Golden Rain

"Who?!" The three instantly went on guard!

Rin was even more shaken. The Jewel Magecraft traps she had set around the area hadn't reacted at all!

Against the dazzling morning light outside the door, a tall figure stood in the doorway.

The newcomer held a Neon Sword.

He wore a finely tailored black suit vest and a white shirt, with a black tie fastidiously knotted.

A long, dark blue trench coat hung over them, its hem fluttering slightly in the morning breeze.

He stood backlit, his face hidden in shadow. Only his pair of soul-piercing eyes could be seen, fixed on the people inside.

"Miss Tohsaka, relax." A slightly husky voice, devoid of warmth, rang out. It was Chen Tian. "I'm here."

He stepped into the cabin. His eyes, as if able to see through everything, swept over the corners before settling on the unconscious Artoria. His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

Then his slightly mocking gaze turned to Emiya Shirou, whose face was tense.

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

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

He clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white, and fury surged through him.

It was true. He was useless. He'd left Saber to face that monster alone, and she'd ended up so badly wounded!

The blunt accusation struck his deepest pain.

Chen Tian didn't seem to care about Shirou's reaction. His gaze fell on the vivid red Command Seal on the back of Shirou's hand, and he raised an eyebrow slightly.

"In that case," he said, as casually as if discussing an exchange of gifts, "how about handing her over to me?"

His words exploded through the cramped space like a thunderclap!

Rin's mind buzzed, going blank.

What did he mean? Saber was Shirou's Servant, one of the key combatants in their entire plan!

Hadn't he agreed to help them? Did he intend to... take the Command Seals?!

Emiya Shirou and Archer's expressions instantly darkened. They tensed, ready for a fight, as their magical energy surged.

At that suffocating moment, when the air was thick with tension—

"Mm..." A faint groan sounded.

Artoria's eyelashes trembled as she lay on the ground. Against all odds, she forced her eyes open at the most oppressive moment.

Cold sweat covered her pale face. Her emerald eyes blazed with pain and anger. She struggled to push herself up, golden hair in disarray against her forehead.

"Impudent scoundrel!" She forced out a breath. Her voice was weak, yet carried a king's authority. She was about to rebuke the man who dared reach for her Master's contract.

But when her unfocused gaze finally sharpened on Chen Tian's face, looking down at her with a trace of amusement, Artoria froze.

Chen Tian looked at the stunned, frozen Artoria and curled his lips in a playful smile. "Recognize me?"

Artoria's emerald pupils contracted sharply. She stared at the face that had shed its boyish innocence and now seemed all the more somber and dangerous. An incredulous sound escaped her throat. "You... that little boy?"

"Mm." Chen Tian nodded readily, his smile deepening. "Twelve years ago, I accidentally touched your scabbard in an abandoned cabin and awakened you... I was that little boy."

Artoria's mind erupted!

Twelve years ago... an abandoned wooden cabin... the Golden Scabbard (Avalon) that Kiritsugu had hidden so carefully...

Fragments of memory snapped together like lightning:

A cold, dark cabin, thick with dust. A six- or seven-year-old boy, like a curious little beast that had wandered into forbidden territory, touched the dusty scabbard.

In an instant, a faint golden light flickered from it. The stirring of magical energy awakened the sleeping Heroic Spirit.

She remembered the confusion in those eyes when they suddenly opened, followed by the overwhelming terror of a child confronted by the unknown.

He fell onto the floor, his little face pale, but he didn't scream or run away. He only stared fixedly at her indistinct spiritual form.

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

But then, immense disappointment had swallowed her.

The child... was empty inside, without even a trace of magical circuits! He couldn't become a Master at all! He was just an ordinary person without magic who'd wandered in by accident!

She hadn't even known how the child had awakened her without any magic.

That brief awakening had been like an illusion. Her strength exhausted, she had fallen asleep again.

Later, Kiritsugu had found the place, taken the scabbard, and implanted it inside Emiya Shirou... That was how her connection with the Emiya family in later years had begun.

She never could have imagined it!

That frail, magicless ordinary boy who had once been so frightened by her presence that he'd fallen to the floor...

Now stood before her again, so powerful, so... unnerving!

Chen Tian lifted his chin slightly, his tone a domineering declaration. "You should have been mine twelve years ago."

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

"What?!" Rin blurted out in shock.

Shirou's expression changed dramatically. He instinctively shielded the back of his hand.

Archer's gaze sharpened like an eagle's.

Except for Artoria, none of the three had any idea what this sudden declaration meant.

Just as Rin was about to ask—

Chen Tian suddenly tilted his head slightly, his gaze turning sharp as a blade. "They're here."

Everyone else was at a loss.

The next second, Chen Tian suddenly drew his sword! The long, narrow blade of the Enma Sword slid from its sheath. He made no unnecessary movement, didn't even look back to check. He simply slashed diagonally at the air ahead of him.

"Vmmm—!"

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

A deafening crash shook the area!

The entire abandoned cabin around them seemed to have been cleaved from within by a giant wielding an enormous blade!

The walls and roof splintered apart at once, sending wood chips and rocks flying outward like cannonballs!

