Unbelievable!
The holy relic had been destroyed!
Tsukahara Meiji had never imagined something like this could happen!
But on second thought, this was not the legendary Ring of the Nibelung, only a gold ring Carl had made herself. It was only natural that a single blow from a Heroic Spirit would shatter it, wasn't it?
Ignoring the agonizing pain of the shattered bones in his shoulder, sorrow welling up from his heart consumed Tsukahara Meiji, body and soul.
It was damaged this badly... It had probably lost its qualifications as a holy relic, hadn't it?
If it were genuine, perhaps it could still summon one... But this was only a gold ring, after all... Once destroyed, it could no longer be connected to the Ring of the Nibelung.
Tsukahara Meiji wanted to gamble on his luck and summon a Heroic Spirit at random—without a holy relic, the summoned Heroic Spirit would generally be someone whose character resembled the Master's.
But... Tsukahara Meiji did not dare gamble.
Among Heroic Spirits, there were those skilled in battle and those who were not... If his luck was bad...
And even if he took a hundred steps back and assumed his luck was good enough to draw a powerful Heroic Spirit, with his magical energy... their strength would probably be greatly diminished.
The young Master's night-sky-black eyes moved repeatedly between the gold ring and the Command Spells on the back of his hand...
Unlike the panic an ordinary person would feel, Tsukahara Meiji was remarkably calm.
He felt neither fear nor anger. He was so calm that even he found it strange.
He did not know that he had long since acquired the most important trump card for winning the Holy Grail War.
A trait called calmness in crisis.
When ordinary people were driven into a corner, they either grieved and raged, broke down, grew excited, or fought desperately. Yet there was one kind of person who became calmer the greater the danger. At the brink of life and death, they could even discard every complicated emotion, their hearts as still as water.
That was the trait of remaining calm in a crisis.
It was an inborn trait of a fighter.
When assassin had driven him into a corner, Tsukahara Meiji finally discovered the greatest power buried within his heart.
He hesitated no longer. The broken holy relic had no value, and he stopped looking at it.
There was no point—reason told him so.
He snatched up the holy relic Carl had thrown over with it earlier: Robin Hood's oak branch.
Legend said that Robin Hood had met his companions beneath the oldest and tallest oak in Sherwood Forest. The branches and leaves broken from that ancient tree formed a bond for those who wished to partake in the sacred, ancient, simple, and devout oath of the oak.
Why... did she throw both holy relics over together?
So Carl... had you anticipated the worst outcome from the very beginning?
"—I am the one who accomplishes all the good in this world, I am the one who gathers all the evil in this world—"
Without another word, Tsukahara Meiji seized the oak branch and continued his incantation. Fortunately, the chant for summoning a Heroic Spirit did not change according to the holy relic used.
Perhaps Carl would blame him afterward. Perhaps this would destroy the two immature Magi's chance of victory in the Holy Grail War.
But...
If he did not continue, their lives would end here!
Tsukahara Meiji's mind was crystal clear: assassin was not the sort of benevolent person who would spare them. He understood that.
Hearing him continue chanting, assassin knew things were going badly. Though he possessed respectable frontal combat ability, as an assassin, as a Ninja, he was ultimately skilled in covert operations. If he faced another Heroic Spirit head-on, then... And besides...
He had to act before the summoning was complete!
Assassin threw seven or eight throwing knives from his robes. His body turned, and like a stream of black fluid, he slipped behind Tsukahara Meiji.
A+ Agility—an Agility rank far beyond human reaction speed. A human would not merely be unable to respond; even their eyes would be unable to catch sight of the enemy.
Assassin knew very well that several verses remained in the Heroic Spirit summoning chant. Before this black-haired Magus could finish the final line, his blade would surely sever the arteries in his neck.
"—Nothing else matters! My life! Our Holy Grail War cannot end here! Answer me! Archer, my Servant! Bring me victory!"
Tsukahara Meiji abandoned the tedious, lengthy, awkward chant. He abandoned the English he was unfamiliar with and shouted his feelings with all his strength in his native tongue, the language tied to his bloodline.
He did not want to lose.
He wanted to win.
He did not want to die.
He wanted to win.
He wanted to do something for Carl.
The Holy Grail was mine!
In the Holy Grail War, summoning a Heroic Spirit was the most sacred act.
