Chapter 256

Chapter 256: Chapter 256

A short while earlier—

After Kiriya shattered Semiramis’s Spiritual Core, the Queen of Assyria felt her consciousness beginning to dim.

She knew perfectly well that her remaining time in this world could now be measured in moments.

Even so, the pride of an empress would not allow her to leave the stage so quietly.

She wanted to see how far her Master could go once he stood before the Greater Grail, and she wanted those insolent fools who had trampled upon a queen’s dignity to pay a suitable price before she disappeared.

With the last of her fading consciousness, Semiramis opened the mental connection linking her to Amakusa Shirou Tokisada.

"Master... I lost."

"I see."

Amakusa’s voice, when it reached her, was gentler than it had been at any point during the war.

"It’s all right, Assassin. You’ve already done more than enough. Leave the rest to me."

"That simply won’t do, Master. If I leave everything to you now, wouldn’t that be admitting how useless I was?"

Even with her Spiritual Core destroyed, a faint trace of amusement remained in Semiramis’s voice.

"Besides, Master... I still have one final card left to play."

Amakusa immediately understood what she meant.

"The Command Spells?"

"Exactly."

Semiramis’s weakened voice carried a distinctly queenly satisfaction.

"Before I leave, I intend to take a few particularly irritating people with me."

"...There really is no stopping you."

Amakusa’s response sounded helpless, but there was unmistakable fondness beneath it.

"Haha. Well, you’re the one who summoned me."

"Yes."

For a brief moment, Amakusa closed his eyes.

"Summoning you was the best decision I made in this second life."

"My, my..."

Semiramis’s voice softened.

"What wonderfully sweet words to hear at the end."

Her presence through their connection was weakening rapidly.

Amakusa lowered his head and spoke quietly.

"By the authority of a Command Spell—Semiramis, unleash Sikera Ušum: Arrogant King’s Alcohol at full power."

The first Command Spell disappeared.

Then came the second.

"By the authority of a Command Spell—Semiramis, summon with everything you possess."

Two miracles were expended in immediate succession, pouring an enormous reinforcement into Semiramis’s already crumbling existence.

Amakusa opened his eyes.

"Will that be enough?"

"More than enough, Master."

The weakness disappeared from Semiramis’s voice, replaced by one final surge of imperious excitement.

"Then allow me to prepare a magnificent funeral for these people!"

She raised her voice in the final invocation.

"Fullness—manifestation!"

A gigantic magical formation unfolded across the throne hall.

The space within it twisted violently, and an existence far beyond the scale of an ordinary familiar began forcing its way into the world.

Its name was—

Bashmu.

...

"YYYYYYYYYYYYYAAA!"

A monstrous roar erupted from within the enormous summoning circle as a hideous black silhouette crawled through.

It was a colossal serpent tens of meters long, possessing powerful forelimbs and enormous wings.

Even before its full body emerged, the mere sight of its head was enough to release a terrifying pressure that made everyone present instinctively tense.

Drip.

A strand of saliva fell from its open jaws.

Sssssss—

The moment it touched the floor, the stone corroded into a smoking crater.

Wisps of black vapor drifted outward from the dissolving surface, and even the Servants several meters away felt their heads begin to swim after inhaling only the faintest trace.

"This is... Bashmu?"

Jeanne immediately identified the creature through her Ruler privileges, and her expression became grim.

"That’s right!"

Semiramis forced her broken body upright upon the throne and laughed wildly.

"This is Bashmu, one of the monsters created by the goddess Tiamat!"

Her fading eyes burned with vicious satisfaction.

"Be dissolved by Bashmu’s poison, you rebels who dared insult the dignity of your queen!"

Through two Command Spells and the power of Sikera Ušum: Arrogant King’s Alcohol, Semiramis had forced this legendary creature into manifestation.

Strictly speaking, however, calling the thing before them a true Divine Beast was not entirely accurate.

It was an extraordinarily high-ranking Phantasmal Species that approached the territory of Divine Beasts.

A complete Bashmu was something even Semiramis at the height of her power could not have summoned outright, much less now, when her Spiritual Core had already been shattered and her Saint Graph was steadily collapsing.

Command Spells, however, were miracles precisely because they could force the impossible into temporary reality.

The two enormous reinforcements allowed Semiramis’s dying body to produce power far beyond what it should have possessed, and although the Bashmu she summoned was incomplete, it still stood at the pinnacle of Phantasmal Species and possessed combat strength comparable to the highest tier of Servants.

Its most terrifying weapon was not its physical power.

It was its poison.

Even the greatest Servants could not afford to take that venom lightly.

"YYYYYYYYYYYYYAAA!"

As though responding to the call of its summoner, Bashmu spread its wings and released another deafening roar.

A thick cloud of lethal poison immediately poured from its body and spread through the throne hall at terrifying speed.

Jeanne reacted without hesitation.

"Luminosité Eternelle!"

She drove her battle standard into the ground and released its True Name.

Brilliant gold-white radiance expanded outward from the holy flag, forming a defensive barrier roughly ten meters in radius and enclosing everyone within it before the poisonous cloud could reach them.

Luminosité Eternelle was a powerful barrier Noble Phantasm centered upon Jeanne’s sacred banner.

By converting her EX-rank Magic Resistance directly into defensive power, it could protect those within its radius against both magical and physical attacks of tremendous magnitude.

