In a sense, Lancer was the natural nemesis of monsters like the Sea Monster, creatures with tenacious vitality and terrifying regenerative abilities.
The Rose of Purity could ignore magical defenses and easily tear apart a monster's body, while the Rose of Annihilation could completely nullify its regenerative abilities, robbing the monster of its greatest advantage.
Unfortunately, that was only in theory. The white owl watched Lancer charge ahead, deep in thought.
It was a rather awkward situation. The Rose of Purity was two meters long, while the Rose of Annihilation was only 1.4 meters long. Their target this time was a colossal beast whose sheer size had burst apart the church, an aberrant fiend whose tentacles alone stretched dozens of meters.
It was like a hero hunting a dragon terrorizing the land with a fruit knife that possessed dragon-slaying properties. Every strike might make the dragon howl in pain, but in practice, it was utterly useless.
If only Lancer had brought those two demonic swords. Li Zihan, observing the battle through the owl, felt a little regretful. With the demonic swords, Lancer would possess an Anti-City Noble Phantasm. In that case, defeating the Sea Monster would be a matter of minutes.
The Sea Monster had to die, and it had to die for a perfectly legitimate reason. Otherwise, everything Li Zihan had staged so far would have been meaningless.
Rubbing his temples to ease the strain of communicating across multiple lines, Li Zihan gave berserker an order. "Release your power. Stop holding back. If necessary, you may unleash God's Divine Bow-Mystic Eyes of Discernment, but you are not to use it in an Anti-City form."
berserker immediately let out a delighted, hunting-like growl. A bloody gleam shone in his eyes as endless killing intent poured from his body. At that moment, he was like a savage beast emerging from a desolate wasteland, grinding his teeth and thirsting for blood, ready to tear apart and trample everything that stood in his way.
Li Zihan had to admit that Alcaeus was a fine actor. He had clearly regained his sanity, yet his performance made him seem as though he possessed EX-rank Madness Enhancement. If Li Zihan had not known the truth beforehand, even he would have believed that Alcaeus had completely lost his mind.
His massive body leaped forward with the same agility as Lancer, scraping through the air and streaking into the distance amid howling winds.
The Great Axe descended from the sky, crashing into the ground with incomparable divine power. Like a meteor striking the earth, the ground sank layer by layer. The shockwave from the impact uprooted the trees near the church and hurled them violently onto the ground ten meters away. The black Giant God rose from a massive crater three meters deep, his face filled with bloodthirsty battle intent.
The ground beneath his feet had turned dark green. Without question, it was the bodily fluid of the Sea Monster's tentacles hidden underground.
He's so strong. Lancer watched Alcaeus with a grave expression. He had to admit that he was absolutely no match for berserker.
Unless he recovered all the armaments he had possessed in life—his twin swords, Twin Pistols, and single blade—he would not even have the strength to fight. If he faced berserker head-on, defeat would only be a matter of time. As Lancer pondered this, he decided that once this battle was over, he had to advise his lord to join forces with the other Masters against berserker.
On the other side, Kaineth wore the curious expression unique to researchers. Through his familiar, he had already learned of berserker's record. Yet compared to that, he was more concerned with another question: could Li Zihan really sustain a high-energy-consuming Servant of this level without collapsing?
"A Magecraft Core," Li Zihan answered. He was extremely glad that he had first turned caster into a Humanoid Battery. Otherwise, after Alcaeus used two ultimate moves, he would have collapsed on the streets of Fuyuki.
Not every magus was a Humanoid Nuclear Power Plant like Illya. At the very least, the magical energy supplied by Li Zihan's Magic Circuits was like the Hero of the Bow before Illya, whose entire body was made of Magic Circuits.
"Looks like your Magecraft Core is of good quality." Kaineth had no further questions. He himself had brought three Magecraft Cores: one to supply Lancer with magical energy, one to power his Mystic Codes, and one as a spare.
No one in this Holy Grail War understood the benefits of Magecraft Cores better than he did.
Waver, who had never seen a Magecraft Core in his life, nearly shed tears of poverty as he listened to the extravagant remarks of the other two Masters.
Weren't Magecraft Cores treasured heirlooms passed down by great families? Why were they discussing their quality so casually?
"Don't worry about that." Li Zihan noticed Waver's embarrassment and comforted him. "One day, you too will have a time when you carry three Magecraft Cores with you."
Kaineth furrowed his brow. He had the feeling those words carried another meaning.
Unlike the peaceful atmosphere among the Masters, the battlefield against the Sea Monster was brutal to the extreme.
From the very beginning, the battle had been headed toward despair. It was a life-and-death war of attrition. Though Lancer, Rider, and berserker's blades struck the Sea Monster's enormous body without pause, the Sea Monster was also subjected to savage attacks from the three Servants. Heavy swords that could cleave stone, Thunderous Hooves, and the Divine Blessed Magic Spear mercilessly carved wound after wound across the Sea Monster's surface.
Even a dragon standing at the peak of Phantasmal Species should have breathed its last under such attacks.
But this great Sea Monster was simply too enormous, and its flesh regenerated with absurd strength. The damage inflicted by the three Servants' combined assault still fell far short of the Sea Monster's regenerative abilities.
The writhing mountain of flesh swelled like a balloon. The wounds they had just inflicted were instantly filled with fresh meat, and the damaged portions were visibly restored.
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