[center][h1][b]Interlude X[/b][/h1]
[h3][i][b][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpyZI7aCk9g][At the End of a Miracle][/url][/b][/i]
[b]Greater Ruler (True)[/b][/h3][/center]
 
The great Ruler of this war, the overseer of its madness, was not engaged in a fight for his life. He was not making a heroic last stand in the name of the ritual that he was pledged to protect. He was merely hiding. Far beneath the earth in a miniature cavern that he had hollowed out, curled up into a ball, he shuddered and prayed that the conflict above would end.
 
[i]“I-I’m adding an extra, because you did a wretched job of the last one!”[/i]
 
Pale hands shaking as he hugged his own torso, eyes bulging out of his head in fear, he screamed out towards the only one who could save him from the encroaching calamity. His Noble Phantasm.
 
[center][b][i]“This is your last Labor! You won’t be forgiven if you fail here!”[/i][/b][/center]
 
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An annoying fly screamed annoying things in his ear, but that was simple to ignore. After all, he had grown. He was no longer a hero of repentance. Now, standing in front of an enemy that threatened the world, he was simply a hero.
 
Eighty of these damn things had appeared without warning. Initially, he had prepared to strike them all down with a single blow, but they had come together, becoming one. It was a pity, but that was to be expected. This enemy knew him, and he knew this enemy.
 
Since then, they had been locked in combat. If he was as weak as he had been when fighting that Caster or that boy, he would have died without question. At that time, he was below even what his power as a Servant was. But, as the war had gone on, he had grown, surpassing his limits and becoming something more. That was the heart of his legend, after all. It was thanks to this that he was able to hold his own against this enemy.
 
A miniature sun stole one of his lives. A procession of beasts stole one of his lives. A spear of death was warded off. The cry of the forest was warded off.
 
Another few of these things appeared, joining that conglomerate while he was resurrecting from the most recent death. It was a small change, but that was enough to tip the scales.
 
A distortion of space stole one of his lives. A cry of the forest stole one of his lives. A spear of death stole one of his lives. The world became a world without a sun.
 
He would die here. He could perhaps delay the enemy, and inflict some wounds. He had riddled out the nature of its immunity and had become resistant to most of its abilities by now, after all. But, he would die here.
 
“...”
 
Something entered the underworld. Streaking faster than even the enemy could react, it appeared and melded into him. It settled in his core, thrumming in tandem with the six others that were already present. [i]The six spiritual cores of the fallen Servants that occupied his existence became seven[/i].
 
A new strength filled his limbs. A single life was restored, but that was not nearly as important as that strength. With the seventh spiritual core, he had become whole. He had begun as weaker than even ‘himself as a Servant’, but now he had ascended far beyond what was possible for a Servant. Through the labors he had undergone over the course of the war and the taking in of his spiritual cores, his legend had been recreated in this vessel. One could call this ‘power equal to a Heroic Spirit’, or even a ‘counterfeit Grand class’. He used neither. To him, this was simply his true power, the height that he had strived to reach in life, regained even in death.
 
The enemy was panicked. It concentrated its power. He was certain that the resources it was allocating to cope with him, both in the sheer number of the things and in the proportion of energy it was able send out through his teacher’s seal, was disproportionately high. It was likely making that even higher, a frantic bid to strike him down now that he had grown. Each and everyone one of the remaining hundred-some enemies across the city disappeared from their respective battles without warning, all coming together to face him. Sparing even a scrap of power here, against this enemy, would mean certain death. And so, they prepared their greatest offensive, an attack that stepped into the realm of their unsealed state’s power, an attack they could only use once due to its cost, but would pour out without hesitation if it meant defeating this enemy.
 
His instincts screamed out. Even with his body in the state that it was, far hardier than any Servant’s, the attack that was coming was sufficient to take fourteen lives, far more than the number he had remaining. But, the hero did not buckle. Without realizing, a smile had formed on his face. A battle to save the world, his blood was [b]boiling[/b]. As the enemy’s attack was prepared, he released his great bow. This was a clash of their strongest techniques. If his attack came too late, or if it was insufficient, then he would undoubtedly die.
 
“Nine Lives...”
 
[color=bc8dbf]“Agrios...”[/color]
 
Understand the basic composition, separate it into its components. Utilize all knowledge of the enemy. Their body, their mind, their Authorities, their resistances, their legends, their ‘everything’. Take in the blessing of the goddess that has just appeared, and create an attack that will turn its one percent chance into one hundred. Imagine the tree of possibilities, and design something that can crush every branch it has.
 
He strained for more. Simply using his own power would not be enough, but he was not merely himself. He was a Lesser Grail. Since that was the case, he had the right. Burning up his spiritual foundation, burning up the spiritual cores within him, burning up the Holy Grail system itself. Something that went far beyond even Broken Phantasm, a suicidal attack to save the world. If this failed here, it would be the end. The other Servants could not sustain themselves with the Holy Grail system ruined. 

It was a selfish act. 

It was a narcissistic act. 

...But, beyond all else, it was the act of a hero.
 
[color=bc8dbf]“Eleutherios!”[/color]
 
The enemy’s attack was released, and in that moment—
 
“...Anti-Beast.”
 
[b]Heracles surpassed his legend.[/b]