Invincible Me Only Wants to Slack Off

"Who?!" The three of them snapped into combat stance in an instant.

Rin's heart shuddered—the gem magic traps she had set for perimeter warning hadn't triggered at all!

Against the blinding morning light outside the door, a tall, upright figure stood at the entrance.

The newcomer held a Neon Sword.

He wore a well-tailored black suit vest and white shirt underneath, a black tie perfectly in place.

Over that, he draped a long, deep-blue trench coat, its hem swaying slightly in the morning breeze.

He stood against the light, his face hidden in shadow, only a pair of piercing eyes fixed on the people inside the room.

"Miss Tohsaka, relax." A slightly husky but cold voice rang out—it was Chen Tian. "I'm here."

He stepped into the small house, his eyes, as if they could see through everything, swept across the corner and landed on the unconscious Artoria. His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

Then, his gaze, tinged with mockery, turned to the tense-faced Emiya Shirou.

"You're her Master, right?" Chen Tian's voice carried undisguised contempt. "Pathetically weak."

Those words seared into Shirou's heart like a red-hot iron.

He clenched his fists so hard his knuckles went white, rage surging to his head in an instant.

Yes, it was his own incompetence that had made Saber face that monster alone, leaving her so gravely wounded!

This blunt accusation struck straight at his deepest wound!

Chen Tian seemed utterly indifferent to Shirou's reaction, his gaze shifting to the vivid red Command Seal on the back of his hand, an eyebrow lifting slightly.

"In that case," he said, his tone as flat as if discussing a gift exchange, "hand her over to me. How about it?"

Those words exploded like thunder in the cramped space!

Rin's mind went blank with a buzz.

What did that mean? Saber was Shirou's Servant, a key piece of the entire plan!

Hadn't he agreed to help? Did he intend to... seize the Command Seal?!

Emiya Shirou and Archer's faces turned grim in an instant, their bodies on full alert, magical energy surging.

In that suffocating, tense moment—

"Mm..." A faint groan came.

Artoria, lying on the ground, her eyelashes fluttering, forced her eyes open at this most oppressive moment.

Her pale face was slick with cold sweat, her emerald eyes burning with pain and fury. She struggled to push herself up, golden strands of hair plastered messily to her forehead.

"How dare you, insolent fool!" She mustered her breath, her voice weak but carrying a king's authority, ready to harshly rebuke this one who dared covet her Master contract.

But when her focused vision finally sharpened on Chen Tian's face, looking down at her with a hint of amusement, Artoria froze completely.

Chen Tian watched the stunned Artoria, a playful smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "Recognize me?"

Artoria's emerald pupils contracted violently, staring at the face that had shed its boyish youth, now far more deep and dangerous. Her voice squeezed out in disbelief, "You... that little brat?"

"Mm." Chen Tian nodded bluntly, his smile deepening. "Twelve years ago, the little brat who accidentally touched your scabbard in an abandoned shack and awakened you."

Artoria's mind exploded in an instant!

Twelve years ago... an abandoned wooden shack... the golden scabbard (Avalon) Kiritsugu had carefully hidden...

Memory fragments pieced together like lightning:

A cold, dark shack, dust hanging in the air. A six- or seven-year-old boy, like a small beast straying into forbidden ground, touched the dusty scabbard out of curiosity.

In that instant, the scabbard glowed faintly gold, and the sleeping Heroic Spirit was jolted awake by the surge of magical energy.

She remembered the initial confusion in those suddenly opened eyes, followed by a child's immense terror at the unknown being before him.

He fell to the ground, his face pale, but he didn't scream or run—just stared at her, a vague spiritual form manifesting.

At the time, she thought... a new contract was about to be formed?

But then, a wave of crushing disappointment washed over her.

This child... his body was hollow, without a single magical circuit! He couldn't possibly become a Master! Just an ordinary person who stumbled in by accident!

She never knew how this child had awakened her without any magic.

That brief awakening was like an illusion; her power spent, she sank back into slumber.

Later, Kiritsugu found the place, took the scabbard, and implanted it into Emiya Shirou's body... That was how her later bond with the Emiya family came to be.

She never imagined!

That fragile, magicless ordinary little boy, who had been so terrified by her mere existence that he fell to the ground back then...

Now stood before her again, in such a formidable, such... unsettling form!

Chen Tian lifted his chin slightly, his tone carrying a domineering declaration. "Twelve years ago, you should have been mine."

His gaze swept over Artoria, then past her to the Command Seal on Emiya Shirou's hand. "Now, it's time to come back."

"What?!" Rin blurted out in shock.

Shirou's expression shifted dramatically as he instinctively shielded the back of his hand.

Archer's gaze was as sharp as an eagle's.

Aside from Artoria, the other three had no idea what this sudden declaration meant.

Just as Rin was about to press for an answer—

Chen Tian suddenly tilted his head slightly, his eyes turning razor-sharp in an instant. "They're here."

No one understood.

The next second, Chen Tian drew his blade in a flash! The long, narrow Enma Sword slid from its sheath in one fluid motion. Without any wasted movement, without even turning to confirm his target, he slashed diagonally at the empty air beside him with blinding speed!

"Woom—!"

A piercing screech tore through the air! An invisible, razor-sharp blade aura erupted in an instant!

The deafening roar shook the heavens!

The entire rundown shack they were in seemed to have been split open from within by an invisible giant wielding a colossal blade!

