A resentful voice, as though it had risen from hell itself, rang out, making Waver shudder from head to toe.
Lancer's Master suddenly spoke. Empowered by magecraft, his voice carried clearly to everyone present despite his position atop a crane in the warehouse district.
"I was wondering what gave you the nerve to steal my Holy Relic... I never expected you to be planning to enter the Holy Grail War yourself. Waver Velvet."
Lancer's Master, Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald, stepped out of the shadows.
Only then did Shiomi remember that Waver was a student at the Clock Tower, the Mage's Association's school of magecraft, while Kayneth was Waver's teacher.
While Kayneth "reminisced" with Waver and everyone else's attention was drawn away, Shiomi casually tapped the ground with the Demon Spear, using the runes he had prepared in advance to capture the presences around him.
There were three Magi—or rather, Masters—present besides himself.
There were five Servants... no, six?
I didn't expect all the remaining Servants aside from the already defeated Assassin to be here. A melee would be troublesome. I should prepare to retreat for now. If I can use the retreat to kill one or two Servants, that would be even better.
He silently communicated with Morgan.
No. The sixth Servant here isn't Caster, though Caster is also observing this place with clairvoyance. Don't confuse them, Morgan reminded him.
*...*
Shiomi fell silent.
Once anything existed, it left traces behind. Thus, even an assassin with Presence Concealment could not escape the detection runes Shiomi had set up.
But... failing to distinguish the differences between the Servants and making an incorrect judgment left Shiomi somewhat disappointed.
And Assassin, who should have already been defeated, was still here. That meant... there was something suspicious about Kirei seeking the Holy Church's protection?
After all... the supervisor this time was Rin Tohsaka.
Just as Shiomi was thinking, the King of Conquerors's booming shout interrupted his thoughts.
He had not cared to understand the conflict between Kayneth and Waver as teacher and student, but it seemed that the seemingly uncontrollable King of Conquerors had another proposal.
"Now! All Heroic Spirits chosen by the Holy Grail, gather here! If any coward still dares not show himself, he shall earn the contempt of Iskandar, King of Conquerors!"
The King of Heroes Gilgamesh
Rider's declaration was not really much of an issue, since everyone was basically already here.
Saber, Lancer, and Berserker had all appeared.
Caster was elsewhere, leaving that aside.
Assassin, due to his earlier "defeat," had to remain hidden in the shadows.
Only Archer remained.
Shiomi already knew that the Servant of the Archer class was nearby.
Kirei, located at the Holy Church, and Tokiomi, who learned of the battle through Kirei, both understood that the situation had worsened even further.
As Iskandar's roar faded, a golden light lit up in the void.
Everyone observing the scene had already grown accustomed to such things. After all, four Servants had already gathered in one place; one more hardly made a difference.
The golden light finally descended onto the top of a streetlamp more than ten meters high, taking the form of a tall figure clad in gleaming armor.
At the sight of that dazzling figure, everyone's hearts tightened.
That was Archer, the Servant who had "eliminated" Assassin before everyone's eyes the day before.
"I didn't expect two vermin bold enough to ignore me and call themselves kings to appear in a single night."
The instant the golden Servant appeared, he looked down upon every Servant and Magus present with an exceedingly displeased sneer. His arrogant attitude and tone resembled the King of Conquerors's, yet possessed a ruthless coldness the King of Conquerors lacked.
Such aggressive hostility instead left Iskandar surprised and confused.
But someone else reacted even more intensely.
In an instant, Morgan vanished from Artoria's side and appeared between Shiomi and the golden Archer, shielding her Master behind her.
The icy expression she had maintained so effortlessly while facing Artoria finally showed another emotion.
She raised a hand before Shiomi, signaling him to step back.
"Give me the Demon Spear, my husband." Morgan's cold voice carried the tension of facing a powerful enemy.
Clearly, this golden Servant was an opponent Morgan needed to confront personally.
Artoria, still standing where she was, was greatly startled. She had not expected such a reaction from her sister.
