Ethan held his pose for a moment, then silently withdrew his fist.

Looking at Scathach lying motionless on the ground, he pursed his lips helplessly.

"Hey, you over there, no need to get too worked up. I didn't hit her hard. Your teacher is just a little injured."

Cú Chulainn awkwardly rested his spear back on his shoulder. For a moment earlier, he had truly felt the urge to attack. Even though the gap between Ethan's strength and his own was so vast that he might not even be able to harm a single hair on him, he couldn't just stand by and watch his teacher be killed.

It was a bit surprising that Ethan didn't kill Scathach directly.

"Oh? Did you take a liking to my teacher? Although she's very picky about men, you should meet her standards."

"It's just that I happened to run out of strength."

That previous attack looked impressive, but its actual effect wasn't great. Ethan found that not only was his mental energy weakened, but he had also lost a considerable amount of his own mana. His ability to utilize energy had dropped to an all-time low. Aside from the time before he became a formal magus, it had been a long time since he felt this weak.

"Distorting the rules of a world is indeed not an easy task."

Although the Libra Cloth restored some of his physical condition and allowed him to regain a certain level of combat power in a short time, it also accelerated the "aging" phenomenon he had just suppressed. Most of the vitality he had previously replenished was consumed again. Now, the Libra Cloth could only barely maintain his physical peak. If he continued to use his mana recklessly to cast powerful spells, the Libra Cloth would no longer be able to sustain his body.

After all, maintaining and strengthening the body with the Libra Cloth required energy, and the energy balance within Ethan's body had fallen into chaos. He needed some time to rest and recover.

It wasn't that he had no way to solve this problem immediately, but when he cast that spell and put his body into its current dire state, he unexpectedly discovered something. That made him choose to stabilize the situation first rather than rush into treatment.

"Regardless, the immediate trouble has been resolved."

Although his move didn't kill Scathach, it did determine the outcome of this battle.

As the Queen of the Land of Shadows, now that the victory had been clearly decided, she wouldn't stubbornly continue to fight him to the death.

So Scathach wouldn't be a problem anymore. The only one who could still be called a problem was Madeline.

"Is there anything else you want to do?"

Madeline watched as Scathach healed herself with Rune Magecraft, clearly not intending to continue the fight. She knew this battle was over.

"What a pity, I haven't seen enough. Or perhaps I could summon other powerful Heroic Spirits from this world? It seems there's one not far from here. I imagine he'd be displeased with what you did earlier."

"I have no interest in continuing to play with you."

If Madeline still wanted to annoy him by relying on the Heroic Spirits of this world, Ethan would choose to leave immediately, then come back for revenge after recovering.

He didn't leave right away because his current condition wasn't good, and teleportation might cause accidents.

Madeline also didn't want to completely fall out with him. She straightforwardly admitted her defeat.

"You won this time. According to our previous agreement, this world is yours."

"Wait." Ethan frowned slightly. He suspected she was up to some trick again. "I told you, I'm not interested in betting with you."

"Whether you're willing to accept it or not, this world is yours. I won't take it back..." Madeline's projection could move freely as if teleporting. As she spoke, she appeared in front of him and reached out to brush against his Holy Cloth. "Or... you can consider this a down payment."

"It's impossible for me to accept your invitation."

"Don't say that so absolutely..." Madeline leaned close to his ear and whispered, "I'll be waiting for the day you kneel before me, kiss my toes, and pledge your loyalty."

"Even in your dreams, that day will never come."

Energy suddenly burst forth from his body. The powerful force directly blew Madeline's projection apart. Only her laughter echoed in the air, but it quickly faded completely.

"Tch, wasting my mana!"

With that energy burst, the Libra Cloth could no longer maintain his form. Ethan's appearance began to age again, and as he removed the Libra Cloth, he rapidly transformed into a seventy-year-old man, his hair turning completely white.

Ethan created a water mirror and looked at himself in the reflection, giving a speechless wry smile. "Compared to Merlin, all I'm missing now is a beard."

"Just now, how much of your peak strength did you use?"

