"What will you do now, King of Heroes?"
The Snow Queen asked, as she readied a new attack, forming an army of ice spears to impale her enemy with. Gilgamesh looked at her for a second, then smirked.
"What will I do? The same thing I always do. Win."
He opened several portals behind himself.
"You never learn, don't you? I can easily freeze your attacks!"
And with that, the gate's doors were covered in ice once more. However, before the Golden hero could get hurt, they all erupted in a tornado of flames.
"W... what the hell?"
"You never learn, don't you? I can easily melt your ice."
"That's impossible! You're in my terr-"
"Don't you understand, mongrel? The entire world is my territory. Do you think that there's nothing in this world that can melt your ice? If you really do, this is not going to end well for you."
Gilgamesh summoned another portal from which a column of fire emerged. His adversary tried to shield herself; however, she realised that her magic couldn't stop it, so she dodged. In that moment, a sword flew out, engulfed in flames, aimed directly at her heart. She could barely stop it with all her power before it could skewer her.
"What the hell is this?!"
"Hold your tongue, mongrel. I do not wish for you to give me a headache. I'm sure you've heard all about the story of a bush that keeps burning and burning forever. Where do you think that story comes from? All legends, all myths, all stories can trace their origins back to me. Mongrel, o' insolent mongrel, tell me... have you ever wondered why they call me the King of Heroes? This is the reason."
With a wave of her hands, the Snow Queen created a number of giants and an army of literal snowmen.
"If that's the case, then allow me to show you why they call me the Snow Queen."
Meanwhile...
"So... what do we do now?"
"Hell if I know. It seems like some form of time does exist here, at least partially, because otherwise we would be still and unable to talk or think right now."
"So it's as if we have some kind of time barrier around us?"
"I... I guess you can call it that..."
"Well, no worries, then! As long as I can move, everything will be fine!"
"What can you even do? Do you have a Noble Phantasm that will get us out of here?"
"Ehhh, not really... my Noble Phantasm is a Reality Marble, so-"
"Once it dissipates, it will just bring us back to this reality."
"Precisely!"
"Then what do you propose?"
"Oh, it's quite simple, really."
And with that, Nero turned around and started swinging her sword. Up and down, left and right, fast, slow, cutting, thrusting parrying an invisible opponent, in every style of combat she knew.
"... what... what are you doing?"
"I'm practicing my sword skills."
"I can see that."
"Then what's the confusion?"
"How will that help us?!"
"Calm down, Salty. You see, we are both pretty powerful swordswomen. But in the grand scheme of things, that's not that impressive. Any Heroic Spirit is a great hero, and so a great warrior (apart from some exceptions, she thought, thinking back to dear Nancy), so any Saber was and is a great swordsman. We can't be satisfied with being some of the best, we need to be the absolute best!"
"This is all good and well, but you still haven't answered my question, Nero."
"I used my skills to slash at something so fast that it happened instantly, or actually in a small fraction of negative time. This is proof that we can overcome even the weirdest of abilities through skill alone. We just need to train hard enough and long enough. And what better opportunity than a place where we have an infinite amount of time?"
"So your great plan is to punch your way out of this?"
"No, it's to slash our way out of this!"
"It was stupid of me to believe for even a moment that you would have a good idea..."
"Well, it is what it is Salty, moreover... do you have another solution?"
"..."
"That's what I thought, so you can either sit there and be trapped in here forever, or help me escape and come out of here stronger than ever before."
"..."
"Think about it. I'll be right here, we have all the time in the world, literally."
After a few minutes of swinging and pondering, Nero was surprised when her blade, instead of easily moving through the air, suddenly hit a solid object.
"Wouldn't you know it, even someone like you can have a point... how embarrassing..."
"Hehe, I knew you'd come around, Salty."
"For the record, I won't hold back on you even a little bit."
"I'm counting on it."
Also at the same time...
"Great, just what I needed to brighten my day... this bullshit."
Mordred scoffed in annoyance as she rose up, still dizzy from whatever was going on all around her. The little girl was still wandering around, along with all the other figures who moved like shadows in the woods.
"Let's get this over with."
She sprinted forward, slicing up a young man, but before she could turn her attention, to a new target, another wave of uneasiness followed the death of that spirit, as he vanished, becoming one with the thin but now heavy air. Mordred breathed heavily, the feeling of blood every time air passed through her throat.
"Damn it... what kind of magic is this... I have to end this fast."
She concluded as she looked at her arm and saw that the skin was starting to turn black. She charged up Clarent with her mana and released a slash that rippled throughout the forest, taking out a few enemies. The girl turned around, but instead of Mordred's expected reaction, which would have been to fight back, she started to run away and scream in fright.
"Ah! A monster! Mommy! Daddy! Help! Help!"
This sudden turn of events shocked Mordred so much she nearly dropped her weapon. Instead of raising her blade again, she attempted to follow the little girl, even though each step became more and more difficult as she felt that she could pass out at any moment. Some of the people also started dropping down and practically melting down until they evaporated, likely releasing more and more poison. Mordred couldn't have possibly guessed that what she was experiencing was an extremely high radiation exposure.
She coughed up blood and nearly tripped a couple of times, but she kept going.
"Please go away! I'm scared! Mommy, daddy! Where are you? I'm scared!"
"Hey... Hey! Wait, little girl! Just wait! I don't want to hurt you! What's your name?"
The girl stopped, looked at Mordred for a second, then moved behind the nearest tree and hid there.
"W-why should I tell you? You're a stranger!"
"I'm Mordred. See? Now you know me. Can I know you now?"
"Mo... Mordred. ... I'm... I'm Miki."
"What a great name! I don't want to hurt you, Miki."
"T-Then... then why do you have a sword?"
"Sword? What sword?"
Mordred asked sarcastically as she threw away her sword as further as possible.
"... then... why are you here?"
"I'm here to help."
"Help?"
"Yeah, help."
"Did... did Auntie or Grandpa send you?"
"No, but I saw you and you looked lost, so I figured maybe I could, you know, help you."
"Will you help me find Mommy and Daddy?"
"Yeah sure, but can you come a bit closer please?"
"I can't. Auntie said that if I get too close to people I can hurt them."
"Really? And what about all these guys walking with you?"
"They're like me. People who are looking."
"Looking for what?"
"Their friends, their family, their house, their pets, their city. We were all happy, every day, then one day, like all others, we all saw a yellow flash and then... and then there was nothing. Happy we were not. Never again."
"Where did your parents go?"
"I don't know. Mommy and Daddy never leave me. I cry when I don't see them for too long. My first day at school I cried. When Daddy had to go one a plane, I cried. Then he came back without a leg and I cried, but this time, I was happy. But now... every time I cry, I am sad. Because they are not there."
"If you come here, I promise I can help you. But we need to trust each other, ok? I trust that you don't want to hurt me, so can you trust that I'll be fine and that I'll help you?"
"O-Ok, Mordred... I... I am coming out."
Miki shily emerged from behind the tree and slowly approached Mordred. When she was around three steps away from her, she stopped, and brought one of her tiny hands to her stomach.
"My tummy hurts..."
Just as she finished saying that, she fell down, an expression of pain painted all over her face.
"Miki?!"
Mordred ignored the pain she was feeling and rushed to her side. She could see that her belly was starting to glow.