Scáthach was startled as well, turning her head toward the massive machine that had risen up.
"A wooden horse?"
Chiron, his body riddled with wounds, held his longbow at his side. Despite the blood staining his face, a calm smile still lingered.
Scáthach's way of fighting was simply too brutal. If it had been the twins instead, they would have long since fallen beneath her spear. Only a Servant like Chiron could survive such injuries and still be standing.
But Scáthach no longer cared about that. Just like Shiomi, she had realized why the flagship was so much larger than the other warships.
It wasn't just a matter of appearance.
Hidden beneath the hull of this vessel was another weapon.
Or rather, another Noble Phantasm.
During the Trojan War, in order to bring an end to a conflict that had dragged on for years, Odysseus devised the stratagem known as the Trojan Horse, breaching the city from within and delivering victory to the Greek forces.
This, too, was one of the Noble Phantasms he had taken from his Proper Human History counterpart.
He didn't know its legend.
He didn't understand its meaning.
But none of that mattered.
At Odysseus's command, the wooden horse emerged from the ship's hold.
In the midst of the chaos, both Scáthach and Shiomi noticed that Odysseus's presence had vanished from the deck.
Then came the roar of engines as Mana began to surge through the white wooden horse.
In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a massive machine over ten meters tall. Odysseus had already entered the cockpit, now piloting this anti-country Noble Phantasm.
As a Noble Phantasm, the Trojan Horse's true form was a gigantic mount clad in divine steel. Once its True Name was released, it could transform into a mechanical giant built for annihilation.
"To force me to activate this Trojan Horse… I have to admit, you are enemies who exceeded my expectations," Odysseus's voice echoed through the machine's amplifiers. "But you are still within my calculations. Even without calling down the goddess's arrows, I have the means to defeat you."
With those cold, composed words, the mechanical giant began to move under Odysseus's control.
It treated the ships of the Olympus fleet as mere stepping stones, advancing without the slightest hesitation.
The soldiers on the flagship had long since been wiped out by the sudden assault of Shiomi and Scáthach. As for the other warships, their crews either fell in battle against Melusine and Barghest, or were torn apart by the Storm Border's artillery.
Cannon fire poured endlessly from the mechanical giant, blanketing the surrounding area. Shiomi quickly regrouped with Scáthach, dodging the barrage while moving to support Melusine and Barghest.
Arrows from Nameless and Chiron were mixed into the storm of fire, streaking toward them without pause.
Just as the four regrouped and prepared to launch a coordinated assault on the mechanical giant, the armor on its chest suddenly split open, revealing the main cannon hidden within.
That was the true form of this machine from the Age of Gods, the very reason it was classified as an anti-country Noble Phantasm.
This time, the main cannon was aimed directly at the Storm Border.
In a matter of seconds, Mana condensed to the point where even the air seemed to freeze, before being unleashed all at once.
Unlike the dense but relatively weak barrages of warships, this was a True Name–released Noble Phantasm, its power concentrated into a single point. The blast nearly punched through the barrier Skadi had deployed to protect the hull.
The Storm Border lurched violently to one side, coming dangerously close to capsizing into the sea.
Seeing that even this attack couldn't fully pierce the barrier, the Trojan Horse swiftly rotated its cannon and began a sweeping bombardment, indiscriminately dragging both allies and enemies into its line of fire.
Shiomi and the others, who had originally been some distance from the firing line, were forced once again to move between the warships to evade the onslaught.
"We'll need to get closer somehow," Scáthach said quietly. "That's an Age of Gods machine made from divine steel, born from the most fundamental Mystery of the Greek gods…"
Melusine immediately stepped forward. "I'll suppress that giant machine's firepower. Barghest, you go interfere with the two archers. After that—"
"No. There's no need for you to risk your lives as bait," Shiomi said, raising a hand. "What we've thought of, she's already thought of as well."
"She?" Melusine froze.
As the Trojan Horse's cannons exceeded their limits and the prolonged barrage finally began to subside, two pillars of golden light shot skyward from the Storm Border's deck, still wrapped in barriers and not yet fully stabilized.