At the same time, it was also the act requiring the least effort.
Because summoning a Heroic Spirit was not magecraft humans could perform. It belonged to a realm almost akin to True Magic. The one who completed the summoning was the Holy Grail, not the Master.
The Master's chant and summoning circle merely served to more accurately obtain the Heroic Spirit they needed, because the Master's mental state could also affect the Heroic Spirit's quality.
In truth, during the Fourth Holy Grail War, Emiya Kiritsugu had summoned Saber using a crude magecraft summoning circle, while Ryunosuke Uryu had not even recited the chant correctly. He had mumbled through repeated revisions and had not even figured out how many times it needed to be filled, yet he still summoned Caster. During the Fifth Holy Grail War, the Master Emiya Shirou had not even prepared a proper summoning chant, yet he still summoned the finest Saber.
This showed that summoning chants did not need to be followed rigidly.
What connected a Master and a Heroic Spirit was a powerful wish.
Ryunosuke Uryu had never received a Magus's education. He had not recited the chant correctly either, and his summoning circle had been copied from an ancient book using human blood. He had only managed to summon a Heroic Spirit because of his powerful desire to "see a demon and confirm that demons existed"... Emiya Shirou, too, had summoned a Heroic Spirit in a crisis because of his fierce desire to live. And because the holy relic called Avalon was buried within his body, he had drawn the strongest Saber-class Servant.
And now, Tsukahara Meiji was the same.
His powerful thought of I need you was clearly conveyed to the Holy Grail.
The storm roared.
It was a torrent of magical energy.
It was proof of a contract.
Every dart assassin threw was disrupted by the storm. Their forward momentum was trapped by erratic gusts, and they lost their outrageous speed.
And within that storm, the sound of a bowstring rang out clearly.
It was a battle horn that rose above the gale, above the roar—clear and distinct.
Feathered arrows shot forth. Within the gale, seven or eight arrows tore through the azure smoke at high speed, striking down assassin's darts with unerring precision.
Setting everything else aside, that flawless control alone proved that the summoned Heroic Spirit was undoubtedly an Archer-class Servant.
The Archer class was invariably connected to shooting ability or projectile-type Noble Phantasms. Generally speaking, Archers possessed exceptionally strong Noble Phantasm abilities.
With that in mind, assassin did not dare engage. He feared that pressing his pursuit too deeply would lead to his own defeat. If he pushed the other side too hard and forced them to use their Noble Phantasm, then he would be in grave danger.
Unfortunately, while a Master could determine a Servant's parameters at a glance, Servants did not possess that ability. Assassin did not know the Noble Phantasm rank of the Archer before him. B? Or A? Perhaps even... EX?
The unknown bred fear.
Assassin did not want to die.
The first principle of a Ninja was "loyalty."
For loyalty's sake, dignity sometimes had to be discarded.
A samurai or knight might refuse to yield even in death because of bushido or chivalry. But for a Ninja, that was the most foolish way to die.
The dead had no value.
To live on, offer his lord as much intelligence as possible, assassinate as many enemies as possible for his lord, and secure the greatest possible win rate for his lord—that was a Ninja's loyalty.
If he died here, he would only cause trouble for his Master—he had merely eliminated one Master. That was not worth it at all!
The Ninja Heroic Spirit did not hesitate and decisively chose to retreat: he would report that the enemy had already summoned an Archer to his Master. Besides, he had already killed one person... In that sense, he had completed half his objective.
Two more feathered arrows flew from the azure smoke, aimed directly at assassin's heart!
Thud!
The sound of wood.
The arrows struck assassin's chest... No, they had not!
At some point, assassin had already vanished! What Archer's arrows struck was a wooden stump! Its dry yellowish-brown exterior was absurdly dressed in a Ninja's night-black garb!
This was one of the mythologized Ninja arts: the substitution technique.
As the smoke gradually dispersed, Tsukahara Meiji finally managed to open his eyes against the fierce wind.
Before his retinas could fully catch the light again, a crisp, pleasant woman's voice—like forest trees stretching their limbs, like a stream flowing gently—rang resolutely and solemnly beside his ears, dispelling the ringing caused by the storm.
"Archer, Servant, I have answered your summons and arrived here—are you my Master?"
Before you continue