—Morgan, what exactly are you...
"I wondered who it was. So it is the Fairy of Paradise." Archer's scarlet eyes gleamed. His tone softened slightly, yet his words remained cruel and merciless. "In consideration of your fear, I forgive the disrespect shown by you and your Master. If you do not wish to die beneath the lingering might of my suppression of the usurper king, withdraw at once. I grant you ten seconds to hesitate."
Iskandar spoke half-jokingly. "Since you've spoken so poorly of others, why not give your name first? If you are also the ruler of a nation, surely you would not fear revealing your glorious name?"
"You have had the fortune of beholding me, yet cannot recognize my noble visage. Such fools do not deserve to live!"
As Archer's furious roar suddenly rose, mirage-like distortions appeared in the space behind him, and gleaming blades emerged from the golden ripples.
They were a sword without a scabbard and a long spear. Both weapons were adorned with breathtaking beauty. More than that, they radiated intense magical power that could not be concealed. These were clearly not ordinary weapons, but Noble Phantasms.
Everyone who had watched the Tohsaka residence the previous night understood that the strange occurrence from then had returned—the bizarre attack that had completely suppressed Assassin and erased him.
Waver was terrified, Kayneth held his breath, and Kiritsugu Emiya, watching from the shadows, tensed all over.
Morgan was even more tense. She held out her hand, but the Demon Spear was not returned to her.
The Archer before her... though he had not yet revealed his true name, Morgan already knew it.
He was Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes, who possessed clairvoyance capable of seeing through the future and qualifications to stand among the Grand Casters.
If it came to magecraft alone, Morgan naturally did not believe she would lose.
But... the King of Heroes possessed more than magecraft.
"Damn it—"
At the sound from behind her, Morgan slightly turned her head to check Shiomi's reaction. Yet she saw him holding the Demon Spear, clicking his tongue to himself as he reluctantly and slowly stepped beyond Morgan's protective reach, facing Archer alone.
The helplessness on his face gradually faded.
This action shocked not only Morgan, but everyone else as well.
Without wasting words, Shiomi raised his left hand, and magical power rapidly gathered.
Gilgamesh naturally noticed Shiomi's actions. He shifted his gaze slightly, turning his attention from the Servant to this Master.
"Heh— I thought this era was overflowing with nothing but mongrels." The King of Heroes revealed a cruel sneer, and the weapons behind him turned toward Shiomi. "I never expected there would still be someone capable of looking directly at me with such eyes. As a reward for pleasing me... I shall grant you the mercy of leaving behind a corpse."
As his smile deepened, the weapons behind him fired without warning.
Without even touching them, he could launch these weapons from who knew where. The others began to understand why this golden Servant belonged to the Archer class.
His treatment of Noble Phantasms was far too crude. He hurled them as casually as throwing stones.
Yet their destructive power was far beyond that of stones. The road buckled as if blasted by explosives, and the frozen ground shattered, kicking up white ice dust that obscured everyone's vision.
Everyone held their breath. Morgan slowly lowered the arm she had originally extended to stop him.
Shiomi's slender figure faintly emerged from the hazy white ice dust.
The spear and longsword had embedded themselves behind him, gouging a crater-like pit into the ground around him.
Shiomi had not even used the Demon Spear Morgan gave him. Like someone casually dodging pedestrians on the street, he had evaded Gilgamesh's attack of unidentified Noble Phantasms.
His expression did not change, and the magical power gathering in his hand never stopped.
In the blink of an eye, the magical power swelled to its limit.
"You've got some skill, mongrel. Doesn't that make this even more worth playing with?" The bloodlust in Gilgamesh's smile deepened. "If you were so easily killed, I would find it rather boring."
"Sorry, but I'm not the sort of person who obediently takes a beating from one side, Archer!"
Shiomi lowered his stance, aiming at the golden Servant atop the streetlamp.
"Eldritch Blast!"
