Just standing there and facing that godlike pressure made his legs tremble slightly despite himself. It was not fear, but the instinctive reaction of a body being crushed by absolute power.
Before him stood a slender yet incomparably steadfast figure, as firm as a boulder.
Her blue armored skirt fluttered in the wind stirred by the chaotic magecraft, while her golden hair streamed behind her.
Saber—Artoria Pendragon, King Arthur.
She gripped the hilt of the invisible sword—Wind King Barrier (Invisible Air)—with both hands, holding it upright before her in the sturdiest defensive stance possible!
Her emerald eyes were sharp as an eagle's, locked tightly onto the several golden beams of death tearing through space toward them!
"Shirou! Fall back!" Artoria's cool yet resolute voice rang out, carrying an unmistakable command.
Almost the instant she spoke, those golden beams arrived!
"Clang—!!! Ching—!!!"
The ear-piercing clash of metal resounded across the battlefield!
The invisible sword became an indistinct streak of light in Artoria's hands as she struck, slashed, and blocked with pinpoint precision! Every collision erupted in dazzling sparks, like fireworks of death blooming across the night sky!
The tremendous impact traveled through Artoria's body. Her blue figure swayed slightly amid the smoke and golden light, while the ground beneath her feet cracked and sank instantly! Yet she stood as if rooted in the earth, retreating not even a step!
"Hmph! A mere third-rate Servant dares block This King's treasury?" Gilgamesh's wild laughter carried a hint of irritation at being disturbed. Killing intent grew even stronger in his scarlet, snake-like eyes. "Then I'll let you see what true despair is!"
The golden rings behind him expanded instantly, their number multiplying!
More ripples churned violently, like a boiling sea of gold!
A torrent of magecraft far greater than before gathered within them!
This time, it was no longer merely a few streaks of light. Dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of Noble Phantasm prototypes of various shapes—blades, spears, swords, halberds, axes, hammers...—all radiating an aura of destruction, came crashing down like a golden rainstorm upon Artoria and Emiya Shirou, who was struggling to hold on behind her!
The air was torn apart completely, emitting shrieks like the cries of ghosts and wailing spirits!
"Ex—calibur!!!"
Faced with this rain of Noble Phantasms capable of shredding any Heroic Spirit in an instant, brilliant light erupted from Artoria's eyes!
She no longer waited. Gripping the hilt with both hands, she gathered immense magecraft around herself like a storm!
The invisible restraint vanished instantly. For the first time, the golden holy sword itself, seemingly filled with the radiance of the stars, revealed its sacred and majestic form upon the battlefield!
Peerless light began gathering and compressing at the tip of her sword!
It was the precursor to the full release of the Sword of Promised Victory (Excalibur), a torrent of light powerful enough to split mountains and sever seas, about to erupt!
"Hahahaha! Interesting! So interesting! Then let This King see how much you can block with that shabby country sword of yours?!" Gilgamesh laughed wildly. Not only did he fail to stop her, but he raised his hand sharply as if he had discovered a fascinating new toy!
This time, from the largest golden ring at the very center behind him, something other than the usual Noble Phantasm prototypes slowly emerged: a strange hilt whose unusual shape resembled three cylindrical sections wound together in spiraling threads.
The instant it appeared, the surrounding space began groaning under an unbearable strain!
The chaotic magecraft was forcibly pulled and torn apart! A violent energy fluctuation far surpassing the sum of all the previous Noble Phantasms, seemingly capable of ripping apart the laws of the world themselves, spread from that strange hilt like an ancient ferocious beast awakening!
"Void Separation, Star of Creation (Enuma Elish)!" Gilgamesh's smile turned savage, filled with the delight of destroying everything. " mongrel! Before the power that truly 'cuts the world apart,' turn to nothingness!"
Dark-red energy, thick like blood plasma, began coiling around the blade of Ea and spinning at high speed!
