Eternal King stood at the apex, having achieved what no other Arthur had - the realization of his dream. He was the ideal that all other Arthurs aspired to be. How could Salter allow such a perfect version of Arthur to be tainted?
Most importantly, she still wanted to obtain the method to realize her own lifelong wish from him. She simply hadn't understood his intentions or what is it he's planning to do.
As for Shirou, he had wanted to leave Artoria behind so Chaldea could recruit another powerful servant. However, he didn't expect Salter would follow him.
Earlier, he had fired Rhongomyniad at Mordred and Mo-chan to stop their pestering. But this unintentionally revealed to Salter that he wasn't under the Council's control. One could certainly call that a miscalculation.
Passing through the connection point via the black beam, Shirou watched the space around him transform in a flash of flowing light before leaving Fuyuki City.
Seeing Fuyuki City from this vantage point, Shirou couldn't help but frown. He felt as though he wasn't seeing a world - rather, a tattered fragment.
That initial sense of strange familiarity upon first arriving at the connection point grew even stronger. He had the nagging feeling he had viewed Fuyuki City from this angle before.
Oh. That's right. Now he remembered.
In 1994, when he had pushed a True Ancestor into the Root, he had overlooked Fuyuki City in this same manner.
Come to think of it, it really was nostalgic.
However, it also seemed something was missing while something else had been added.
Right - missing was the golden light he had seen from Ryuudou Temple back then. As well as the Einzbern Castle on the city outskirts. What had been added was an abandoned industrial zone.
Shirou shook his head, then turned around. With a "pop", his body passed through the black ring. Salter followed right after, crossing into the ring as well.
After entering, he felt the now familiar dizzying sensation of world traversal. In the next moment, the scene before his eyes seemed to morph.
White. Gazing down from his vantage point, all he saw was an endless expanse of ghastly white - both above and below.
Great clustered snowflakes swirled around him in gusts. The land appeared pallid, as if diseased by the sheer whiteness of the snow.
"Where is this place...?"
Traversing the black ring, it tugged him along like an invisible thread. Shirou plunged down like a meteor towards a fixed location.
...
"He's here! He's here!" The figure revealed an unsettling smile.
Glancing away from the crystal ball they had been observing, they stepped outside, setting foot on the ghastly white earth. Craning their neck, they watched the falling meteor in the skies.
Undoubtedly, it was Eternal King Alter they had summoned!
"Hahahaha... We did it! I'm going to do it! Goetia, even if you don't agree with attacking Chaldea, it doesn't matter!" They cackled loudly, face locked in a deranged smile.
"Looks like an extra Servant got transferred too. But no matter! Use Eternal King to summon it now. We'll wait out the rest after Fimbulwinter!" They clenched their fist tightly.
Yet in that moment—
"—Declaration of the Great God!"
At the top of Yggdrasil, sacred golden light flashed, injecting a hint of warmth into this frail, dying world.
With one indifferent roar after another, a volley of golden comets erupted from the sky, blasting toward Shirou's group.
The figure's eyes violently constricted.
The golden comets were extremely powerful, distorting space as they streaked by.
Shirou: "!!!"
Frowning at the oncoming barrage, he quickly retrieved Avalon.
"Boom--!"
A muffled, thunderous boom rang out. The shockwave obliterated the surrounding gale and snow.
The golden comets couldn't pierce Avalon's bounded field, but the impact sent Shirou and Salter spiraling like spaceships that had lost navigation, plummeting from the sky.
Seeing this, the figure's expression became livid. They let out a cold snort. "Barely clinging to life! Why do you even resist? Now that I've brought Eternal King here in his Alter form, you stand no chance against me!"
The core of Norse mythology is the World Tree, Yggdrasil. Atop it lies the home of the gods - the splendid, eternal spring realm of Asgard with its rainbow bridge.
But now, Asgard has been smothered in white snow, the gardens and trees withered away without a trace of former beauty or splendor - more resembling a dying patient clinging to life.
Even the radiant rainbow bridge has dimmed, its last flickers like that of a dying person's final moments.
Skaði stood on the golden floor of the Great Hall, waving a hand to retrieve the divine spear Gungnir that had attacked Shirou. It spun through the air before shooting back like a meteor into her hand.
Gripping Odin's former spear, Skaði gazed to where Shirou had fallen, her slender brows involuntarily furrowing.
Hildr knelt next to Skaði, tilting her head up to meet the goddess's furrowed gaze. "What's wrong, my lady?"
With a sigh, Skaði replied, "Gungnir failed to destroy the summoned being. Seems Hela has brought something troublesome again." As she spoke, Skaði went to the golden throne beside the Great Hall and placed the legendary spear Gungnir beside it before gracefully sitting down.
"A being that even Gungnir couldn't destroy..." Hildr murmured.
Sitting on her throne, Skaði rested her face in one hand, her mature and proud figure appearing quite lazy.
The moment Shirou crossed into their world, Skaði sensed his presence. She didn't know what the summoned being was exactly, but clearly it wasn't ordinary or a normal servant. She immediately saw it as an enemy. Waving Odin's spear Gungnir, she readied herself to destroy the intruder right away with her full might.
What she didn't expect was that even using her full power, Gungnir failed to destroy him. It only shot him down instead.
Skaði glanced at Hildr and said, "Although it survived, that blow must have injured it. Hildr, take the Valkyries and finish off that thing. The crash site can't be far from the forest."
"Yes, my lady." Hildr slowly withdrew.
Watching Hildr leave the Great Hall, Skaði slowly closed her eyes.
I should...rest for a bit.
...
This was a strange forest.
Every tree towered like an ancient giant, radiating splendor even amidst the heavy blanketing snow. Somehow they remained lush and vibrant.
However, the trees were also quite bizarre. The trunks, branches, even the leaves and flowers were all made of steel. Each delicate leaf and flower was as thin as a cicada's wing, yet also extremely sharp. Earlier when Shirou had fallen, he accidentally brushed against a nearby flower and cut his hand along its edge.
Shirou used the black mud to heal the shallow wound. His slashed palm didn't hurt much - he wasn't some spoiled kid who couldn't handle a little pain. And though he had tumbled from the sky, he'd managed to land fairly gracefully without injuring his head. But his abdomen...that had definitely taken the worst of it.
It wasn't just that he'd happened to land on a rock. Something heavy had crashed right into his abdomen - namely the unconscious Salter he held in his arms.
Grasping her slender shoulders, he expressionlessly pulled the girl off him, then clutched his own abdomen painfully. My poor little stomach... At least she hadn't smashed into somewhere more... sensitive.
Using the black mud, he quickly repaired his ruptured organs. Though it healed his wounds, it did nothing for the lingering pain. But that was fine - after being burnt beyond recognition in the 4th Holy Grail War, he had quite a high tolerance anyway.
Getting back on his feet, he surveyed his surroundings as the thick snow crunched underfoot. More than a forest, with steel trees as far as the eye could see, it resembled a metal scrap yard.