As Lilith prepared to charge her second Noble Phantasm, a slash descended from the sky and cut through the center of the battlefield.
Like the boundary between Chu and Han, a deep trench separated the two sides.
Through the smoke, they could just make out the source of the slash: a figure holding a sword, slowly approaching.
Neither side had expected this sudden attack. Faced with an unforeseen development, everyone tightened their grip on their weapons.
To strangers, that attack heralded a formidable enemy. To those who recognized it, it brought tears to their eyes.
Had she not been standing in the middle of a battlefield, Ayaka would have tossed aside her shield and hurled herself into that figure's arms.
Ishtar remained still, maintaining her dignity as a goddess, but inwardly she was frantically banging her head. Idiot, idiot, idiot! You're finally back! Any later and I wouldn't have been able to hold on!
But some innocent souls had no regard for the atmosphere. A figure from New Chaldea's ranks ran toward the newcomer without the slightest concern for appearances, then leaped into his embrace.
The man in the smoke was, of course, Yuan Shikai, and the girl who threw herself into his arms was Tsubaki Kuruoka, only thirteen and a half years old.
After the previous Holy Grail War ended, she had successfully joined Waver's classroom and become a disciple of the Lightning Dharma King, the Lightning Five-Strike Whip, and Waver, earning a reputation as the Clock Tower's youngest rising star.
After the earth was bleached, the conflict between New and Old Chaldea began. Claiming to be Yuan Shikai's fiancée, she had firmly sided with her future sister-in-law.
His dashing entrance had been ruined by a little girl, and the worst part was that he could not shake her