A magical beam containing explosive power surged from his hand.
At that instant, the King of Heroes called forth an entirely different longsword and launched it forward.
An explosion more violent than before sent out another blast of wind, scattering the solid ice around them.
Waver had no choice but to hide behind Iskandar to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
The Servants watched even more intently as a human Magus challenged a top-tier Servant.
As the smoke gradually dispersed, Shiomi's figure had vanished from the massive crater, leaving behind only the three weapons blasted away.
"Ha! Not even ashes remain—"
"Behind you, Archer!"
Shiomi, who shouted those words, had already swung his weapon toward the weakest point of the golden armor: the waist.
The Unbreakable Circle
Whether it was a warning or a declaration of death was impossible to tell.
As his words fell, the blade of the Demon Spear was only a few centimeters from Gilgamesh. Against any Servant, that was a distance from which a strike was certain to land.
Weapons collided, and sparks flew.
Shiomi's slash did not strike Gilgamesh. Instead, it abruptly changed trajectory, drawing a huge circle around himself.
That was because another batch of Noble Phantasms had unfolded around him like a saint's halo, enclosing Shiomi within.
There were six of them.
They were not merely spears and swords, but axes, steel hammers, and halberds. Among them were even strange weapons of unknown origin and purpose.
Every weapon had been polished like a mirror capable of reflecting a person's image, and each contained powerful magical energy. Every single one represented the manifestation of a Mystery, none inferior to the others.
They were all Noble Phantasms, without a single exception.
"Is that... truly spear technique of this age?" Diarmuid could not help but marvel.
As a Servant, he saw it clearly. The instant Shiomi noticed the "gates" opening around him while he was attacking Archer from behind—
Had Shiomi hesitated for even half a second, those Noble Phantasms could have surrounded and crushed him.
Yet Shiomi had escaped the crisis with a single strike. The Noble Phantasms unable to penetrate the circle formed by the Demon Spear were knocked flying in all directions, forcing the golden Servant standing atop the streetlamp to leap away as the out-of-control Noble Phantasms crashed toward him.
Though those Noble Phantasms belonged to him, once fired, they were like bullets leaving a barrel and could no longer be controlled.
Shiomi's spear technique had achieved all of this.
Castling.
The golden Servant who called himself king landed on the shattered frozen road, while Shiomi flipped through the air and nimbly landed atop the streetlamp Archer had occupied only moments earlier.
Gilgamesh, with his back to Shiomi, coldly looked back. More "gates" opened around him, producing even more Noble Phantasms.
"Do not get carried away!"
At the golden Servant's command, a full ten new Noble Phantasms charged Shiomi at once.
The thunderous noise shook the air, and the flashes of explosions nearly swept away the darkness, rivaling Shiomi's lightning magecraft from before.
No one had expected that merely throwing bladed weapons could produce such devastating power. Noble Phantasm after Noble Phantasm flew toward Shiomi, only to be knocked aside by the Demon Spear in his hand.
Morgan, who had initially been on high alert when Gilgamesh appeared, gradually relaxed. She knew she had worried too much.
Though this King of Heroes was enraged, he still looked down on Shiomi as a human deep inside and had not brought out his true strength.
His Noble Phantasms fired one after another without pause, as though he intended to use those weapons to carve Shiomi down until not even his skull remained.
Yet Shiomi looked invigorated, and his spear technique did not show the slightest disorder.
Everyone watched without blinking, astonished that a human Master could withstand a Servant's assault and hold out this long. They had nearly forgotten that they were still on a battlefield where a conflict between one and many could erupt at any moment.
Shiomi leaped from the streetlamp, knocking aside the incoming Noble Phantasms as he descended toward another unoccupied container. The Noble Phantasms that missed him struck the street and containers, triggering a chain of explosions and clouds of dust.
He intended to break through the rain of spears and blades woven from Noble Phantasms before him and strike directly at Archer, who stood unmoving in place.
He would not merely defend. He would attack.
Before you continue