Battle Continuation

Battle Continuation, as the name implied, was the ability to keep fighting in battle.

More accurately, it was the ability to continue fighting even after death.

It was a powerful ability possessed only by Heroic Spirits who had earned a reputation for fighting to the death in life.

Put simply, it meant refusing to die.

At Thermopylae, even when his body had been pierced by arrows, run through by blades, and crushed beneath soldiers, Leonidas continued to fight like a madman. He used his spear as a javelin, hacked his sword until it was full of notches, and even after losing every weapon, he used his fists, feet, and even teeth to launch his unwilling resistance against the Persian soldiers around him.

He was a man more suited to the Berserker class than Lancer.

Even Xerxes, who called himself the God-King, still felt lingering fear whenever he spoke of that savage fighting strength. The Persian army had always treated the corpses of brave and unyielding enemies well, but Leonidas alone had his corpse nailed to a cross by Xerxes, who used it to vent his terror at losing more than twenty thousand soldiers and his fury at having once been intimidated by Sparta's bloody style of battle.

Just as the Spartans said of themselves, "Only death can stop a Spartan's march into battle." Until the moment of complete death, Leonidas had still maintained the posture of a charge. That ferocious will to fight had become Leonidas's personal skill: Battle Continuation A+.

At A+ rank, even after receiving a fatal blow, he could still stubbornly survive for more than five minutes!

That might not sound like much.

But...

For Leonidas, it was enough to turn the tide!

Personal Skill: Will of Sparta A. Having undergone Sparta's harsh military training, Leonidas's will would not waver no matter what predicament he faced. His morale would always remain high, and he would never lose his will to fight. At A rank, it could even nullify mental magecraft; his steadfast fighting spirit would never collapse, no matter the circumstances.

At A rank, not even a Magus's mental attacks could shake his fighting spirit.

Personal Skill: Unyielding Will A, a skill that unleashed greater combat power the more desperate the situation became. When one's life hung by a thread, that was precisely the most desperate moment.

But... he could not die.

Battle Continuation's near-cursed power allowed Leonidas to maintain an overwhelming will to fight even with his heart pierced through.

"Come on! Fight! Hahahahahahahaha!"

Perhaps he sensed that his life was about to end. Leonidas's blood-soaked body let out an incomparably bold cry. His chest rose and fell violently, while blue mana throbbed beneath his rock-hard muscles, crawling over his towering figure like ominous vines. He looked as colossal and imposing as a giant from legend!

With all three skills activated at once, the mana coiling around Leonidas could only be described as terrifying. In the distance, Tohsaka Mina fell to the ground in fright...

It was hardly her fault...

She was a Magus who had barely seen the world, and the first enemy she encountered was a life-defying mad warrior like Leonidas. Of course she would panic.

Besides...

Her eyes now carried the special power granted by the Holy Grail—the power to see a Servant's abilities.

Lancer, aside from mana and luck, had EX in everything.

He had already been a terrifyingly powerful Heroic Spirit. Now, he had gone from powerful to invincible.

Truly invincible.

Unyielding Will... Heh. Leonidas was fighting to the death right now! With his heart pierced through and his life about to fade, that massive body erupted with a bold strength capable of matching anything.

Back then, how many arrows, soldiers, and warriors had Xerxes expended just to make the dying Leonidas finally breathe his last? And now...

Tohsaka Mina looked toward Lu Bu in the distance. Though she was too far away to see clearly, Lu Bu did not seem to have any intention of retreating!!

This was bad...

Noble Phantasm EX... Though she did not know what Leonidas's Noble Phantasm was, it might have been a self-enhancement Noble Phantasm, but it could also have been an explosive release-type Noble Phantasm... Tohsaka Mina did not dare gamble.

Tohsaka Mina looked at the three crimson Command Spells on the back of her hand and made up her mind. A trump card had to be used when it was needed! She had learned that lesson long ago while playing cards with her grandfather.

"By the Command Spells, I order you, Lu Bu! Take me away! Then... trace-on!!"

Tohsaka Mina drove her magic circuits at full force.

Projection Magic was the magecraft her grandfather excelled at. Or rather, Projection Magic was the only magecraft her grandfather knew.

Whenever Tohsaka Mina curiously pressed her grandfather about why he did not learn other magecraft, he would always smile indulgently and answer evasively, "Rather than broadly studying many kinds of magecraft, isn't it more practical to hone the magecraft you have mastered to perfection?"

After witnessing her grandfather project and replicate legendary demonic swords and holy swords, Tohsaka Mina was stunned!