The poison reached the barrier.

SSSSSSSSS—!

The sound of violent corrosion immediately filled the air.

Jeanne’s expression tightened as she felt her magical energy being drained at an alarming rate.

Her Noble Phantasm possessed extraordinary defensive power, but Bashmu’s poison was equally abnormal.

Worse still, the monster did not simply remain outside the barrier breathing poison at them.

Its enormous claws and fangs repeatedly crashed against the golden-white defense, each physical blow adding another layer of strain and accelerating Jeanne’s consumption.

"W-Waaaaah! That thing is terrifying!"

Astolfo clung tightly to Jeanne’s arm, looking as though he were about to burst into tears.

Chiron’s reaction was far more restrained, but his expression had become exceptionally grave.

During his first life, poison had been the cause of the tragedy that ultimately led to his death.

Because that legend had become embedded in his Saint Graph, poison remained one of his most dangerous weaknesses even after manifesting as a Servant.

Facing a creature whose poison could threaten even top-tier Heroic Spirits was therefore an especially terrible matchup for him.

Even so, Chiron had no intention of standing behind Jeanne and leaving the entire burden to everyone else.

He raised his bow, set an arrow to the string, and began drawing it back, preparing to unleash one of his most powerful shots the moment an opening appeared.

"Hah. What a ridiculous amount of posturing."

Mordred was the first to openly reject the threat posed by Bashmu.

"It’s still just some summoned monster."

Her grin widened as she raised Clarent.

"I’ll cut the damn thing apart."

Then she glanced back toward Kairi.

"Master! Give me a hand!"

"Already on it."

Kairi understood perfectly well that they had reached another life-or-death moment and did not hesitate.

He raised the hand bearing his Command Spells.

"By the authority of a Command Spell, Saber—release your Noble Phantasm and kill Bashmu!"

A tremendous surge of magical energy poured into Mordred.

Kairi immediately used another.

"By the authority of a Command Spell, Saber—use everything you have and destroy the enemy before you!"

Bzzzzzz—!

The reinforcement from two Command Spells struck Mordred at once.

Her magical energy rose to unprecedented heights, crimson lightning pouring over her body in dense waves as Clarent began radiating an ominous red brilliance.

The sheer destructive pressure building within the sword made the air around the blade distort, as though the weapon were preparing to erase everything caught in its path.

Even Astolfo, who had been trembling behind Jeanne only moments earlier, felt his courage rise as he sensed the determination of the Heroic Spirits around him.

He released Jeanne’s arm, summoned his Hippogriff, and jumped onto its back with his lance in hand.

"I’ll make an opening for everyone!"

Before Jeanne could stop him, Astolfo drove the Hippogriff straight out of the protection of Luminosité Eternelle.

The mount accelerated like a meteor, cutting across the poisonous air before curving around Bashmu’s enormous body.

Astolfo maneuvered behind the monster and drove his lance toward one of its wings.

Bashmu naturally sensed the approaching threat and began turning toward him.

It never completed the motion.

Chiron released his bowstring.

The arrow crossed the throne hall in a flash and buried itself directly in Bashmu’s eye.

"YYYYYYYYAAAAA!"

The monster screamed and thrashed violently as its vision exploded into pain, destroying its ability to judge Astolfo’s position accurately for the crucial instant he needed.

Astolfo drove his lance into the wing.

"Trap of Argalia: Down with a Touch!"

The Noble Phantasm’s effect activated.

The limb struck by the golden lance was forcibly transformed into spiritual form, and one of Bashmu’s enormous wings abruptly lost its ability to support the monster’s weight.

Its balance collapsed instantly.

BOOOOM!

Bashmu slammed heavily into the floor of the Hanging Gardens, the impact sending cracks racing through the surrounding stone.

And directly in front of its falling body—

Mordred was waiting.

The smile on her face gradually twisted into something savage.

Clarent was already blazing with the full force of her magical energy and the reinforcement of two Command Spells, crimson lightning wrapping around the sword so densely that the weapon itself was almost impossible to see.

"Perfect."

Mordred planted her feet and brought the sword forward.

"Take this, you oversized bastard!"

The blood-red light reached its peak.

"Clarent Blood Arthur!"

Mordred roared the True Name.

A tremendous torrent of crimson lightning erupted from Clarent and struck Bashmu head-on.

BOOOOOOOOM!

Light and thunder became a single river of destruction.

The reinforced beam tore through the massive creature with overwhelming force, and not even Bashmu’s body, which approached the level of a Divine Beast, could withstand a direct hit from Mordred’s Noble Phantasm under two Command Spell enhancements.

The monster released one final agonized howl as more than half its enormous body was consumed by the crimson lightning and reduced to ash.

But the attack did not stop there.

The torrent continued across the throne hall, devouring everything in its path until it reached the throne itself.

Semiramis remained seated there.

Her shattered Spiritual Core had already placed her beyond salvation, and she no longer possessed enough strength to evade the attack.

The crimson light swallowed her along with the remains of her summoned beast.

"So in the end..."

Semiramis watched the destruction approach with a complicated expression, unwillingness still lingering within her even as a strange sense of relief finally began settling over it.

"I still failed."

The light reached her.

Her body broke apart into glowing particles, the remaining fragments of her Saint Graph dissolving completely as the Queen of Assyria finally vanished from the world.

This time—

Semiramis was truly gone.