However, even after dea and Kuzuki Sōichirō swapped opponents, the overall outco still didn't change all that much.
Kotomine Kirei was, at the end of the day, only a human. Naturally, he wasn't anywhere near as strong as a Servant like Lancer Kuhulin. So when dea found herself dealing with two Kotomine Kireis at once, the fight was nothing like the constant life-or-death brinkmanship she'd experienced against Kuhulin earlier.
On the other side, once Kuhulin beca his opponent, Kuzuki Sōichirō's shortcomings beca painfully clear.
And don't assu that just because dea was a Servant she could effortlessly crush two Kotomine Kireis. In truth, against this kind of rule-breaking, abnormal Master, even she was struggling badly.
Both dea's inherent abilities and her class skills revolved around creating magical constructs, enhancing tools, and stacking buffs. Her raw combat capability was, frankly, unimpressive.
If it weren't for her ability to instant-cast spells through High-Speed Incantation, as well as her short-range teleportation magecraft, dea wouldn't have stood a chance against Kotomine Kirei—let alone two of them at once.
Watching Kuzuki Sōichirō suffer more and more injuries under Kuhulin's relentless assault, while she herself was completely unable to help, dea's anxiety steadily mounted.
At the sa ti, she began viciously cursing Berserker and Saber for interfering earlier. If it weren't for them disrupting her preparations, then with her original setup, dealing with a re Lancer would never have turned into such a frantic ss.
"What's wrong? Already about to collapse?" Kuhulin sneered, twirling the crimson demonic spear in his hand. "What about that Assassin who was sticking with you earlier? I didn't see him in the front courtyard. I was hoping I could finish our last fight and finally settle things properly."
He grinned, eyes sharp and mocking.
"Don't tell even Assassin and his Master finally got sick of you, Witch. Or did you betray them again, like always?"
Holding the red spear, Kuhulin looked completely relaxed as he faced Kuzuki Sōichirō—soone who could dominate a weakened Saber with ease.
From the very beginning, Kuhulin's true target had never changed. In his eyes, his opponent was always Yūto.
Caster and Kuzuki Sōichirō simply didn't interest him.
Kuzuki, as a Master, was certainly strong—but no matter how strong, he was still just a human. The gap between him and a true Servant was undeniable.
As for dea? A re Caster whose entire setup had already been destroyed. Kuhulin felt no pride whatsoever in defeating a Caster in close combat as a Lancer. That was precisely why his enthusiasm was so low right now.
Hearing words like witch and betrayal—terms that were absolute taboos to her—spill from Kuhulin's mouth, dea's face beneath her hood turned ashen.
But at the sa ti, his words triggered a sudden realization.
She was still Yūto's Master.
If she used her authority as a Master and invoked a Command Seal, she might be able to summon Yūto back here and shatter the deadlock.
Yūto was no ordinary Servant and could resist the magical coercion of Command Seals—but as long as he himself didn't reject it, the power of the seal should still be able to pull him to her side.
Firing several mana blasts to force the approaching Kotomine Kirei back, dea glanced at the oni-faced Command Seals engraved on the back of her hand. After biting her lip, she finally chanted the words of command.
"I command you as your Master—Assassin, appear before imdiately!"
As her voice fell, the second of the three Command Seals on her hand began to dim, its light fading away. At the sa ti, a surge of magical energy erupted, and a magic circle blood into existence before her.
Staring at the circle, dea's heart pounded with unease.
She didn't know whether Yūto would respond… or whether his battle elsewhere had already ended.
But at this point, she had no other options left.
When the magic circle suddenly appeared, both Kuhulin and the two Kotomine Kireis were visibly shaken.
They had never imagined that Caster—a Servant herself—could actually be the Master of another Servant, Assassin.
If that was the case, didn't that an dea's side effectively had two Servants under a single Master?
That was blatantly unfair… downright cheating.
"So this is how a mage from the Age of Gods bends the rules," Kotomine Kirei said coldly. "Exploiting loopholes in the Holy Grail War itself. No wonder Assassin has been acting alongside you since the very beginning."
His eyes narrowed.
"Lancer, ignore Kuzuki. Activate your Noble Phantasm and eliminate Caster imdiately."
The instant the magic circle appeared, Kotomine Kirei used a Command Seal without the slightest hesitation, forcibly ordering Kuhulin to abandon Kuzuki Sōichirō and kill dea at once.
