The Pot of This World (Continued)

However, none of that was what alarmed Artoria the most.

Most importantly, she discovered that the black knight before her actually knew the length of her blade and was intimately familiar with her attacking techniques.

Every counterattack landed with perfect timing, leaving her feeling utterly powerless.

After several exchanges, Artoria could not help frowning, because she sensed a faintly familiar presence from the black knight.

Though it had become somewhat diluted by the black aura and madness radiating from him, she still felt that this knight must have some special connection to her.

Was he an enemy from her past?

She could not help wondering inwardly.

"Another incredible one has appeared..."

Iskandar remarked as well.

"More martial skill from the Age of Gods. This pitch-black knight must also be a top-tier hero."

Fionn mac Cumhaill considered it seriously.

"Hmph, he is nothing more than a mad dog!"

The golden Heroic Spirit's gaze remained full of disdain.

"..."

This time, Scáthach, whose opponent had been taken from her, had little to say instead.

Unlike the other uninvolved people, she knew about this black knight and naturally understood the full story.

Berserker's true name: Lancelot, Knight of the Lake.

Possessing peerless martial skill, he was one of the Knights of the Round Table's strongest warriors in both combat ability and overall strength.

Ever since learning that Saber was King Arthur, she had vaguely anticipated this situation. After all, the harm Lancelot had inflicted upon King Arthur was in no way inferior to Mordred's.

Though a knight, he had become entangled with his lord's wife, King Arthur's queen, Guinevere. This caused him to fall into unrighteousness, the queen into infidelity, and the Knights of the Round Table into internal conflict and division, accelerating Britannia's destruction.

In Scáthach's view, Lancelot had contributed no less than Mordred to Britannia's ruin. The two of them bore most of the responsibility.

As for his record, never mind Lancelot's past achievements—his killing of Gawain's brother Agravaine and the unarmed knight Gareth was enough to leave him cursed for eternity.

Traitor, faithless and unrighteous man, murderer of his brothers...

Those were the titles later generations gave the Knight of the Lake.

Still, since he had done it all, it would have been one thing if Lancelot could take responsibility and steel himself for the consequences of his actions. Scáthach might even have considered him a hero.

But not only did he wallow in self-pity, he stubbornly directed the contradiction of his own guilt and lack of punishment toward his lord, King Arthur. Honestly, even Scáthach could not help feeling sorry for Artoria for having such an exceptional knight.

Now that they were allies, Scáthach also found cooperating with someone like him rather disgraceful.

Since he cannot be rational, I will help him regain his senses first.

With that thought, Scáthach lightly swung her demonic spear, preparing to calm Lancelot down first. However...

The next moment, the black knight, who had been brimming with madness and aggression, suddenly froze. He staggered back several steps, clutched his head, and let out an enraged roar.

"--Arrrrrrrrrrr!!!"

His frenzied movements were forcibly halted at that moment.

"A Command Seal."

Seeing this, Scáthach understood what had happened and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. But then she saw Berserker, who had abandoned his attack on Artoria, suddenly turn and lock his gaze on the golden Heroic Spirit atop the streetlamp.

Hmm?

The Heroic Spirits present wore different expressions.

Scáthach had already understood that someone had used a Command Seal to control Berserker and test that golden Heroic Spirit.

What a reliable ally...

She praised them inwardly.

The black knight fixed Archer atop the streetlamp with a gaze that made one's pores stand on end.

The proud king naturally noticed the black knight's stare immediately.

To someone as noble as him, being watched by such an undisguised, malicious gaze was an unparalleled insult. It had to be met with severe punishment!!

"Mad dog, where do you think you are looking?!"

Almost instantly, the golden Heroic Spirit standing above flew into a rage, his eyes narrowing sharply.

Then even more golden portals appeared around him, and hundreds of swords and spears of every color and style emerged from within them, all aimed directly at the black knight below.

"Since you dared look directly upon me with such lowly eyes, you will atone with your life! Be torn to pieces, mongrel!!"

Along with his icy declaration, spears and swords, blades and axes, all kinds of offensive Noble Phantasms shot down from the opened golden portals in a torrential barrage, beginning a relentless bombardment.

The hair-raising mass of Noble Phantasms crashed mercilessly onto the ground, making the Heroic Spirits frown.

"They really are all Noble Phantasms... and genuine ones, too. If so... then Archer's identity might be..."

Not only Fionn mac Cumhaill and Scáthach, with their broad knowledge—even Matou Zouken, after witnessing the golden Heroic Spirit attack, had begun to grasp the origins of Tokiomi Tohsaka's Servant.

At the same time, he could not help sighing inwardly.

He had thought Scáthach and Lancelot's combination was already powerful enough, but that brat from the Tohsaka Family had actually summoned such an ancient existence.

Add Fionn mac Cumhaill, King Arthur, and Iskandar to the count, and this Holy Grail War had at least five exceptional Servants. Compared to them, the Lancelot he had placed such high hopes on possessed no real advantage at all.

That gave him quite a headache.

With so many monsters gathered here, what happened next would have far too many variables.

However, compared to Matou Zouken, who hid in the shadows and worried over the situation, the expressions of the Heroic Spirits on the battlefield were far more interesting.

"Is he really a Berserker? Even with his reason gone, such skill could still be called supreme... It seems this Berserker must have been a hero renowned for martial arts in life."

Although the golden Heroic Spirit's attack had been immensely imposing, the black knight had suffered no real damage within it.

Iskandar watched in astonishment as Berserker, like a black shadow, remained completely unharmed amid the storm of Noble Phantasms, and then...

Lancelot suddenly accelerated, seized his chance, and flashed to the edge of the streetlamp beneath Archer. He then reached out and tore it apart with his bare hand, forcing Archer to leave and find another foothold.

