It was already well past midnight.
As the last ordinary vehicle within sight disappeared from the Servants' view,
the Servants standing on Fuyuki City Bridge changed into their battle attire amid dazzling flashes of light.
They stepped forward together onto the bridge's roadway.
Father and son, king and thief... Artoria and Mordred slowly made their way to the middle of the road.
"Father King..."
Artoria frowned, disgust appearing on her face. This was her response to Mordred's form of address.
"Tch, you're still the same. You haven't changed at all..."
"You too, Mordred."
A trace of sorrow that made one ache for her flashed across Mordred's face. Loving her deeply while hating the King, Mordred heard Artoria's emotionless, almost icy voice and spoke again in a nearly pleading tone.
"Father King... can't you give me even the slightest possibility? Even if it's a lie, even if it's only comfort..."
"I'm sorry, Mordred... I will not tell you any lies..."
"Why? Why, why... Why is it that you alone cannot lie to me? Even if it were just a false word, even if it were only a kind consolation, I could accept it. Why won't you grant me even this!"
Watching Mordred gradually lose control of her emotions, Artoria calmly shattered Mordred's love once again, leaving only hatred behind.
"Because I am King!"
Yes, precisely because Artoria was King, she could not tell Mordred any well-intentioned lies or offer her any comfort...
She could not, and would not, give Mordred even the slightest hope.
Bar ing her canine teeth, Mordred gradually calmed down, seeming to lose all desire to continue speaking with Artoria.
After grinning and shouting, "I will never give up!" at Artoria, the battle officially began...
This time, there was no enhancement from the Demon Pillars or Solomon.
From the very beginning of the battle, Mordred had clearly fallen into a disadvantage.
There was no helping it. Artoria, using the Three Knights Classes Saint Graph, was simply superior in parameters to Mordred, who used the Rider Class Saint Graph.
Although the Rider Class could compensate for its performance through a mount... Mordred had already lost Prydwen.
During Leonidas's final burning strike,
Prydwen, already battered and scarred from the previous battle with Artoria, had shattered completely.
Having lost Prydwen's mobility advantage and being suppressed by Artoria in parameters due to their Classes,
it was hardly strange that Mordred was at a slight disadvantage.
In fact, Mordred had known before this battle that she would not be a match for Father King.
But so what?
She was the fearless, reckless "super brat"!
The greatsword in Mordred's hand swung madly.
Bloody marks blossomed across Mordred's body like vivid, bewitching flowers.
Her body and soul both covered in wounds from battle,
Mordred suddenly grinned... and an incomparably longing light appeared in her eyes.
It was as though she had returned to the Battle of Camlann a thousand years ago...
Upon that towering mountain of corpses... father and son, king and subject... welcomed the end of their destiny...
Mordred staggered as she raised the greatsword in her hand.
Barely able to remain standing, Mordred lifted Clarent, the Sword of Radiant King, burned away her final trace of magical energy, and unleashed scarlet lightning...
Just as Mordred was about to swing that sword and strike at Artoria...
The dazzling Excalibur in the panting Artoria's hand pierced Mordred's heart...
"Father King... I... I won't give up... Never give up..."
Fuyuki City Always Burns...
A wineglass falling from high above shattered across the roadway.
Bright red wine spilled like blood in mourning...
At the instant Artoria slew Mordred and claimed victory,
the battle between Solomon and Gilgamesh above the battlefield of father and son began.
Hundreds of golden ripples unfolded behind Gilgamesh.
Their brilliant golden radiance turned the bridge's steel girders resplendent.
The next second, like the roar of an entire army group's supporting artillery, wave after wave of hundreds of Noble Phantasms shot toward Solomon in a covering barrage.
Watching Gilgamesh go all out without holding back from the first move, Solomon—whose expressionless eyes always carried a faint melancholy—suddenly turned and leapt straight off the bridge before the Noble Phantasms arrived.
During the gap while Gilgamesh adjusted the exits of the Gate of Babylon, Solomon fell into the black river water.
Gilgamesh raised an eyebrow slightly and waved a hand, summoning the golden flying vessel Vimana.
Staring intently at the pitch-black river surface, unease faintly rising within him, Gilgamesh swiftly rode the golden vessel into the sky.
One second... two seconds...
Time passed bit by bit, yet the water remained black as ink.
Then suddenly... scarlet light flared up from the river.
More than a dozen tentacles covered in strange giant eyeballs—Demon Pillars—roared as they burst through the black, icy river water, announcing their arrival to Fuyuki City.
"Damn it... You brought these Mongrels into my garden. Solomon, you have become far too presumptuous."
Scarlet, chaotic magical energy expanded without pause.
The roars of the Demon Pillars set off waves of sirens throughout Fuyuki City.
Marisbury, who was confronting Kirei Kotomine at the bridgehead, silently smiled upon seeing this scene, then began to chant...
Feeling the bridge tremble beneath her feet and watching it crack continuously,
Artoria, who was covered in wounds large and small after sending Mordred off, glanced at the golden Ship of Heaven above her head, then leapt directly from the bridge that was about to break beneath the Demon Pillars' roars...
At the same time, within the Matou Family estate, before the Fuyuki City Surveillance System Sakura and Orochimaru had built.
