After dealing with the summoned Vlad the Third, only one enemy naturally remained before Li Ye.
This time, Li Ye would never give the Crusaders' remnant Magus a chance to escape.
Crimson Lightning flared, and Li Ye vanished from where he stood in an instant.
Meanwhile, Sanzang's battle against the Magus was exceptionally fierce.
A large number of familiars worked in tandem with magical bombardments raining down from above to besiege Sanzang, leaving her, accustomed to close combat with cold weapons, somewhat constrained.
"How much longer can you hold on?"
The Magus in the sky mocked Sanzang, though her gaze kept darting toward the distance.
The clash between Li Ye's and Vlad the Third's Noble Phantasms had been tremendously loud, and neither Sanzang nor the Magus could possibly ignore it.
They had even been caught in its aftermath.
The Magus already intended to retreat, but Sanzang's relentless pursuit infuriated her.
She had no choice but to keep sending familiars to engage Sanzang while constantly seeking opportunities to bombard her with magic.
If she had not used that long-charged magical bombardment on Li Ye, the Magus had been confident she could withdraw safely.
As the battle progressed, the Magus's eyes widened slightly.
Sanzang actually hurled the Golden Cudgel in her hand into the sky with all her strength!
The slender Golden Cudgel tore through the air in an instant, streaking past the Magus's side.
"Give up resisting—"
Seeing Sanzang make such an unwise attack, the Magus was about to mock her when a crimson bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, and the smile vanished from her face.
Startled, the Magus immediately turned around and saw Li Ye, wrapped in Crimson Lightning, appear not far away.
He caught the Golden Cudgel!
"You bastard!!"
The Magus hastily raised her hand, and polygonal patterns of light that seemed familiar to Li Ye appeared around her.
But this time, Li Ye would not give the Magus any chance to launch a bombardment!
Whoosh!
The suddenly extending Golden Cudgel, wrapped in Crimson Lightning, shattered layer after layer of defenses and struck the Magus squarely in the abdomen!
"Guh!"
How could the Magus withstand an impact like that from Li Ye? Her eyes flew wide open, and she spat out a mouthful of scarlet blood.
Yet the Golden Cudgel did not stop. It forcibly knocked the Magus down from the throne in the sky and into the ground!
Boom!
The thunderous crash kicked up waves of sand, the shockwave from the Magus's fall.
"That was pretty easy—"
After landing as well, Li Ye copied Sanzang and spun the staff in a flourish before returning the Golden Cudgel to the approaching Sanzang. "Master Sanzang, thanks for your hard work. That one was pretty difficult to deal with, right?"
Li Ye glanced over the mangled remains of familiars scattered everywhere, and could easily imagine how intense the battle had been.
"Hehe, are you underestimating this young high monk who aspires to become a Buddha?!" Sanzang said confidently as she took back the Golden Cudgel.
After casually chatting with Sanzang for a few moments, Li Ye walked up to the Magus and looked down at this Magus from the Crusaders.
The black robe concealing her figure had been torn away by Li Ye's sudden attack, revealing her true appearance.
A face identical to Aleka's.
An artificial human?
Li Ye raised an eyebrow. The moment he saw the Magus's true face, a great deal of information came to mind.
If Magie Friedman's death was true, then this Magus should not have been under anyone's control. Yet that raised another question.
How many Magi of the same model as Aleka were there?
Aleka possessed superb magecraft for creating Chimeric Beasts, while this Magus commanded familiars and wielded numerous spells. Even if they were of the same model, she differed from Aleka.
"Master Sanzang, don't you have some sort of Buddhist spell that makes people tell the truth?"
Li Ye made a gesture as he spoke.
As though she understood what Li Ye meant, Sanzang leaned back in sudden realization and struck her fist against her palm. "Nope. Back then, idiots like Sun Wukong and the other disciples were the ones who made the monsters talk obediently."
Oh, the truth of force.
Hearing Sanzang's answer, Li Ye only wished Nitocris were at his side. As a genuine Magus, Nitocris would surely have had a solution.
"Honestly, threats probably won't work on you, so I don't intend to waste words. If you don't plan to tell me about the Crusaders, then I'll have no choice but to take you to the Holy City and let King Ozymandias deal with you."
"Besides, keeping secrets gives you no advantage. It will only cause trouble for yourself."
Just as Li Ye finished speaking and prepared to haul the Magus up—
"The King commands us—"
The vacant-eyed Magus finally spoke.
*?!*
Li Ye, who had been utterly uninterested, immediately perked up at those words. He did not interrupt, intending to quietly listen to the Magus's account.
Li Ye even stopped Sanzang beside him from saying anything.
Yet all Li Ye received was silence.
After speaking the opening words, the Magus said nothing more, causing Li Ye to furrow his brow slightly.
But the Magus's next words nearly made Li Ye laugh out loud.
"Why aren't you asking me more?"
The Magus still stared blankly at the sky, but her slightly puzzled question sounded incredibly innocent.
Li Ye cleared his throat. Under Sanzang's astonished gaze, he went along with the Magus's rhythm and asked, "Ahem. Who is this King you mentioned?"
"The King is, of course, the great Lionheart Richard I. Only he can lead us in accomplishing our supreme undertaking."
The Magus spoke slowly, but what she said was something Li Ye could not ignore.
Once the Magus revealed that the Crusaders still had a King, Li Ye had already suspected it. He had not expected it to truly be Lionheart Richard I.
But could he really be Lionheart Richard I?
Li Ye remained doubtful.
Yet the Holy Grail was undeniably in someone's hands within the Holy City of Jerusalem, and with a Heroic Spirit Summoning Circle of that scale, the main forces of the Crusaders must have been in Jerusalem at the time.
But where had this Lionheart King come from?
To appear outside Jerusalem and even hide in Ozymandias's desert, the Lionheart King had indeed escaped the Holy Lance's devastating strike—or perhaps Lionheart Richard I had not been in the Holy City of Jerusalem at all.
Yet for him to gather so many Crusader members in the brief time after the Lion King destroyed the Holy City and rebuilt Camelot showed just how swiftly the Lionheart King acted.
There was life magecraft capable of freely creating Chimeras, curse magecraft, a Heroic Spirit Summoning Circle, and artificial humans of the same model as Aleka.
The Crusaders' remnants possessed far more hidden cards than Li Ye had expected.
This did not seem like a group thrown together at the last minute.
"What do you think of Lionheart Richard I?"
Seeing the Magus cooperate so readily, Li Ye continued questioning her without hesitation.
Since he lacked knowledge of Lionheart Richard I, he would obtain as much information about him as possible from the Magus.
"The King is great, wise, and intelligent. To us, he is both our King and our father—"