"What just happened?"

As the only ordinary human present, Waver Velvet clearly did not understand what had just occurred.

Iskandar beside him, on the other hand, praised that incredibly dangerous scene as though he were providing commentary.

Just then, when facing hundreds of Noble Phantasms fired from different directions without any blind spots, the black knight had not simply chosen to dodge.

Instead, he crouched like a beast, became an afterimage to evade the first two Noble Phantasms, then casually grabbed two more in midair. Holding one in each hand, he used his outstanding dual-wielding swordsmanship to effortlessly block the incoming attacks amid the barrage. Then, with a single flash step, he arrived beneath Archer's streetlamp and split it cleanly in two with a swing of his blade.

But that was not all...

More shocking to the Heroic Spirits present than his peerless martial skill was the black magical energy radiating from his hands.

Before their eyes, the golden weapons launched from the golden portals only needed to be touched and grabbed by the black knight before they seemed to have been coated in black paint. Berserker dyed them with his own color, then used them to attack their true owner in return.

"One can possess multiple Noble Phantasms, while the other can seize Noble Phantasms... These two are just too..."

Having witnessed the strength of these two newly appeared Heroic Spirits, Artoria's already grim expression became even heavier.

She looked at the black knight whose presence seemed vaguely familiar, while continuously pondering his true identity.

Black knight... black knight... Where exactly had she seen him before?

"Arrrrr--!!"

On the other side, even while being driven by a Command Seal, Berserker never forgot to keep an eye on Artoria during battle.

Especially after sensing that familiar gaze from his king, he, the king's greatest devotee, let out an excited howl, and fought even harder.

Without the double madness this time, though the Berserker class still occasionally caused his reason to evaporate and led him to make irrational judgments, after fighting and venting his fury, he could still regain part of his sanity through his extraordinary willpower. Thus, upon feeling King Arthur's gaze, he became even more excited.

Awooo!

It is the king's gaze!

The king is watching me!!

Then I absolutely cannot disappoint the king!!!

Lancelot fought more fiercely than ever, as if injected with stimulants. Even against the overwhelming barrage, he did not retreat in the slightest. With his Eternal Arms Mastership, he could not possibly be defeated by such a crude method of simply throwing things around.

So when he saw Archer land, he pounced on him even more eagerly.

"..."

After witnessing this battle, Scáthach inwardly gave Lancelot's martial skill the highest recognition.

The pinnacle of mortal ability...

Meanwhile, Artoria was still marveling at this Berserker's agility and racking her brain to guess his identity.

"Are you serious?"

Was that not one of your Knights of the Round Table? Even if he had an ability concealing his true appearance, you should have recognized him from his martial skill alone, should you not?!

Scáthach gave Artoria a strange look, and her assessment of Artoria's obliviousness rose to a whole new level.

Lancelot's splendid performance apparently had failed to move someone...

"Damn you! You mad dog actually dared force me onto the ground, to stand at the same height as you! You deserve death a thousand times over!!"

With the streetlamp sliced in half, Archer could only stand upon the earth. His face had become thoroughly twisted with rage, especially when he saw that the other man was using his own Noble Phantasms. He felt that his dignity as a king had been greatly offended.

Lowering the king's position and stealing the king's treasures... Together, these crimes could no longer be described as mere offense. It was outright sacrilege! He had to be executed to display the king's majesty!!

Rage, absolute rage...

Archer, who had already been filled with fury because three kings had appeared in one night, now found the flames of anger in his heart impossible to contain.

Under his overwhelming wrath, more and more golden portals opened in the night sky. Countless golden ripples spread like golden waves across the heavens, replacing the darkness and dyeing the sky gold.

Under his control, thousands of golden portals opened at once, leaving all the Heroic Spirits present astonished.

From the moment he appeared, no one had considered Archer weak. Yet seeing him control thousands of Noble Phantasms in preparation for a simultaneous volley still left them shaken.

A barrage on this scale was far beyond the previous one. Even top-tier Heroic Spirits would find it difficult to block such numbers completely.

Sure enough, this golden Archer was truly terrifyingly strong!!

At that moment, a major question that had troubled them all received a clear answer.

Who was the strongest Heroic Spirit present?

If one looked only at Noble Phantasms, it was probably King Arthur, who wielded the strongest holy sword?

Taking the battlefield into account, Fionn mac Cumhaill, who commanded the ocean's waves, should be stronger.

I think it should be Scáthach. After all, the queen of the Land of Shadows could not be famous without reason.

If one judged only by reputation, then Iskandar, King of Conquerors, would not be a bad choice either.

But now...

Who was Archer?!!

The Noble Phantasms filling the sky had completely established his position as the strongest Heroic Spirit of this Holy Grail War.

Berserker is in trouble this time.

Just as everyone simultaneously mourned for Berserker, who had been locked onto by thousands of Noble Phantasms, suddenly...

Archer's imposing body abruptly stiffened...

With an incredulous expression, he looked toward the sky, and a voice reached his ears.

"O King, I beseech you with a Command Seal. Now is not the right time for a decisive battle, so please calm your thunderous wrath and return to your territory."

The familiar voice, along with an immensely powerful restraint, made it difficult for Archer to continue his actions. The source of that restraint was undoubtedly a Command Seal!!

At that moment, at the Tohsaka Residence, Tokiomi Tohsaka finally could no longer hold himself back as he watched Gilgamesh cause such a commotion.

His original plan had been to preserve their strength, coordinate with his disciple, and then secure victory in the Holy Grail War through Gilgamesh's immense power.

But Gilgamesh's actions now had undoubtedly gone against his plan.

The Holy Grail War was not some one-on-one arena match. It was a chaotic free-for-all.