More than practicality, it was sheer splendor that moved this innocent girl. So she pestered her grandfather, wheedling and pleading for a long time, until he finally taught her Projection Magic.

However, unlike her grandfather Tohsaka Shirou, whose magical attribute was swords, Tohsaka Mina's dual earth-and-fire attributes simply did not give her the aptitude to contain a large number of bladed weapons.

So her grandfather taught her to focus on replicating a single weapon, to wholeheartedly project one weapon to the utmost perfection.

Following the Command Spell's order, the crimson rider instantly appeared before her.

That was how Command Spells worked: the simpler and more direct the order, the stronger the effect. "Take me away" was exactly the sort of command that fit. Unable to see her Servant's expression, Mina only knew that he roughly grabbed Tohsaka Mina by the waist, tucked her under his arm like an object, and galloped away.

On horseback, golden particles gradually took shape, and streams of radiant particles surged in Tohsaka Mina's hand.

It was a holy sword of pure gold.

Warm particles that gave the impression of a savior, warm particles infused with humanity's hope, gently formed the illusory blade.

Its name was—

"Caliburn!!"

With the girl's clear cry, the golden holy sword unleashed its true name and swiftly transformed into a torrent of light, blasting toward Abner's fortress of ice!

This was not an attack, but simply an attempt to draw the enemy's attention away. That brief interval was enough for Lu Bu to carry her away.

The Sword in the Stone was the strongest-ranked sword that both her grandfather and Mina herself could project. However, unlike her grandfather's talent, even though Tohsaka Mina understood Caliburn's power and structure, she still could not precisely grasp its essence. Unlike her grandfather, who could replicate Noble Phantasms with power close to the original, Tohsaka Mina's projected Caliburn only barely possessed D-rank power.

Still, that magnificent curtain of light was more than enough to block the enemy's vision and create confusion!

Taking advantage of that time, the crimson steed had already carried the two of them swiftly into the night sky.

Although the sudden burst of light caused a brief commotion, calm soon returned. The people outside on the riverbank merely assumed they had seen wrong, or that it was some new firework being test-fired somewhere, and paid it no mind.

Upon the glacier that concealed everything from view, the river that had just thawed froze over once more. Abner manipulated the water and reinforced his stronghold. Facing that exaggerated golden beam, he calmly watched it strike his castle's outer wall and vanish.

Taking advantage of that time, he leaned against the castle's cold wall and gently stroked the back of his hand.

"By the Command Spells, release all mana and repair Leonidas's heart!"

Servants were spirit bodies, or rather, high-level familiars. What sustained their existence was not flesh, but mana.

Strictly speaking, having one's heart pierced would not kill a Servant. It would merely consume an enormous amount of mana, leaving them unable to maintain their manifestation. In human terms, it was like dying from excessive blood loss rather than from the heart itself ceasing to beat.

For example, imagine a water tank. Ordinary damage was like scooping water out of it, while a direct strike to the heart was like punching a huge hole in the bottom. Thus, a Servant whose heart had been pierced was not killed by the attack itself, but by expending too much mana to repair the wound, exhausting all their mana and dying as a result.

Therefore, as long as a large amount of mana was used in an instant to fill a Heroic Spirit's wound, they could be saved from instant death.

However, not just anyone could accomplish that.

Apart from Heroic Spirits with Battle Continuation or Independent Action, the moment their hearts—their mana cores—were destroyed, they would disperse. No amount of mana would be more than a drop in the bucket. Those two skills, however, bought precious time for treatment.

Both sides had each expended one Command Spell in an incomparably splendid battle.

For a moment, even Archer Loxia, watching from outside, felt dazed. A battle on the level of myth had unfolded so vividly before her eyes. It truly was... thrilling.

Although Archer Loxia did not intend to blame her Master, she could not help wondering, If my Master had abundant mana, could I also join a battle at this level?

Wait?

Suddenly, Loxia noticed a detail!

In order to spy openly, she had remained materialized the entire time!

For a Magus, maintaining a physical form consumed far more mana than Spirit Form...

Then she should have been consuming a considerable amount of her Master's mana!

Several hours should have passed since she began acting independently! Her Master...

Why had he not run out of mana and cut off the magical supply to her?!

Loxia suddenly felt a tingling numbness run through her entire body, as though struck by electricity...

"Carl Wynster..."

Her beautiful eyes were filled with worry. She bit down on her silver teeth, unsure whether she should rush back immediately or continue monitoring the situation through the night...