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

Clang! Clang! Crack!

The piercing sound of metal shattering exploded! The Noble Phantasms, imbued with powerful magical energy, were cleaved apart by the fierce blade aura like fragile glass, breaking into sparks of golden magical light!

Amid the clouds of dust and flying chunks of wood, the cabin vanished completely.

Rin, Shirou, and Archer were rocked by the sudden upheaval. They struggled to stay upright and shield their faces, their hearts surging with shock. With a single slash, he had cleaved apart the cabin—and shattered the Hero King's Noble Phantasms!

As the dust thinned, the view opened up.

A golden figure hovered in the distant sky.

Gilgamesh looked down at the disheveled group below with crimson eyes, his mouth curling into an utterly arrogant grin as golden ripples spread out behind him.

"Found you, mongrels."

"Mongrels? Hah. How arrogant." Chen Tian stood half-turned toward the golden figure in the sky and sneered.

His sneer rang clearly in Gilgamesh's ears.

Those crimson, serpent-like eyes instantly locked onto the figure below, sword in hand. His grin grew even more brazen, tinged with surprise and amusement. "Oh? A new mongrel? Were you the one who split my Noble Phantasms just now? Not bad!"

Chen Tian didn't respond to Gilgamesh's "praise." He merely turned to face the Hero King completely.

Then he tilted his head slightly toward Rin and the others behind him, obscured by the cabin's ruins and clouds of dust. His voice was calm but left no room for argument.

"Leave?" Gilgamesh seemed to have heard the biggest joke of his life. The golden ripples behind him expanded wildly, like a boiling golden ocean.

"Who said you could leave?! Mongrels, you're all going to die here!"

The piercing metallic hum tore through the air! The Gate of Babylon boiled over!

This time, it wasn't just a few tentative shots. There were hundreds, thousands!

Countless golden Noble Phantasms of all shapes and sizes surged out of the golden ripples overhead, each wreathed in destructive magical flames!

Their target was the entire area where the group stood below!

A golden rain of destruction poured down!

Facing this frenzied attack, powerful enough to scour the earth flat, Chen Tian merely bent his knees slightly and lowered his center of gravity.

His left thumb nudged the sword guard. The Enma Sword, its blade flowing with a faint blue glow, slid an inch from its sheath without a sound.

No earthshaking aura erupted—only the simplest, most refined opening stance for an iaido strike.

Just as the golden torrent was about to engulf everything—

A clear sword ring suddenly rang out! It was as if every sharp edge in heaven and earth had been forcibly gathered and unleashed at once!

Then, something happened that left everyone's thoughts frozen—

The world suddenly lit up!

Thousands upon thousands! Countless streaks!

Crisscrossing blue sword lights appeared out of thin air!

They weren't physical objects so much as pure cutting intent, condensed to its absolute limit!

They moved faster than the eye could follow, as if space itself had been instantly sliced into countless fragments!

Shhk-shhk-shhk-shhk—!!!

A dense, skin-crawling chorus of cuts erupted, like billions of cicadas shrilling at once!

The torrent of golden Noble Phantasms, pouring down with terrifying magical power, was as brittle as deadwood before this web of blue light, woven from pure sword intent!

They snapped! Shattered! Vanished!

Wherever the sword lights passed, the Noble Phantasms and the magical radiance wrapped around them were cleaved apart without resistance, like rotten wood struck by an invisible giant blade!

The fragments of the shattered Noble Phantasms and the immense, dissipating magical power were instantly torn apart, becoming a rain of golden dust that drifted helplessly to the ground!

One moment, it was an attack capable of destroying heaven and earth. The next, all that remained was a shower of magical residue and broken Noble Phantasm fragments.

Above the ruins, only the fading ring of the sword and the clatter of falling fragments remained.

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

A single iaido slash...

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

Silence descended over the ruins.

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

Just as Gilgamesh's crimson, serpent-like eyes narrowed slightly at the instant his torrent of Noble Phantasms had been annihilated, and the arrogant curve of his lips finally stiffened for the first time—

Without warning, a cold shadow suddenly covered Gilgamesh from head to toe, dimming even his dazzling golden light.

He looked up sharply!

Chen Tian had somehow appeared, hovering silently high above him! The hem of his dark blue trench coat snapped in the wind. He looked down, his expression as cold as carved ice.

His eyes held none of the tenderness and doting he showed Marin, nor the playful scrutiny he showed Rin and the others. Instead, they carried an indifference colder than the Abyss, pure and contemptuous of all living things.

He looked down at the Golden King below, who had raised his head to stare up at him, as if he were nothing more than a plaything.

Then Chen Tian spoke.

His voice wasn't loud, yet it pierced the air clearly, carrying an arrogance a hundred times deeper than Gilgamesh's, one that burrowed into the bone and hammered into everyone's ears:

"Entertain me, mongrel."

"Entertain me, mongrel." Chen Tian's voice echoed above the ruins, his arrogance cold enough to freeze all things.

(In Japanese, 'mongrel' means 'bastard.' I feel like calling him 'bastard' has more impact.)