Space twisted and cracked with a grating sound! The entire battlefield seemed to have been thrown into an invisible vortex, becoming the eye of a storm of violent energy!
The instant the three-sectioned, twisted hilt—Ea—appeared in Gilgamesh's hand, Artoria's emerald pupils contracted sharply. The violent energy fluctuation tearing through space far exceeded the combined total of all the previous Noble Phantasms! The terrifying pressure made the knuckles of her sword hand pale from excessive force.
"Saber! Let's retreat for now! His power is too great!" Emiya Shirou shouted behind her, his voice trembling under the magecraft pressure.
"How could a knight retreat because of an enemy's strength?!" Artoria growled without turning her head, her voice firm and decisive. The storm of magecraft around her surged even more violently, while the golden light on the Sword of Promised Victory (Excalibur) burned with utmost brilliance, as though she held a sun on the verge of exploding!
"That brat is right! Won't retreat? Then go die!!" Gilgamesh snarled. The dark-red vortex of energy around Ea shrieked sharply as it spun faster and faster. Space shattered inch by inch!
"Enuma Elish—!!"
The dark-red torrent of destruction erupted toward Artoria, like the light of creation splitting heaven and earth, or an apocalyptic calamity tearing reality apart!
Wherever it passed, space twisted and shattered, while the earth was plowed into deep, scorching trenches!
"Excalibur—!!!"
Artoria swung down the holy sword at the same time! A dazzling golden cannon of light, like a galaxy flowing backward, met the dark-red vortex head-on!
Two divine forces powerful enough to reshape the terrain collided with a thunderous crash!
Boom—!!!!
The earth-shattering impact instantly swallowed the entire battlefield in blinding light! The shock wave spread in all directions like a tsunami, flattening every nearby building and feature of the terrain!
Yet they remained locked together for only an instant!
A heartbreaking cracking sound rang out! Under the mad grinding of the dark-red vortex, the golden torrent of holy light shattered like fragile glass!
"Ugh—!" Artoria let out a suppressed groan of pain.
The golden holy light was swallowed by the dark red in an instant! The destructive energy backlash slammed brutally into her!
With an ear-piercing metallic crack, the holy silver armor covering her filled with fractures the moment it was struck, then shattered away in large pieces! Bright-red blood gushed from her mouth and through the gaps in her ruined armor like a fountain!
The tremendous impact sent her flying like a kite with its string cut.
Her body carved a tragic blood trail through the air before crashing heavily into the ground not far before Emiya Shirou, plowing out a long, deep trench!
Artoria lay at the center of the cracked crater, the holy sword having fallen from her hand beside her.
Her gorgeous blue armored skirt was shattered, and the exposed skin was covered in wounds, some deep enough to show bone.
Blood quickly dyed the ground beneath her red. She struggled to lift her head, but her body seemed completely beyond her control. Only suppressed, pained breaths escaped her lips, while her eyes were tinged for the first time with unmistakable dimness and weakness.
"SABER—!!!" Emiya Shirou charged over, his eyes nearly bursting with rage as he roared until his throat seemed to tear apart.
"Hmph! A third-rate Servant who doesn't know her limits. See that? This is the price of defying This King!" Gilgamesh floated amid the golden light, looking down contemptuously at the gravely wounded Artoria in the crater with scarlet eyes.
A cruel smile curled at his lips. "Still... this defiance is somewhat interesting. This King has changed his mind. Taking you back and training you for a while, then making you one of This King's collectibles, might not be bad!"
Ripples spread through his Gate of Babylon. A shackled Noble Phantasm prototype wrapped in golden chains slowly emerged and shot precisely toward Artoria in the crater!
At this critical moment!
A sharp sound split through the battlefield! An arrow wrapped in thick, ominous black light shot toward Gilgamesh's head at astonishing speed, like a reaper's sickle fired from hell!
The air sizzled as though corroded wherever the arrow passed, and the threat it carried far surpassed that of the previous attacks!