Scathach had already stood up. Being infinitely close to a divine being, her resilience and recovery far surpassed ordinary humans and even Heroic Spirits long ago. Ethan's previous move only incapacitated her temporarily; she had already recovered in this short time.

Considering she had been completely unable to resist when she was struck, it would have been effortless for him to kill her. Therefore, she had lost this battle thoroughly.

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Because I've never fought with my full strength."

Ethan's strength had always grown quickly. It had been a long time since he fought with all his power. The closest time was probably the battle with Ego, but with the help of the Space Stone, that fight had been very easy for him.

This time, however, in order to sever his connection with this world, he used moves beyond his current level, which resulted in considerable backlash.

"I'm quite looking forward to you recovering your full strength soon. If that happens, you can definitely fulfill my wish."

"At that time... what reason would you have to fight me?"

Scathach wouldn't fight someone without a suitable reason. She had used the reason of the Land of Shadows this time and generally wouldn't use it again.

However, that wouldn't stump this queen who had lived for who knows how long, just like in the past when she encountered opponents she wanted to fight.

"As for a reason... it's easy to find one."

Ethan shook his head and didn't respond. By then, he wouldn't even know which world he would be in. For Scathach to fulfill her wish of dying in battle against him, she would first have to find him.

No longer looking at Scathach rubbing her pale belly or Cú Chulainn reminiscing with her, Ethan turned his gaze toward Illya.

Illya had woken up at some point without him noticing. Because his body had become weak and all his attention had been focused on the battle and Madeline, he hadn't had the energy to pay full attention to his surroundings.

Seeing Illya, although covered in blood, standing there steadily and looking quite energetic, her "transformation" should have been successfully completed.

"Congratulations, you have become a true human."

Illya was stunned for a moment, seemingly just noticing the changes in her body. She couldn't feel the surging mana that should have been within her at all. All the magic circuits on her body had disappeared, and naturally, the Command Spells were gone too.

The connection with Ethan that she had clearly felt before had also disappeared. Having lost everything, Illya instead felt a sense of ease.

"Is that so? So that's how it is... But it doesn't matter... Anyway... I don't have much time left."

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Ethan reached out and ruffled Illya's hair. Her hat had fallen off long ago and hadn't been picked up. "You didn't have much lifespan left before because of your special constitution. Now you've become a true human, and your lifespan has returned to normal. Given your current physical age, you have at least several decades left to live."

The conversation between the two wasn't quiet, so everyone could hear it. Shirou realized at that moment that this girl, who looked only a little over ten years old, originally hadn't had much time left to live.

From this perspective, it seemed Ethan had done a good deed.

"I won't die?"

"As long as you don't want to die."

Illya was still a bit slow to react, staring blankly at her dirty little hands. While she was dazed, Ethan softly chanted a few mysterious words. She felt a wave of freshness wash over her body. All the dirt and grime vanished, and even her clothes looked freshly washed and dried.

"Phew... Even a small spell like this requires chanting to cast. My power is still continuously weakening."

Ethan had originally wanted to restore the Emiya residence to its original state, but considering his condition, he decided to save his strength.

To his surprise, the Emiya residence, which had become almost ruins after the continuous battles, slowly returned to its original state under everyone's gaze.

"Did you do this?"

Rin watched curiously as everything seemed to "reverse" and return to normal. Even the previously destroyed storeroom, the door Shirou had broken through, and the shattered glass were restored as if nothing had happened. While such magical sights weren't rare for magi, witnessing it happen on such a large scale was still shocking.

Ethan didn't speak. This was certainly not his doing; it was clearly Madeline.

"Is she hoping I'll stay in this world to recover?"

He wouldn't leave for now. He needed to stabilize his condition before leaving to avoid errors during teleportation.

Moreover, although Madeline had her eyes on him, she seemed to have her own principles, so it wasn't a situation where he absolutely had to flee.

"Berserker."

Having lost the protection of mana, Illya, who had finally realized she had become a true human, suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

"I feel... a little cold..."

(To be continued.)

◇◇◇

◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.

◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)