Earth, Romania. In this land where countless legends had unfolded, a new legend was taking shape.
Ten thousand meters above the ground, the Hanging Gardens—hailed by humanity as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World—had appeared in the modern era just as the legends described, becoming a true fortress in the sky.
Only, this fortress was now in ruins. Its surface resembled a city just bombarded by countless shells, with not a single building left intact.
Yet in a hall at its very center, a black-haired man was fighting a final battle against a Heroic Spirit named Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, with the Holy Grail he had just taken from Château de Nrvänsky as the prize.
The black-haired man was bare-chested, wielding the Holy Sword Balmung. Green lightning coiled around him, while the Star Emblem on his chest and abdomen shone a brilliant blue. He raced at high speed along the walls of the circular hall, sending bolts of lightning crashing toward his opponent.
However, his face was unnaturally flushed and his lips had turned purple. The signs of poisoning were unmistakable.
Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, meanwhile, wielded a katana in his right hand and a Black Key in his left. He wore a long priest's robe heavily decorated with crosses and chains, clearly having unleashed all of his abilities as well.
At that moment, relying on the "Mind's Eye (True)" and "Mind's Eye (False)" abilities granted by his Noble Phantasms in both wrists, he kept dodging and swinging his weapons, slashing out blades of magical energy to counter the lightning striking from all directions. As he did, he spoke slowly.
"Mr. Dan Lei, I thought that as Aozaki Touko's apprentice, you'd be better at puppetry and Rune Magic. I didn't expect you to be so skilled in hand-to-hand combat, too."
Amakusa Shirou Tokisada was trying to stall for time with conversation. This man had killed the Master of the Assassin of Black in the Eastern Land, stolen that Master's Command Spells, and joined this Holy Grail War. Just moments ago, he and the famous poisoner of Ancient Rome, Rochomsta, who had descended in the Assassin class, had worked together to poison Semiramis unconscious. Even the Command Spells couldn't wake her.
But he had clearly been poisoned by Semiramis as well. Amakusa didn't know what method the man had used to last this long after being poisoned, but time was on his side.
His Servant's combat ability was poor in a head-on fight. Though her skill with poison was unmatched, she was no threat as long as he didn't let her get close.
However, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada hadn't realized that while he was trying to stall for time, Dan Lei was doing the same.
As a transmigrator, Dan Lei felt he had done everything he could in this Holy Grail War.
By then, he had used up all the Command Spells on his hand.
He had used the first Command Spell to perform Replacement Magic beyond his own abilities, swapping his own heart with Siegfried's heart inside Cyborg Sieg. This had overcome the weakness of his own Magic Circuits and given him magical energy on a level close to that of the Divine Heroes.
As a master of Replacement Magic, Dan Lei could also use the heart as a medium to temporarily replace his own strength with Siegfried's. That was how he had acquired the Holy Sword Balmung and the Star Emblem on his body.
With the second Command Spell, Dan Lei had replaced out the core of the dead Berserker of Black, Frankenstein. In this Type-Moon World, which he had interfered with, Frankenstein had died because of his schemes. Before killing her, Dan Lei had used Replacement Magic, offering up a Command Spell in exchange for Frankenstein's core, which could only be used once and would vanish once its energy was spent.
The green lightning coiling around Dan Lei now was the power of that core.
With his final Command Spell, Dan Lei had forced his Servant Rochomsta to use her EX Noble Phantasm, normally usable only against Nero: [Farewell, My Beloved Emperor].
She had used the super-poison she had spent her entire life making, pouring all her strength into it just once, and stored in a little golden box. It had forcibly poisoned Semiramis, who possessed the King Trait, to death.
The only thing to say was that an EX Noble Phantasm that could target only one specific person could reject all outside interference and accomplish its goal.
If Nero had truly been there at that moment, even in her Beast Nero form, she would have had to die once.
Semiramis had been utterly unable to resist. The Noble Phantasm's power had held her in place before Rochomsta, who had fed her the poison and granted her a peaceful death.
She would quietly let her life flame die in her sleep. This left time for the battle ahead, preventing the Hanging Gardens from collapsing right away, and removed the final obstacle before they could defeat the final boss.
As an aside, the catalyst Dan Lei had used to summon Rochomsta was the little golden box containing the poison. That was why the Noble Phantasm could be activated.
Truthfully, Dan Lei had forced Rochomsta to feed Semiramis a poison that wasn't meant for her, and his Servant was very unhappy about it.
But their partnership had begun when Dan Lei signed a Self-Binding Contract against himself, so Rochomsta didn't rebel against him over it.
Still, by the time he had passed through the room where Semiramis was and used the Command Spell, Dan Lei had already been poisoned. He could still move, and was even rather energized, because Rochomsta, an expert in poisons, had used her A+ rank poison-making skill to concoct two poisons that counteracted each other. That kept Dan Lei from succumbing to the poison right away.
But once the medicine wore off, he'd be lucky if all that remained of him was a puddle of blood.
So Dan Lei had to end this quickly, too. By "stalling for time," he really meant distracting Amakusa Shirou Tokisada so he wouldn't notice Dan Lei using lightning to draw a Rune Array on the floor of the hall.
After sending down several more bolts of lightning, Dan Lei suddenly rushed in close and launched a fierce attack. Using the True Ether in the Holy Sword Balmung, he swung an Ether Sword Qi slash that carved another gash into the floor. As he forced Amakusa Shirou Tokisada back, he said,
"You said it yourself: I'm only an apprentice. According to Aoko, my Magic Circuits are terrible, and the only Magecraft talent I have is Replacement Magic. All I've got besides that are patience and shamelessness.
"Anyway, Aoko outright refused to be my teacher and wouldn't let me claim in public that I was her apprentice.
"She was willing to let me stay on as an apprentice and teach me some Magecraft for self-defense only because I'm pretty good at Chinese cooking.
"As for hand-to-hand combat, haven't you heard that all Chinese people know Martial Arts?"
After being forced back, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada could only grumble to himself. He had merely been making polite conversation. Dan Lei's hand-to-hand combat skills were mediocre at best; he was simply relying on Siegfried and Frankenstein's power to give himself at least B+ rank strength and speed.
Still, the fastest one wins in the martial world. Amakusa Shirou Tokisada knew his own strength had been forcibly unlocked with a Command Spell, and that his strength and speed were far below his opponent's. On top of that, his opponent's attacks were imbued with lightning, making close combat unfavorable.
So he raised his Black Key, preparing to keep Dan Lei at bay with a ranged throw.
But the moment Amakusa Shirou Tokisada raised the Black Key, Dan Lei smiled and said,
"Are you sure that's a good idea? My magical energy was mixed into the Ether I swung just now."
Amakusa Shirou Tokisada felt a chill run down his spine. He immediately dropped the Black Key before he could even raise it fully, covered his nose, and leaped back.
Almost the instant Amakusa Shirou Tokisada let go, the Black Key was replaced with a bottle of poison. It hit the floor and splashed poison mist everywhere.
Watching this, Dan Lei plunged the Holy Sword Balmung into the ground and grinned savagely.
"What a shame. This poison was carefully prepared by Rochomsta. It's precious.
"But that was the last stroke. The battle is over."
With that, Dan Lei began to draw out all the magical energy in his heart, mixing it with the True Ether emanating from the Holy Sword Balmung and pouring it into the stone floor beneath his feet.
Semiramis was already asleep, waiting to die. No one could stop the Rune Array from activating.
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