"Hm?!" Gilgamesh's scarlet pupils contracted, and he flew into a rage.
"Damnable insect! How dare you obstruct This King's path!!"
He had no choice but to abandon the chains. The golden ripples behind him turned instantly, and a magnificent golden kite shield materialized, precisely blocking the arrow's trajectory.
Clang—!!!
The black-light arrow crashed violently into the golden shield, erupting with an ear-piercing metallic impact and a heart-pounding energy fluctuation.
The shield shook violently as golden and black light eroded each other. A fine crack even appeared across its surface! Although the arrow ultimately shattered and dispersed, Gilgamesh was still rocked into a slight stagger by the powerful shot.
This insignificant obstruction completely ignited the Hero King's fury. He whipped around, his scarlet snake-like eyes sweeping toward the arrow's source like searchlights!
Atop a ruined high-rise in the distance stood a white-haired figure in the night wind.
He wore a peculiar tight-fitting outfit woven from red and black, with armor resembling mechanical armguards covering both arms. In his hands was a strangely shaped longbow made of neither metal nor wood.
His white hair stirred slightly in the currents roiling with magecraft. His dark-red eyes, cold as jewels, were fixed firmly on the golden figure in the air.
"Mongrel! You seek death!!" Gilgamesh bellowed. The golden ripples of his Gate of Babylon boiled instantly behind him, and dozens of golden beams were about to shoot toward the White-Haired Archer!
But in the next second—
"What?!" Gilgamesh's movements abruptly froze! He suddenly sensed something was wrong and turned lightning-fast toward Artoria's location!
Where was the King Arthur who had been in the crater?!
Emiya Shirou, a youth who looked no more than an insect in his eyes, was gritting his teeth as he carried the unconscious, gravely wounded Artoria on his back and staggered desperately toward the edge of the battlefield!
Artoria's golden hair hung limply. Blood dripped constantly down Shirou's collar, forming a thin red line.
"Bastard!!" The feeling of having been toyed with made Gilgamesh's reason evaporate instantly! Pure fury burned in his golden pupils!
The light of his Gate of Babylon blazed to its utmost. He was about to turn its aim and blast the two insects who dared flee right under his nose, along with the ruins around them, into dust!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
At the instant Gilgamesh became distracted and shifted his magecraft lock, several gemstones that had long since been secretly planted around the ground where Artoria and Shirou had just been—glowing with dense magecraft like tiny bombs set ablaze—exploded violently!
Blazing white, crimson, deep blue... Magecraft flames of different attributes shot out, intertwined, and collided in extremely cunning angles and sequences!
They formed an instantly erupting, chaotic, and lethal wall of magecraft! The powerful shock wave mixed with the turbulent flows of different attributes, sweeping across Gilgamesh's inevitable path of pursuit like a raging beast!
The light and smoke from the explosions instantly obscured the area. The violent magecraft turbulence also briefly disrupted the stability of space and Gilgamesh's sensory lock!
"Cunning rat!!!" Gilgamesh's figure was forcibly stopped in midair by the sudden explosion of Jewel Magecraft!
He stared at the area shrouded in the chaotic magecraft storm and smoke, listening to the increasingly distant, stumbling footsteps of Emiya Shirou carrying Artoria away. His proud face twisted with extreme fury!
"Tohsaka Family? What a bunch of worthless trash." Gilgamesh stared at the explosion site where the magecraft turbulence had yet to fully subside. His voice was cold enough to freeze, filled with rage that was almost tangible.
The air grew even thicker under the weight of his emotions.
As the smoke slowly settled, Kotomine Kirei silently stepped from the shadows nearby like a ghost, his black clerical robes utterly unmoving against the backdrop of rubble and ruins.
His expression was as calm as still water. "Archer, focus on the objective." His gaze swept over Gilgamesh as if reminding a disrespectful tool of its purpose.