The Holy Sword in Artoria's hands, and the Holy Lance under Gray's control.
"Time to pull back. Getting caught in our own side's fire isn't funny at all."
Shiomi's hand came to rest on Melusine's shoulder.
Scáthach pressed down on Barghest's shoulder as well, steadying her as she half-knelt.
Together, they activated teleportation Magecraft, shifting to the wreckage of a warship adjacent to the Storm Border.
Neither the Trojan Horse's overwhelming firepower nor the arrows of Chiron and Nameless could pierce Skadi's barrier.
This was the barrier she had used to protect that small kingdom from Surtr's flames, the result of thousands of years of accumulated effort.
For a mere anti-country Noble Phantasm to think it could break through was pure fantasy.
"I've already told you how to do this," Artoria said to Gray. "You are not a vessel prepared for any king. You are yourself, a gravekeeper who has inherited the Mystery of the Holy Lance."
"I understand, Artoria-sama!" Gray replied without hesitation.
In the next moment, the Holy Sword and the Holy Lance were released together. A surging torrent of Mana, carrying the breath of the stars, swallowed the Trojan Horse whole. The machine deployed its full defenses, stirring up monstrous waves across the battlefield at sea.
The Klironomia bestowed by Zeus granted the machine formidable defensive power. Even under the simultaneous assault of the Holy Sword and Holy Lance, it endured without being reduced to dust.
"What an incredibly sturdy machine…" Melusine couldn't help but admire it.
Even as an enemy, she couldn't bring herself to stop appreciating the massive construct.
"No. This is enough," Scáthach said, pointing her spear toward the sky above the Trojan Horse.
At some point, Shiomi had already left their side. He now hovered in the air together with three Valkyries.
"Follow my movements. You know what to do, Valkyries," Shiomi said.
"We obey your will in all things, our new Great God," Thrúd replied.
Ortlinde and Hildr nodded in turn.
"Then let's begin."
Shiomi raised Gungnir high.
"Synchronization with the Prototype complete. True Name, fully released. [Ragnarok Gungnir]!"
The three Prototype Valkyries followed Shiomi's lead, hurling their Gungnir: Declaration of the Great God (Fake) alongside his [Gungnir].
A brand-new Noble Phantasm, surpassing the Valkyries' original [Ragnarok Fantasy: Maiden's Descent].
Proof of those who walked the path foretold by Odin.
Like the final straw on a camel's back… no, like the last massive boulder crushing it, the Trojan Horse could endure no more. Its divine steel armor began peeling away piece by piece.
A colossal explosion erupted from the Trojan Horse's core, sweeping across the entire sea where the great battle had unfolded. Every remaining, damaged Olympus warship was swallowed up.
Waves tens of meters high surged skyward, then fell as a torrential rain of saltwater.
Those who had retreated back inside the Storm Border's barrier just a moment before the blast could see only an endless ocean of drifting wreckage once the explosion faded.
All that remained was the Trojan Horse's shattered core, bobbing up and down with the waves.
The Alien Apostles and the other Servants were gone without a trace. No one knew whether they had retreated or perished.
"…At this point… you won't be leaving here… Chaldea…"
A broken signal reached the Storm Border, carrying Odysseus's dying voice.
Realizing what was about to happen, Shiomi shouted a warning.
"Begin Imaginary Dive immediately! My master and I will assist Skadi in reinforcing the barrier!"
With the entire Olympus fleet, himself included, wiped out by the counterattack during the encirclement, Odysseus had nothing left to hold back. He transmitted the coordinates to the Machine God in satellite orbit.
Rather than preserving his own life, he chose without hesitation to complete the mission.
The Machine God, already prepared, calibrated the coordinates. At the very moment Odysseus finished speaking, it unleashed artillery fire from an altitude of five hundred thousand meters toward the Storm Border, which still stood in the sea below.
The ocean.
Blinding light and violent shockwaves engulfed the entire Imaginary Submarine in an instant.
Moments later, the sea, struck yet again, slowly fell silent, with only countless fragments of debris floating on the surface.
If there were any survivors left to witness it, they would surely notice that among all that wreckage, there was not a single fragment belonging to the Chaldea warship.