This probing attack as well came from Xi Jianxi hooking the prototype Noble Phantasm called Harpe, launched by Gilgamesh, with the Red Spear in his hand, then flinging it out to hold Gilgamesh back.
Naturally, the sickle was blocked by Gilgamesh with another Noble Phantasm.
As the dust dispersed swiftly in the wind, Gilgamesh saw the two retreating into the forest beside the church.
"So you know you cannot defeat me, and wish to retreat into the forest?" Gilgamesh sneered to himself. "Very well. A hunt requires one to pursue the prey while striking at it. Killing it in a single blow would be rather dull."
With leisurely steps, he followed the route the two had taken and entered the forest at an unhurried pace.
There were quite a few graveyards in this forest. Most devout citizens were buried here after their deaths, laid to rest as members of the faith.
Walking along the cemetery paths permeated with the air of death, Gilgamesh thought this was a fitting place for Xi Jianxi and Saber to be buried.
Though Servants did not leave corpses behind after death.
Xi Jianxi was the first to charge out, darting between different gravestones at extraordinary speed.
In terms of speed alone, he had already far surpassed Kirei.
"So this is a human body reaching the realm of Heroic Spirits?" Gilgamesh still assessed Xi Jianxi calmly. "But speed alone is not enough."
Along with his words came Noble Phantasms in varying numbers.
However, Xi Jianxi used the gravestones as cover and obstacles, making it difficult for Gilgamesh to lock onto him precisely. The Noble Phantasms were either easily knocked aside or smashed into the gravestones.
The distance of barely ten meters was closed in the blink of an eye.
Yet before the thrusting Red Spear could reach Gilgamesh's body, it was deflected by a black-and-red shortsword he casually swung.
Sensing danger, Xi Jianxi swiftly retreated.
"That is... a Noble Phantasm carrying a curse of vengeance." Xi Jianxi took up a stance to attack again.
At that moment, Gilgamesh had already drawn a sharp silver knife and lightly sliced through the air. An unknown cold wind suddenly swept up and surged toward Xi Jianxi.
Making a snap decision, Xi Jianxi summoned a fierce wind as well, matching the Noble Phantasm's attack.
Though it had not touched his body, Xi Jianxi saw that even the surrounding air had formed icy spikes, freezing the area blocked by the Vacuum Wave.
Its power was no weaker than his great magecraft, the Great Ice Age.
While Gilgamesh's attention was drawn away, Artoria leaped from the bushes behind him and swung her sword at the golden Servant.
But an even larger greatsword, one that seemed fit only for a giant's use, crashed down and cut off her path of attack.
Another sword of the same scale but different design fell toward Xi Jianxi.
Barely avoiding the massive sword as it dropped vertically under its own weight, he flipped over, ran up the blade, and swiftly reached the air more than ten meters above.
"Take this!"
The Red Spear tore through the air and flew toward Gilgamesh.
He was not wearing that armor. Perhaps this was the best opportunity.
Gilgamesh raised an eyebrow. "That spear?"
Then, the golden gate fired a Noble Phantasm nearly identical to Xi Jianxi's spear. The two spears collided and canceled each other out.
Xi Jianxi caught the rebounding spear, flipped several times in midair, and finally landed lightly behind and to the side of Artoria.
"What a nuisance. He even has that." Xi Jianxi gave a wry smile.
Realizing that ordinary attacks could not inflict effective damage even with the advantage of the terrain, Artoria used the moment Xi Jianxi clashed with Gilgamesh to release the Wind King Barrier.
Xi Jianxi's attack had merely been a diversion. This was the main event.
The air around her began to stir, and the rising wind formed a vortex that became a whirlwind protecting her.
Then, the golden sword appeared.
As Gilgamesh noticed this, the teasing smile he wore for amusement gradually faded.
"So that is the Holy Sword said to have been forged in the Inner Sea of the Planet?" Gilgamesh remained composed. "Very well. I shall bring out something appropriate and test your worth."
He raised a hand, and within the golden gate appeared an extremely bizarre Noble Phantasm, something that could barely even be called a "sword."
Its blade was cylindrical.
The sword blade was composed of three sections, each beginning to rotate in a different direction.
With just one glance, though he had yet to learn its true name or further details, Xi Jianxi already understood what the form of that Noble Phantasm represented.
Heaven. Earth. Underworld.
Together, they represented the "universe."