"Yes, yes, I know," Gilgamesh said impatiently, waving his hand. His scarlet eyes remained fixed on the direction in which Emiya Shirou had disappeared, and he curled his lips. "It's just that my game was interrupted. It's truly irritating."
A sinister, delighted smile quietly appeared on Kotomine Kirei's face. "Relax. The final victor will be us."
At the edge of the battlefield, heavy panting drowned out everything else.
Emiya Shirou carried Artoria on his back, staggering with every step over rubble and cracks.
He could clearly feel the warmth and bloody smell coming from the body on his back. It kept him from relaxing even slightly. His lungs burned painfully, his magecraft circuits had gone numb, and only his instinct to survive drove his legs onward.
Although Gilgamesh's golden figure had been separated by the explosion, the invisible pressure clung to him like a parasite in his bones, making his scalp prickle.
"Huff... huff... Saber, hold on..." he panted, his voice hoarse.
Artoria gave no response from his back. Only her faint breathing proved that she was still alive.
Suddenly, a white figure stood silently in the shadows of a ruined wall ahead.
The tight-fitting outfit woven from red and black outlined a lean, powerful frame. His arms, wrapped in mechanical armor, hung naturally at his sides, and the strangely shaped bow had already been put away.
His white hair stirred in the night wind, while his dark-red eyes, cold as searchlights, fell upon Emiya Shirou and Saber on his back.
Emiya Shirou's pupils contracted. Almost instinctively, he stopped, his body swaying violently from the sudden halt.
He quickly and carefully placed the unconscious Artoria onto a relatively flat stone nearby. Ignoring his exhausted, aching body, he forced himself into a defensive stance at once, fists clenched and eyes fixed on the White-Haired Youth radiating a powerful presence and oppressive force!
It was him! The one who had fired that Black Arrow! Friend or foe?
Just as Emiya Shirou's nerves tightened to their limit, a familiar yet slightly hurried female voice came from behind the White-Haired Youth:
"Shirou, it's me."
Tohsaka Rin quickly emerged from the shadows behind Archer.
Her signature red coat remained conspicuous even in the dim surroundings. Her icy-blue eyes swept over the battered Shirou and the gravely wounded Saber on the ground. Her brows knitted together, but her gaze remained sharp.
"Rin?! You saved us?!" When Emiya Shirou recognized her, his tense body abruptly relaxed. The immense exhaustion and shock of surviving the ordeal nearly made him collapse, and his voice was filled with surprise and gratitude.
"Mm." Rin wasted no words and immediately ordered the Archer beside her, "Archer, carry Saber."
Archer, dressed in the red-and-black outfit, did not hesitate. His movements were swift and silent.
He walked to the stone and carefully lifted the unconscious Artoria onto his back with steady movements. The entire process was smooth and silent, displaying an extremely high level of discipline.
Rin rapidly surveyed the surrounding devastation and the space disrupted by the magecraft storm, her expression grave.
"This isn't the place to talk. Let's leave first." Her voice was firm and decisive, without the slightest hesitation. "Archer, cover our retreat. Shirou, follow me!"
Rin quickly led Shirou and Archer, carrying Saber, through several twists and turns into an inconspicuous abandoned cottage.
Dust and stale air filled the room, but it was still mostly intact. Rin quickly cleared a small area and gestured for Archer to carefully lay the unconscious Artoria down.
Without wasting any words, Rin immediately began treatment. She carefully undid the damaged armored skirt, exposing the mangled wounds beneath.
Several precious gemstones turned to powder at her fingertips. Pure magecraft flowed into Saber's wounds, deep enough to expose bone, forcibly stopping the bleeding and dispelling the violent traces of magecraft clinging to them.
The process continued for a long time. Fine beads of sweat appeared on Rin's forehead, and her face grew somewhat pale.
At last, she let out a long breath, used the cleanest strips of cloth she could find to bandage the wounds simply, then pulled an old quilt over Artoria and gently covered her.
Before you continue