared to some others in Chaldea, is there not? In all the time I have been able to observe you, I have never seen you...attracted to anyone, in that other way. Neither towards myself, nor even during the summer, with all those women running around scantily clad...”

Her Master blushes ever so slightly, and glances up at Stheno, and then faces forwards again, staring down at the ground.

“Ah. Yes. That. I...”

“...I suppose I should just come out with it and explain it fully, since you’re asking. I tend to avoid bringing it up, as it takes a while to explain to people, or has every time I’ve tried to, and even after that, more time to get people to understand it properly and accept it...”

“Oh? Out with it, Master.”

Her tone was not angry or persuasive, however. Rather, she seemed curious, welcoming her Master to talk, should she want to. Or at least, as best a Goddess unused to spending time in human society can manage such.

“When I feel attracted to someone, I...only feel attraction on a romantic level. I’ve never really felt, or understood, any of that...other type of attraction other people seem to feel. The more physical one, you know, one that makes people want to do...that thing.”

The Goddess’ Master blushed somewhat at this, clearly trying to avoid saying what it was exactly she was talking about, and hoping her Goddess would understand without directly mentioning it. And, as luck would have it, so she did.

(A human so unlike any of those...men...back then, indeed...perhaps another reason why I find myself liking her so much...), the Goddess thought to herself. (And so cute, too, trying to avoid embarrassing herself...)

At this thought, the Goddess poked her Master’s nose gently.

“And I think such is quite fine. It is good to understand one’s own nature so well.”

At these words, her Master looked up at her almost in surprise, blushing a deep scarlet, before covering her face with her hands and turning around, burying her face in her Goddess’ lap. “She’s making me fall for her all over again!”, thought the Goddess’ Master to herself.

As the sky began to darken in colour ever so slightly, her Master managed to calm herself down, and she yawned, feeling tired of the exertion of feasting, and then relieving her heart of another layer of secrets and stress.

“Would you like to take a nap, Master?”

“That...that would be amazing. You’ll let me be like this for a while then, my Goddess?”

“Indeed, I shall allow it. Rest easy, and allow yourself to drift off should you feel like it.”

“Then so I shall.”

Her Master smiled up at her, and then settled herself into as snug a position as she can.

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The Goddess woke up to a strange scenery, very similar to the one she was just in, yet somehow different...and yet eerily familiar. A slightly foggy scenery, though clearly an island as well. Ruins scattered about, barely discernible amidst the fog. And they lay again near the shore, with the sea roaring next to them.

...The Shapeless Isle. Somehow, without knowing it, they had shifted here. And then, she realized. A dream. That was what this was, and how they were here, of all places. She too had drifted off without realizing it, alongside her Master. However, her Master was also still in her lap, and when she nudged her, awoke as well. This was clearly then a shared dream between a Master and their Servant.

As her Master awoke and rose up, she also surveyed their surroundings, and came to the same conclusion as her Goddess that they must be dreaming. However, the place was not immediately familiar to her. However, seeing her Goddess acting strangely on alert, and ever so slightly uneasy, she realized, with a sombre look on her face, the place they must be in.

“The Shapeless Isle...your home.”

However, they both immediately felt something wrong about the place. A distortion. A presence. Someone else was in the dream along with them. Someone...extremely unpleasant. Suddenly, a sinister, imperious voice boomed out from behind them, sounding almost as if it echoed all across the dream world, far louder than the crashing waves. Their hair suddenly stood on end, every muscle going into overdrive, their minds on high alert.

“Welcome, Master of Chaldea who opposes me, and star-child-turned-Servant.”

“Solomon!”

“Rest easy. I am not here to fight you today. Rather, I have a question I would like to ask...of the goddess from beyond the stars.”

Neither of the two relaxed one bit. With the expression of one determined to do whatever it takes to protect someone important to her, the Goddess moved slightly forward, in front of her Master, in a seeming desperate attempt to shield her Master at least a little, if at all possible. Her Master’s face, on the other hand, was a patchwork of fear and worry, a lump forming in her throat, preventing her from speaking much even if asked to, her mind reeling from the presence of her greatest foe and thoughts racing through her mind at breakneck speeds.

“Star...child?”

“Yes. The one right in front of you, so valiantly attempting to shield you from something. How unlike a goddess should be. And human, you did not know their kind are originally from another place far away, from elsewhere than this planet? How pitiful, to not even know that much. Human minds are indeed so weak and ignorant, and limited. Indeed I can not be wrong to have decided to eradicate you from this world.”

“But back to the matter at hand. I doubt now I shall receive a favourable response to my inquiry considering your reaction, goddess, but I shall pay my doubt no heed. My curiosity yet remains. Child of the stars, how would you like to...do nothing at all?”

The Goddess’ expression became one of puzzled suspicion, as she tried to make out the meaning of his question. Her Master was about to exclaim in response, when…

“Now, do not rush into a rash decision before you have heard my offer in full. Child of the stars, all I ask of thee...is to stand there, and not move a muscle. All I need is the Command Seals on your Master’s hand, and for you to stop interfering with my incineration of humanity, and I will, in turn, leave you alone.”

“…Now, do not give me that angry expression, for this is hardly a one-sided deal. In exchange for your compliance with my simple request, I shall grant you...all you ever wanted.”

As Solomon said this, the landscape changed into a beautiful day much like earlier at their picnic, and two figures appeared in the distance, waving and smiling. The Goddess’ sisters, one of them as she once was, and never can truly be again.