Walls and ceiling shattered in an instant, wood splinters and stone fragments blasting outward like cannonballs!

And in that torn "air," several golden Noble Phantasms that had just ripped through space and shot toward them collided head-on with the blade aura!

Clang! Clang! Crack!

A harsh metallic shriek exploded! Those Noble Phantasms, brimming with powerful magical energy, shattered like fragile glass under the fierce blade aura, snapping apart and dissolving into golden motes of light!

Amid the swirling dust and debris, the shack was completely gone.

Rin, Shirou, and Archer were shaken by the sudden upheaval, barely managing to shield their faces as Raging Waves surged in their hearts—one single slash had cleaved through the shack and shattered the Hero King's Noble Phantasms!

The dust began to settle, the view opening up.

In the distant sky, a golden figure hovered.

Gilgamesh's crimson eyes looked down at the disheveled group below, a smug grin stretching across his face as golden ripples spread behind him in layers:

"Found you, mongrels."

"Mongrels? Hah, how arrogant." Chen Tian, standing sideways to the golden figure in the sky, let out a sneer.

That sneer pierced Gilgamesh's ears with unmistakable clarity.

His serpentine red eyes locked onto the blade-wielding figure below, his grin widening with a mix of surprise and mockery: "Oh? A new mongrel? Was it you who cleaved through This King's Noble Phantasms? Not bad!"

Chen Tian didn't respond to Gilgamesh's "praise." He simply turned his body fully to face the Hero King.

At the same time, he tilted his head slightly and spoke to Rin and the others, still shrouded in the shack's wreckage and dust, his tone calm but brooking no argument.

"Leave?" Gilgamesh laughed as if he'd heard the greatest joke, the golden ripples behind him expanding wildly like a boiling sea of gold.

"Who allowed you to leave?! Mongrels, all of you die here!"

A piercing metallic hum tore through the air! The Gate of Babylon erupted in full fury!

No longer a few probing strikes, but hundreds, thousands!

Countless golden Noble Phantasms of every shape and form surged forth like a dam-breaking flood, blazing with destructive magical light, shooting out from the countless golden ripples!

Their target—the entire area where everyone below stood!

A golden rain of annihilation, pouring down!

Facing this violent assault that could level the earth, Chen Tian merely bent his knees slightly, lowering his center of gravity.

His left thumb gently pushed the tsuba, and the Enma Sword's blade, flowing with a faint blue glow, slid silently an inch from its sheath.

No earth-shattering aura erupted, only a simple, ultimate iai stance.

Just as the golden torrent was about to engulf everything—

A crisp blade cry suddenly rang out! It was as if all the sharpness in heaven and earth had been forcibly gathered and torn apart at that moment!

Then, something happened that froze everyone's minds—

The world suddenly blazed with light!

Thousands! Tens of thousands!

Countless crisscrossing azure blade lights appeared out of thin air!

They weren't physical; they were more like the purest will to cut, condensed to its limit!

Their speed surpassed the limits of sight, as if space itself had been sliced into countless fragments in an instant!

Shiiing—!!!

A dense, hair-raising sound of cutting erupted like a billion cicadas screaming at once!

The golden torrent of Noble Phantasms, filled with terrifying magical energy, was as fragile as rotten wood and withered branches before this net of azure light formed from pure blade intent!

Snapping! Shattering! Annihilating!

Where the blade light passed, whether it was the Noble Phantasms themselves or the magical radiance wrapped around them, they were cleaved and severed without resistance, like rotten wood split by an invisible giant blade!

The shattered fragments of the Noble Phantasms, along with the dissipating torrents of magical energy, fell like a dismembered golden rain, turning into countless motes of powder and light, weakly drifting down!

One moment, there was an earth-shattering attack; the next, only scattered magical residue and broken fragments of Noble Phantasms drifted through the air.

Above the ruins, only the lingering echo of a blade's hum and the clatter of Noble Phantasm shards hitting the ground remained.

Rin, Shirou, Archer, and even Artoria, who had just woken up and struggled to prop herself up, all had their pupils violently constrict. They stood frozen, their minds blank.

Just one iai slash...

Had annihilated... the Hero King's... rain of Noble Phantasms?!

A deathly silence enveloped the ruins.

Everyone was still immersed in the shock of Chen Tian's unbelievable slash.

Just as Gilgamesh's crimson serpentine eyes narrowed slightly at the instant obliteration of his torrent of Noble Phantasms, and the arrogant smirk on his face froze for the first time—

Without any warning, a cold shadow abruptly enveloped Gilgamesh's entire body, dimming even his dazzling golden light by a few shades.

He jerked his head up!

Chen Tian had somehow already silently floated in the air directly above him! The hem of his deep blue trench coat flapped noisily in the air currents. He lowered his head, his expression as cold as carved ice.

Those eyes were no longer the gentle affection he showed Marin, nor the playful scrutiny he gave Rin and the others. Instead, they held a pure, abyssal indifference, a disdain that looked down upon all living things.

He gazed down at the Golden King looking up from below, his stare like that of someone regarding a trivial, disposable toy.

Then, Chen Tian spoke.

His voice wasn't loud, but it cut through the air clearly, carrying an arrogance a hundred times deeper than Gilgamesh's, one that seeped into the bone, crashing into everyone's ears:

"Amuse me, mongrel."

Chapter 38: The Golden Rain

"Amuse me, mongrel." Chen Tian's voice echoed over the ruins, carrying an arrogance that could freeze all things.