Watching the situation begin to spiral out of control, Sakura bit her thumbnail. Her face full of gravity, she said angrily,
"These people... Do they have to make this known to the entire world? Old Man of the Mountain, you..."
"I cannot do it. I cannot conceal the scene they have created for you... But you need not worry... Someone is taking action."
No sooner had those words fallen
than Marisbury at the bridgehead of Fuyuki City Bridge finished his chant almost simultaneously.
On the other side of the Earth, in a warehouse of the Animsphere family in London, England, where heirlooms were stored,
the prototype simulated Earth environment model Chaldeas, created in 1990—Prototype No. 1—
lit up in response to Marisbury's chant from the other side of the planet...
Though this Chaldeas prototype had been temporarily abandoned and sealed away by Marisbury due to insufficient funding and materials...
as long as Marisbury wished it, he could still unseal it at any time and briefly make use of this supreme masterpiece.
Upon the illuminated Chaldeas, the projected image of Japan rapidly magnified, followed by Fuyuki City...
And as the projected image zoomed in to its limit, a ray of light instantly shot from Chaldeas into the sky.
The starlight over Fuyuki City became dazzling. As though enchanted, the people awakened by the Demon Pillars' roars could not help raising their heads toward the sky... Then, every ordinary person who witnessed that brilliant starry sky fell under Marisbury's Suggestion Magecraft in the next instant.
Fuyuki City became quiet once more.
But the battlefield began to boil.
At the instant Marisbury completed his spell,
the eyeballs covering the roaring Demon Pillars all fired deadly beams into the outside world.
Noble Phantasms collided with beams of light, and fiery clouds began to spread across the sky.
Stepping atop the Demon Pillars' bodies as though climbing stairs to a throne,
Solomon, expressionless and now like an icy machine, returned to his throne surrounded by Demon Gods.
And with Solomon appearing in his rightful place, every strike unleashed by the Demon Pillars became no weaker than Great Magecraft meticulously prepared by an ordinary magus.
On one side were countless beams surging like a tide; on the other was a golden king weaving through them, Noble Phantasms flowing forth without end.
Gilgamesh and Solomon's "warm-up" grew ever more intense.
Amid countless collisions, attacks knocked off course rained down upon the riverbanks... With every explosion, both sides of Fuyuki City's river channel began to burn fiercely.
Amid the blazing fires along the riverbanks, ignoring the scorching surroundings and stepping across asphalt that had begun to melt,
the battle between Marisbury, Kirei Kotomine, and Berserker began.
Yet compared to the battle here, Gilgamesh riding the Ship of Heaven and Solomon commanding the Demon Pillars above the river were undoubtedly far more eye-catching.
Seated upon a throne formed from the bones of Baal, Solomon lightly tapped the armrest with a finger. Most of his attention was currently focused on expanding the exit of his Reality Marble and allowing more Demon Pillars to descend.
Gilgamesh touched the ring on his left index finger, then released it.
Completely unaware that he had nearly taken a trip to death's door, Gilgamesh wore an expression that seemed to say he had already grown tired of this battle that could only produce fireworks across the sky.
The Gate of Babylon could not bring down the Demon Pillars after prolonged attacks. Meanwhile, as strange red magical energy spread across the river, not only did more Demon Pillars emerge, but Solomon's presence also grew stronger with each one that appeared.
Upon the icy river surface, Artoria, blessed by spirits, stood atop the surging water and looked up at the battlefield...
She observed, she thought, she waited for the right moment...
But if Gilgamesh were to learn Artoria's thoughts at this moment, Artoria would undoubtedly face his furious wrath.
For a King like Gilgamesh, even if Artoria was a "treasure" he had taken a liking to, his pride would never permit others to interfere in his battle... much less Artoria contemplating a "righteous" group assault.
Magical energy throughout his body suddenly surged, and the Star of Revelation opened at once.
Kirei Kotomine, who was fighting Marisbury, immediately felt his body go weak as large quantities of magical energy were drawn away, nearly stumbling to the ground...
But soon, as the Command Seals on Kirei Kotomine's forearm disappeared stroke by stroke, they transformed into pure magical energy and replenished his body.
Kirei Kotomine, who needed to sustain the battles of three Servants, still held on.
Ancient Nuclear Warhead and Artoria's Unwillingness...
Boom! Another seaside villa was struck by a "stray arrow," adding yet another sum to the amount the insurance company would have to pay the Matou Family.
However, Sakura, who was watching the battle before the Surveillance System alongside Orochimaru, Kurumi, and King Hassan, did not look happy. Instead, she appeared exceedingly frustrated.
Because those utterly worked-up fools had begun expanding the battlefield's range.
As more and more Demon Pillars appeared in the river,
the mere Miyou River was no longer enough to serve as Gilgamesh and Solomon's battlefield.
Especially after Gilgamesh opened the Star of Revelation and began releasing all manner of Noble Phantasms in large numbers to counterattack.
The Demon Pillars packed densely into the river naturally began moving toward both banks.
Perhaps he felt the time had come, or perhaps King Hassan simply disliked farewells.
Just as Sakura and the others watched the situation with bated breath,
King Hassan, standing behind Sakura, vanished from her side without anyone noticing.
At the bottom of the vertical passage the Matou Family had excavated directly into the leylines under the pretext of building a subway,
the Pseudo-Holy Grail created by Zouken Matou with the Great Holy Grail was shining brilliantly.
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