"A clash of Noble Phantasms..." Artoria showed no fear. The magical energy throughout her body surged to its limit as she prepared to release her Noble Phantasm's true name.
"It is time to appear, Ea." Gilgamesh spoke coldly.
"Excalibur—" The King of Knights did not hesitate in the slightest. The sword that could sever the earth and rivers with a single swing came down without reservation in her hand. "Sword of Promised Victory!"
"Enuma Elish."
Voices of two different temperatures intertwined. Blinding white light flared, and the enormous wind pressure made it nearly impossible to breathe.
We will lose.
Xi Jianxi had already foreseen the result of the clash between Noble Phantasms.
The Thirteenth Primordial Rune, a protective incantation.
There was no room for hesitation.
Xi Jianxi did not know how much force he could withstand from that bizarre Noble Phantasm's true-name release. But if he did nothing, Artoria would not only be severely injured—he would be caught in it as well.
The golden Servant likely intended to wipe out both him and Saber in one strike.
What came rushing toward them was a hell like the moment heaven and earth first opened, where the boundary between life and death became unclear.
Xi Jianxi gripped the spear in his hand tightly and pushed every magical circuit in his body to its limit.
Using the Thirteenth Primordial Rune as a foundation, he released all eighteen Runes and deployed a protective magecraft.
He did not know how long it lasted. Perhaps only a few seconds.
The collision of the two "swords" seemed as though it would tear the entire world in half.
"—Haaaaah—!!!"
He and the King of Knights each let out a roar.
When everything finally subsided, the cemetery behind the church had already been utterly destroyed. Most of the surrounding trees had been severed at waist height, and the devastated ground looked as though it had been ravaged by a natural disaster.
Gilgamesh put away Ea and looked with arrogant approval at Xi Jianxi, as well as Artoria, whom Xi Jianxi was supporting around the waist in his arms.
Holding the Holy Sword in one hand, she instinctively coughed several times, coughing up the blood in her throat. Only with Xi Jianxi's support could she barely remain standing.
Leaning on the Red Spear, Xi Jianxi was likewise covered in wounds from head to toe, no better off than Saber.
One of his eyes had been soaked in blood and could not open. Only the other remained fixed resolutely on Gilgamesh.
"Oh—" the King of Heroes exclaimed. "To have crossed even death itself. That is worthy of praise."
Xi Jianxi pulled up the spear he had been leaning on and held it in one hand, barely managing to stand.
Thunder rumbled in the sky as Gilgamesh brushed the dust from his clothes.
"Then, as your reward, I shall spare you for today. Next time, I will personally cut off your head as a mark of my appreciation."
With a supremely arrogant laugh, Gilgamesh turned into spiritual form and vanished.
Descending from the sky immediately afterward was the King of Conquerors, arriving on his Noble Phantasm.
Regrouping
Archer, Gilgamesh, had withdrawn on his own, claiming that he had "had his fill."
Rider, Iskandar, had driven his Noble Phantasm at full speed from the Tohsaka residence in Fuyuki's Shinto district.
As soon as the battle with Gilgamesh began and Xi Jianxi and Artoria retreated into the woods, they had activated a magical messenger.
It was a small magical item Morgan had made before he set out.
With just a little magical energy, it could be destroyed to alert either party across a great distance that the other had encountered an emergency, allowing them to come to the rescue.
Still, judging objectively, Xi Jianxi guessed that based on the magical energy fluctuations produced by the clash between Excalibur and Enuma Elish, Morgan, who was holding down the fort at home, had likely sensed it by now as well.
Watching the familiar ox cart slowly descend, along with Iskandar and Waver aboard it, Xi Jianxi finally relaxed slightly. His grip loosened, and Artoria slid from his arms. He hurriedly reached out to catch her again, and the two fell to the ground together.
That exchange had already used up the last of his strength. Though Iskandar had arrived quickly, Xi Jianxi had been preparing to use a Command Spell to call Morgan for aid.
"Hey, young man, can you still hold on?" Rider asked gravely with concern as he jumped down from the ox cart.
"I am fine. Nothing serious." Xi Jianxi silently put away the Red Spear and answered.
Rider did not hesitate. "Hey, boy. You know healing magecraft, right?"
"Uh... well..." Waver looked embarrassed. His magecraft had not yet reached the level where he could skillfully use healing spells.
If someone had cut a finger with a knife or scraped their skin in a fall, that would not have been much of a problem.