Having gathered intelligence from the start, Kotomine knew exactly how dangerous Assassin was. If Yūto truly arrived here, the entire balance of the battlefield could collapse—and that was the last thing Kotomine wanted.
If Caster was Assassin's Master, then killing her quickly would nullify the Command Seal's effect.
Assassin might not even make it here—and even if he did, he would vanish along with his Master.
Though Kuhulin burned with frustration at the order, the absolute compulsion of the Command Seal forced his body to obey. He raised his crimson spear high, ominous red mana spilling from its shaft.
Kuhulin's Noble Phantasm—Barbed Spear That Pierces with Death—had two modes.
The first was a thrust perford while holding the spear. In this form, it was classified as an anti-personnel Noble Phantasm. Its mana cost was relatively low, but its destructive power was also limited.
The second mode involved pouring all of his magical energy into the weapon and hurling it.
In that state, the spear transford into an anti-army Noble Phantasm, boasting a wide attack range and terrifying power.
Naturally, the thrown version consud exponentially more mana than the held form.
Under the Command Seal's coercion, Kuhulin easily shook off Kuzuki Sōichirō with his A Agility. Crimson energy surged along the spear as he leveled its tip directly at dea's heart.
This ti, he was using the standard anti-personnel form.
Even so, in that instant, dea felt an overwhelming sense of impending death.
She attempted to teleport away, desperately widening the distance between herself and Kuhulin.
But no matter how far she moved, the suffocating premonition of death clung to her like a shadow.
Barbed Spear That Pierces with Death was a causality-based attack—a spear thrust that assud its hit from the outset.
It could not be dodged.
It could only be blocked.
Simply trying to create distance was aningless. The spear's lock would never be broken that way.
Yet asking a Caster to directly block a Lancer's Noble Phantasm was nothing short of cruelty.
As the crushing weight of death closed in and dea all but gave up resisting, a figure within the magic circle beside her began to take shape.
Before anyone could even react, that figure burst forward at blinding speed—placing himself directly in front of Kuhulin's spear.
BOOM———!
A deafening explosion roared through the battlefield. The ground split apart in spiderweb-like cracks, and dea stared at her own uninjured body in stunned disbelief.
She had been certain she was already locked onto by Lancer's spear.
Yet sohow, in the final mont, the overwhelming sense of death had vanished without a trace.
As the dust and debris settled, dea looked at the back now standing before her—and a wave of relief washed over her face.
"You… caught it?" Kuhulin shouted in disbelief. "You caught my spear—barehanded?!"
The one who had appeared and stopped Kuhulin's strike was none other than Yūto, summoned by dea herself.
At this point, Kuhulin no longer cared whether Yūto was truly dea's Servant.
What mattered was that his supposedly unavoidable killing spear had been caught with bare hands.
Yes, Kuhulin's spear had been grabbed by Yūto before—but that had been a normal thrust.
This ti was completely different.
That attack had been a Noble Phantasm with its true na released.
Even if it wasn't the maximum-output version, it was still sothing Kuhulin found utterly unacceptable.
Catching a released Noble Phantasm barehanded—was this Assassin really a Servant like the rest of them?
Or was he so monster who had descended in his true body?
"The Child of Light from Ireland… the spear that never misses," Yūto said calmly. "They're impressive legends, no doubt. But my Agility parater surpasses yours."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"As long as I can see the trajectory of your attack, catching even a legendary demonic spear isn't impossible."
Kuhulin froze for a mont. Then realization hit—and with it, rage.
Yūto made it sound easy, but Kuhulin knew better than anyone how absurdly difficult that feat actually was.
And he was right.
If this were the Yūto from before, catching Barbed Spear That Pierces with Death barehanded would never have been so effortless.
But during his battle with the sea demon earlier, Yūto had maintained his Noble Phantasm's released state.
Combined with the recent upgrade to his Mind's Eye skill, he was now capable of such a feat.
"Now then," Yūto said, casually hurling the spear aside. The force sent Kuhulin flying along with it. "Child of Light—how about we finish what we started earlier and finally settle this?"
He stomped down, shattering the ground beneath his feet, and instantly closed the distance.
Kuhulin, activating Battle Continuation, t him head-on, and the two plunged into another brutal exchange of blades.
With Kuhulin no longer in the picture, the pressure on dea and Kuzuki Sōichirō dropped sharply.
Together, they began pushing back the two Kotomine Kireis.
In the span of re monts, the battlefield—once on the verge of collapse—was completely turned on its head.
Reviews
All reviews (0)