Heracles.
" Greece's most renowned hero."
"To defeat you, I need to use my strongest attack."
Karna released his grip on the spear with his left hand.
He began to chant.
At the same time, Karna's golden armor began to peel off.
Golden armor plates fell off his shoulders, chest, and arms piece by piece, turning into tiny specks of light in the air and dissipating in the night wind.
That was his greatest defensive measure: the Shemesh Armor.
He abandoned all defenses.
All for this one strike.
"As the most formidable rival in my second life, I deliver this strike with the utmost respect."
Karna's voice was calm and solemn.
The golden armor had completely vanished, leaving only the skin and black undergarment exposed to the air.
Having lost his Shemesh Armor, Karna's defensive capabilities have plummeted to their lowest point ever.
"Comprehend the Mercy of the King of Gods."
The world is starting to change.
The earth's surface, spanning tens of kilometers, began to melt.
The soil turned into a dark red liquid, the rocks softened and deformed under the high temperature, and the grass and trees turned to ash the moment they came into contact with the air.
Even before his Noble Phantasm was fully unleashed, the solar-attribute magical power leaking from his body had already ravaged the surrounding landscape.
It looked like it had just been plowed up by Anti-Army Noble Phantasm.
"Annihilation will be achieved with this one strike."
Karna's golden spear began to transform.
The golden sheen on the gun's surface faded, replaced by a deep, almost inky, dark blue.
Dark blue energy condensed at the gunhead, forming a triangular structure similar to the shape of a cannon barrel.
Terrifying magic is compressed, rotated, and accumulated within this triangular structure.
"Burn completely!"
" Shemesh, submit to death!!"
Heracles sensed it.
It felt like standing right in front of a Taiga about to burst its banks, knowing you'd be swallowed up by the flood in the next second.
A threat of lethal magnitude.
His intuition was frantically warning him that if he were hit head-on by this attack, even losing multiple lives might not be enough to withstand it.
Some of the power must be neutralized first.
Heracles released his grip.
The axe and sword slipped from his palm, disintegrated in mid-air, and vanished as specks of light.
Instead, a longbow was used.
A simple, unadorned wooden longbow.
It was the very bow that Heracles used to kill the Nine-Headed Serpent Hydra.
Heracles drew the bowstring taut.
Magic surged from his entire body to the bowstring, and an arrow formed from pure destructive power took shape on the bowstring.
Nine Lives; in bow form.
Nine arrows were simultaneously stacked on the bowstring, each containing enough destructive power to kill a giant Phantasmal Species.
With the added boost from Mukuro Hoshimiya's "Release," the power of this attack, in terms of Noble Phantasm level, is at least A++ or higher.
The two demigod heroes unleashed their full power simultaneously.
Karna's spear tip was aimed at Heracles's chest.
Heracles aimed his arrow at Karna's forehead.
Time seemed to stand still for a moment.
Then release them simultaneously.
A crimson lightning beam, representing absolute destruction, erupted from the tip of Karna's spear.
A destructive torrent, over a hundred meters wide, tore through the air, breaking down everything in its path into its most basic particles.
Nine arrows were fired simultaneously from Heracles ' bowstring, converging in the air to form a golden spiral of light that met the red torrent of destruction.
collision.
The sound disappeared.
The sound waves generated by such a massive energy collision have exceeded the limits of what air can transmit.
The ground within a radius of tens of kilometers collapsed directly under the shock wave generated at the point of impact, forming a huge crater with a diameter of over 10,000 meters.
The golden spiral of light lasted only two seconds before the red torrent of destruction.
Then it was swallowed up.
O Shemesh, submitting to death, you have triumphed with overwhelming power.
After absorbing the remaining energy of the nine arrows, the red beam continued forward, striking Heracles ' body without hindrance.
Heracles's field of vision was filled with red.
The first life was consumed the instant the beam made contact.
resurrection.
The reconstituted body was engulfed by the beam of light again in the next millisecond.
A second life, gone.
resurrection.
A third life.
The fourth life.
The fifth life.
The sixth life.
The resurrection mechanism of the God Hand was instantly overloaded. Each resurrection was instantly shattered by the continuous bombardment of the beams, and each reconstructed body was destroyed again in less than a second.
Heracles ' body was repeatedly destroyed and reborn in the red light, like a candle struggling in a storm.
The beam's power finally diminished to a level that was no longer lethal after penetrating six resurrections in succession.
Heracles rose from the smoke and dust.
Extensive skin necrosis was present on the upper body, and the muscle tissue in the left arm had almost completely disappeared, revealing the white bone underneath. The breathing sounded as heavy as a broken bellows.
But he was still standing.
My last life.
To die again is to truly exit the stage.
The God Hand. Remaining Fates: 1.
Karna was in the distance, lowered his weapon, which had reverted to its golden spear form.
His expression showed no joy of victory.
Because he was still standing.
"As expected... it's not something that can be resolved with a single blow."
Karna's mana reserves are almost depleted.
With his Shemesh Armor stripped away and his magic almost completely depleted, he is now more vulnerable than ever.
If Heracles were to charge at us now, Karna wouldn't be able to handle him even without using his Noble Phantasm, just by fighting him in melee combat.
But Heracles did not move.
He stood there, panting, and then did something.
He extended his right hand.
Palms facing upwards.
Golden light gathered in his palm, gradually forming a small, round object.
An apple.
Golden apples.
Heracles brought the Golden Apple to his mouth and took a bite.
Golden liquid dripped from the corner of his mouth, transforming into pure magic that seeped into his Spirit Origin.
Heracles ' body underwent a change.
The necrotic tissue began to slough off at a visible rate, and new muscle and skin grew from the underlying tissue.
The bones of his left arm were re-encased in muscle, and his damaged Spirit Origin was repaired by a warm energy.
The number of resurrections in the God Hand.
It has been reset.
Go back to the eleventh time.
Heracles swallowed the last bite of the Golden Apple and looked up.
The light in his eyes returned.
"Shall we continue?"
Karna gripped his divine spear tightly, a slight smile playing on his lips.
"Certainly."
The Command Spell Seals glowed on Amakusa Shirou's arm once again.
"In the name of the Command Spell-- "
"Lancer Karna, evacuate the battlefield immediately!"
Karna's body began to become ethereal, and as Heracles once again assumed a fighting stance, the red-clad Lancer had vanished from his spot.
Karna in his current state is no match for a fully recovered Heracles.
His mana was depleted, his armor was stripped off, and his Noble Phantasm was on cooldown—any one of these factors could be enough to defeat him in close combat.
Amakusa Shirou did not hesitate.
Preserving Karna is more important than killing Heracles.
Millennia Fortress.
Mukuro Hoshimiya looked up at the thirty-meter-tall clay giant in front of him.
They raised up the Michael.
A massive portal, over a hundred meters in diameter, unfolded beneath the earth giant's feet, engulfing the giant and the ground beneath it.
The next second.
The giant appeared on an open plain tens of kilometers away.
Mukuro Hoshimiya emerged from another spatial portal and hovered directly in front of the giant.