“In exchange, I offer you this island, as it once was...and your sisters, as they once were, as well. Exactly as you have always dreamed it could be again. And, of course, following my request, there will be no more humanity to come pester you, and so your youngest sister never need to change at all. You can remain here, together, happy, for all of eternity. Safe from the outside world. And, of course...”

Two more figures appear, one beside each of the Goddess’ sisters, one a giant bull-man, and the other another human. Both looking just as happy as the Goddess’ sisters, seemingly there out of their own free will.

“...You shall not be alone, if you so wish. Even if one or two humans yet remain, humanity itself shall be no more, and thus my task shall be complete. I can let them remain here with you. And, of course, I can make them just as unchanging as you, ever by your side for as long as you will it so.

The Goddess’ Master looks on at the situation with horror on her face at what her enemy is suggesting, before turning her gaze to the Goddess in front of her. The Goddess, on the other hand, closes her eyes, seemingly overwhelmed by the possibility in front of her...everything, indeed, as she has always wanted it to be, deep in the hidden chambers of her heart. The Goddess closes her eyes, and the smallest stream of tears seem to pour down her face.

“What say you, star-child? Do you find this arrangement to your liking? Of course, if there is still something your heart desires, I could find it in me to...”

“No.”

The Goddess opens her eyes as the word leaves her mouth, with an uncharacteristically fierce expression of resistance blazing in her violet eyes.

“I will not accept your offer.”

“Oh? Is that so?”

“While you offer indeed the very thing I have longed for untold aeons...I cannot accept it. This...is wrong.”

Any hint of a smile that may have existed in the King of Mages’ expression just a moment ago had long vanished by this point, replaced by an icy expression of disappointment.

“Not only would they, and the people alongside them, be dragged here forcibly, but I…

“In truth, I gave up on that dream long ago. Ever since I saw me (Euryale) and Medusa starting to learn to live alongside humans again, and find things in this world they enjoy, I began to realize just how foolish wishing for things to return to the distant past really was. Not to mention the fact that all three of us decided to help humanity in their fight for survival of our own free will. Their fight...against you.”

The Goddess glanced behind herself.

“And there is also my Master. Full of fear and unsure if she can even manage to defeat you and save humanity...and yet, she has decided to place all her trust in me. To resist you. And I...I cannot betray that trust. Not after she has never once lessened her devotion to me. A goddess must reward good service, no?”

“...A pity. An expected result, but nevertheless, I expected such an offer would at least make you waver. Oh well. It changes nothing.”

At his words, the illusion of her sisters disappeared, and faded back to nothing.

“You choose humanity over your own survival and over attaining an impossible dream so difficult to pursue that only I can grant it. Such foolishness. Then, perish. Perish along with the humans that you have grown to like so much, despite the wounds they have caused on your family and the world, and the destruction of their own doing that inevitably awaits them all. If this is your choice, then, survive what is to follow, and come to be crushed by my hand, if you so choose. It matters not in the end. For you shall all perish, whether you resist me or simply lay down to die like you should. Human history shall end by MY HAND!”

With these last words, the King of Mages vanished, laughing his sinister signature laugh. And the dream around them also ended. The two of them woke up right where they had drifted off, in each other’s arms, as it were. The Goddess held her Master for a short while, shaking as she was from the shock of coming so unexpectedly and suddenly face to face with her greatest enemy, in such a place, just when her guard was down.

“My Goddess...could we just be like this...for a while longer?”

The Goddess smiled at her Master ever so slightly, and nodded her head. And so they stayed for a while longer again, recovering, having survived an unexpected encounter with the destroyer of human history mostly intact once again. And though they took their time, taking in the relaxing scenery once more, the King of Magic did not make another appearance, nor did any foe. It was oddly peaceful, after the tension only a little moment ago.

And so, as they began to feel at ease once more, the Goddess decided to reward her Master, and perhaps herself as well, by doing something she had never thought she would do with any human, or much of anyone else either, for that matter. But all her secrets now lay in the open for this human who she had decided to defend with her life, and whose innermost secrets she now knew as well. There was hardly any distance now between them. And so she let her guard fall down entirely, and lowered her face towards her Master’s.

With her breath now on her Master’s face, her Master opened her eyes, which had had tears of relief streaming down them as she struggled to calm down, and gazed at the beautiful face now just slightly above hers in surprise. Her Goddess seemed to be seeking approval from her for something. And then it clicked for her, and a new stream of tears, from joy this time, lightly streamed down her face, as she blushed slightly, and closed her eyes, letting her own guard down fully as well, showing how vulnerable she was at that moment.

“I would like nothing more in the world, my Goddess.”

And so, the Goddess lowered her face still slightly lower, until their lips found each other, and locked together, in the first ever kiss either of them had, in truth, experienced. A moment that seemed like eternity they stayed like this, both of them knowing they would likely not get another chance like this any time soon. However, at last, their faces parted, and they sat there, gazing at each other a while longer, listening to the slightly hastened tempo of each other’s heartbeat. Their hearts even closer to each other than before, in more ways than one.

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(It’s not been all that long since then, has it? Even though we were in the last singularity far longer than expected...)

2...

(But so, the day has come at last. We’ve finally found our way to him. To humanity’s final hour of hope. To our last gamble.)

...1.

(Hope you’re ready, King of Mages. Because here we come.)