Why would such a powerful existence have his elbow cut off by Emiya Shirou? Everyone anticipated that scene.
After Gilgamesh destroyed the white giant hand in the video, he suddenly remembered Emiya Shirou beside him.
He turned his head, looked toward Emiya Shirou rather helplessly, and muttered, "Though even I think I've shown mercy..."
"If I'd known, keeping Archer around would have been more fun, brat."
The scene cut to Emiya Shirou lying on the ground, part of his clothes torn.
Compared with the collapsing buildings before him, the fact that he had merely fallen and seemed largely uninjured
already earned admiration from people of other worlds; had they themselves been hit by an attack of that level
—even just the aftershock—they'd likely fare no better than that white giant hand.
Yet Gilgamesh was disappointed to see Shirou fall. He continued, "So this is it? A fake is still a fake; you can't save anything."
"That ugly Archer said it too—your ideal is borrowed."
"A man who creates nothing yet hopes to achieve something—utter arrogance."
As Gilgamesh spoke, the camera shifted to the huge hollow in the sky; from it flowed an unknown red-black liquid.
Even through the screen, some powerful beings instinctively sensed that letting that liquid touch them would bring something terrifying.
Gilgamesh went on mocking Shirou: "Ally of justice? A world where no one gets hurt? How laughable."
"Humans are beasts that can only praise life through sacrifice."
"Talk of equality is just the babble of the weak who can't face the dark."
"Nothing but pretty excuses to cover up ugliness."
The camera slowly closed in on the fallen Emiya Shirou; he gazed at the hollow in the sky, reached out, and his inner voice sounded:
'Yes, you're right—this ideal is borrowed. I just saw someone saving someone else and copied it.'
The scene cut again: in the same sky, a pale-blue-glowing hollow hung amid ruins and flames.
A child's small hand reached up toward that pale-blue hollow.
Shirou's voice continued, and under it the surroundings spun—flames, rubble, not a single living person.
'Back then, I was empty inside. Everyone would die equally; I couldn't save anyone.'
'If I can't accept that humans are like that, I can't go on living.'
'So—'
After that inner "So—"
the scene changed once more: pale yellow clouds drifted, and a sword fell from the sky.
This unusual act told people of every world that the comeback was beginning.
Earlier, Tanjiro and Tatsumi had gained strength the same way—through memories.
Then a kimono-clad man appeared, back to the camera, fireflies drifting around him.
'That's exactly why I yearn for that ideal—am I not allowed?'
Young Emiya Shirou appeared, eyes shining with a light only children possess.
'Because it isn't my own feeling, does that make it a fake?'
'Because it's a fake, does that mean it can't reach anyone?'
'No. I don't believe that. Even if it's a fake, even if it's an impossible dream—'
The picture flashed back to the earlier scene: within the pale-yellow-clouded world, a sword lay on the ground.
'Even if I can't save everyone, I know someone must die for someone else to live.'
Clang—!!
A clear sword-sound rang as another blade struck the ground.
'Knowing it's only an ideal, I still keep chasing it.'
Clang-clang—!!
Both swords fell together.
'To keep harming the few in order to save the many—yet still chasing a happiness where no one gets hurt.'
Swish-swish-swish-swish—!!
Countless blades rained down; the last to land was the very pair Kanshou and bakuya that Emiya Shirou had first used against 'Gilgamesh'.
'This is the end point he reached.'
The blade reflected someone's figure—Emiya Shirou—driving a sword into the ground.
'What you believe in, what you once believed in, is nothing but hypocrisy,' that man once said.
The Shirou in the reflection stood up, looking ahead.
'Yet it was that very man who carried this hypocrisy through to the end.'
'Then it's fine. Even if borrowed, even if I stay a fake forever—I'll take it.'
'Emiya Shirou will keep holding on to this dream until the very end.'
'Even if what lies ahead is only emptiness—I still will!!!'
Saying this, Shirou stared forward; the resolve on his face told everyone that, no matter what, he would walk his own path.
With those last words, the scene shifted; the green sigil on Shirou's left arm pulsed.
Viewers from other worlds perked up—the reminiscence was over; the real fight was about to begin!!!!
The flashback had lasted far longer than Tanjiro's or Tatsumi's, but the coming battle would surely be spectacular.
"Is that all? Pathetic."
Shirou, lying on the ground, came back from his memories, pulled his hand back, and stood up.
"Hm?" Gilgamesh, clearly surprised, continued, "I held back, yet you should still have been blasted by EA's wind."
To Gilgamesh, Shirou should have been immobile on the ground, not rising to fight again.
Shirou mocked him: "You've piled up Noble Phantasms like a mountain—spare me talk of holding back."
"That is a sword only a true sovereign may wield; a wretch like you isn't even qualified to lay eyes upon EA."
The moment those words fell, golden ripples blossomed behind him, and Noble Phantasms thrust out toward Shirou.
Swish—!!
At that instant, a woman in blue-white armor, an invisible sword in hand and a single golden ahoge on her head, charged in.
She leveled her blade at Gilgamesh the moment she entered, and a terrifying burst of wind shot from the sword.
Like a shock-wave, it raced toward Gilgamesh at unbelievable speed.