But Xi Jianxi was covered in wounds and looked as though he could die at any moment. That was beyond Waver's capabilities.
"It is fine. I can handle it myself." Xi Jianxi raised a hand to stop him.
As if answering his words, the Runes on his body lit up, and his external injuries began healing slowly at a visible rate. Waver estimated that in another minute or two, all of Xi Jianxi's internal and external injuries would be completely healed.
Still, this self-activating healing magecraft did not seem to possess the efficiency of a Crest passed down through generations of a Magus lineage.
"What the hell? If you had a trump card, you should have said so earlier. You made us worry for nothing." Since the situation was no longer critical, Waver folded his arms and complained.
Xi Jianxi merely smiled silently as he watched Rider smack Waver on the head in reprimand.
"I am fine, but Saber's situation is not looking very good," Xi Jianxi added.
"No... I am all right." Artoria's eyes were dim. Although she tried to speak evenly and politely, her voice was inevitably weak. "Thanks to your magecraft."
Though she had borne the brunt of the Noble Phantasm clash, if Xi Jianxi had not noticed in advance and urgently deployed a defensive formula to reduce the damage from Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasm as much as possible, her injuries would have been far worse.
"This is not the time to force yourself with empty words." Xi Jianxi sighed. "I will use Runes to treat you for now. Your spiritual core was not damaged, but you cannot turn into spiritual form to recover on your own. We can only return first and discuss the rest later."
"My thanks." Artoria smiled bitterly, then closed her eyes and accepted the magical treatment, no longer wasting strength on speaking.
Seeing both of them gradually stabilize, Rider and Waver finally breathed sighs of relief.
The moment they received the emergency message, they had hurried from the Tohsaka residence aboard the Noble Phantasm. They had thought they would have to fight Gilgamesh fiercely.
"Still, it is strange that that golden bastard ran off on his own." Iskandar did not think the other side had intentionally avoided battle. "I had expected to use my Noble Phantasm to measure myself against him."
"Who knows? Archer has always acted as he pleases and looked down on his enemies." Xi Jianxi gave his opinion. "Maybe he found this boring and wants us all to attack together when we are in perfect condition, then wipe us out in one sweep."
Waver curled his lip. "I do not know whether that counts as underestimating us or something else..."
"More importantly, our investigation turned up nothing. We only learned that the church's overseer, Rin Tohsaka, was killed." Xi Jianxi took the opportunity during the treatment to exchange information with the two. "From the scene, he was most likely assassinated from behind by someone he trusted while completely off guard."
Xi Jianxi had not expected Kirei to truly be capable of killing his own father. He also understood that if Kirei was not stopped, the situation would only worsen completely once the corrupted Holy Grail fell into that man's hands.
"Our side was much the same. We did not find the man called Tokiomi Tohsaka." Rider said, stroking his beard.
Leaning against the ox cart, Waver said, "But the Tohsaka Family's barrier was barely functioning. The person responsible for maintaining it was probably taken away. We searched every room in the Tohsaka residence and only found a small pool of blood in the study."
"Judging from the amount of blood, it was definitely not a fatal wound," Rider said. "After all, if someone wanted to kill him, they would not immediately clean up afterward. They likely stopped the bleeding right after succeeding."
For Servants accustomed to seeing blood, it was not particularly difficult to determine whether a victim had died at the scene.
"Then Tokiomi Tohsaka should still be alive." Xi Jianxi recalled what Kirei had said at Einzbern Castle the previous night. "Kirei took the Einzbern Lesser Holy Grail core because as long as he has the core, it does not matter what happens to the vessel..."
Waver's expression changed. "Are you saying Tokiomi Tohsaka was made into the core for the Holy Grail's descent?"
"Most likely."
Xi Jianxi nodded.
The treatment was gradually coming to an end. He had basically recovered, and Artoria's condition had stabilized as well.
"For the return trip, we will have to squeeze into Rider's ox cart," Xi Jianxi said.
"No problem." Artoria did not seek comfort and naturally understood their current situation.
The King of Conquerors proudly patted the seat of the ox cart. "Do not let its cramped space fool you. Once it takes to the skies, it is better than modern transportation."
Xi Jianxi smiled silently and moved to pick Artoria up. She hurriedly tried to pull free. "I can walk by myself. Besides, what would it look like for the ruler of a nation to be carried around?"
Before you continue