Heroic Spirit Summoning was originally a system born from the Counter Force of primates, created to respond to threats against their survival. The seven Servant Classes are vessels prepared for Heroic Spirits summoned into the world. Yet the origin of those seven Classes, crowned with the Grand Class, represents the very foundation of Heroic Spirit Summoning itself. Orion, who manifested alone as an Archer, was precisely such an existence.
"No, your timing is perfect. I'm impressed you managed to find this place so quickly," Shiomi said.
"The Beast's Mana signature was overwhelming," Orion replied as he approached Shiomi at a measured pace, moving to cover him. "So I left Artemis in Drake and the others' care and chased after you myself."
"You are—"
Koyanskaya's voice suddenly spiked, her level of vigilance shooting to its limit.
Orion drew his bow and set an arrow to the string. Through the pitch-black fog that refused to disperse, he locked onto the Beast-shaped silhouette revealed by Koyanskaya's presence and declared his identity in a sharp, forceful voice.
"Grand Archer, Orion. A Servant summoned to this Lostbelt by the Counter Force to confront a Beast. To repay a debt owed, I will use the bow and arrows in my hands to slay the monster that seeks to devour my comrades!"
Grand Servants existed for the sole purpose of confronting Beasts. Endowed with a Grand Spirit Origin, Orion had manifested in Atlantis believing that, in the end, he would expend that Spirit Origin to shoot down Artemis and open the path for Chaldea to reach Olympus. But Chaldea's unorthodox battles had far surpassed the expectations of the Servants of Proper Human History.
"There's no debt to repay. I only did what I should have done," Shiomi said, stopping his preparations to activate 『Earth Mother's Feast』.
Since Orion had arrived in time, it made more sense to let him take the lead in subjugating Koyanskaya.
"Grand… Archer…"
Koyanskaya's voice carried unrestrained fury. Not only had her carefully chosen prey slipped from her grasp, she had drawn the most troublesome enemy possible in the process. There was no benefit to remaining here.
Having instantly judged the reversal of the situation, the density of the magical fog surged upward. Neither Shiomi nor Orion could see Koyanskaya's vague, black, four-legged form anymore.
"She's going for a sneak attack—no!" Shiomi exclaimed, warning Orion as they stood back to back.
"I can't see anything. Even if I used a Noble Phantasm, I wouldn't be able to aim," Orion realized. "The Beast is trying to escape!"
"That's what it looks like! Then… blanket the area with firepower!"
Shiomi gathered Mana once more and leapt into the air. The fog covered an enormous area. In terms of sheer range, it rivaled an Anti-City Noble Phantasm. Its only flaw was its lack of offensive power. By saturating the area with dense, Mana-laden black mist, it concealed magical reactions and created ideal conditions for an assault. Or, as in this case, it could be used to withdraw from the battlefield amid the chaos.
Now more than ten meters in the air, Shiomi was wrapped in his own Mana, transforming himself into the source of a relentless barrage of magical projectiles.
"Divine Arrowfall!"
The wide-area Magecraft attack expanded outward, using the point where he and Orion stood as its center. Explosions rang out endlessly as magic bullets struck the ground. But some never reached it.
"There!"
Orion instantly caught the anomaly, drawing his bow to its limit and firing arrow after arrow toward the silhouette exposed within the barrage. Releasing his Noble Phantasm would take time, and even that brief moment could allow the Beast to slip away. So before that, he relied on conventional attacks to slow its escape.
With her form and retreat route forcibly exposed, Koyanskaya lashed out instead, swinging her tail and thrusting it straight toward the airborne Shiomi.
"You haven't forgotten something, have you, Beast?" Orion did not move to shield Shiomi.
It was not blind faith in his comrade's strength. There was another reason.
"This sword is an avatar of the sun, the sister Holy Sword, the purifying solar flame that burns away all impurity!
Holy Sword, draw! Excalibur Galatine!"
Gawain's clear, resonant voice rang out. The Sun Holy Sword, sister blade to the Holy Sword of the Planet, revealed its True Name here. True to its name, it tore apart the black fog created by the Beast, exposing the location of its form.
"With an attack like that!"
Sensing danger, the tail that had been pressing the assault abruptly recoiled, folding in on itself and transforming into a shield.
The purifying solar flame, powerful enough to reduce the entire forest to ash, failed to ignite even a single strand of the Beast's pitch-black fur—if such fur even existed.
"Indeed, even with 'Nightless,' I alone cannot overcome a Beast. But—" Gawain showed no sign of frustration, his gaze fixed firmly on the jet-black figure that nearly merged with the night itself. "We, the Knights of the Round Table, would not retreat even before the White Dragon, the Dragon of Destruction. Much less a mere Beast!"
With Gawain's resounding declaration, a certain truth was laid bare before Koyanskaya.
One Knight of the Round Table had arrived. Which meant the rest were already here.
After all, on such a momentous occasion, yielding the honor of striking first was simply not how the Knights of the Round Table operated.
"Shining like the water's surface, blazing fiercely, my holy sword! Arondight Overload!"
"Atone through death, find repose in slaughter. The sin of arrogance is repaid here. 'Failnaught'!"
"I am the wolf! My spear is the fang of certain death! Ira Lupus!"
"Holy Lance, double restraints released, recitation begins! Longinus Count Zero!"
Following Gawain's Noble Phantasm, Lancelot, Tristan, Gareth, and Percival unleashed their True Names in rapid succession, striking the now-exposed Koyanskaya without pause.
Though none of their Noble Phantasms could deliver a decisive blow, each was a noble phantasm not to be underestimated.
The agony of her body being torn apart awakened memories at the very origin of Koyanskaya's birth as a Beast larva.
The pain of land blasted away, the helpless cries of animals erased in an instant.
Alongside them surged her fury.
"Anger? Sorrow? Lamenting misfortune? None of that justifies your indulgence in the destruction of humanity—"
Even without knowing the Beast's true origins, Orion could sense the emotions overflowing from those voices.
Hemmed in by the Noble Phantasms of the Knights of the Round Table and unable to disengage from the battlefield, Koyanskaya—the Beast—saw the fatal arrow trained squarely upon her.
"Second Noble Phantasm, release. No Beast is Beyond My Arrow's Reach - Orion Orkos!"
Unlike his previous shots, this was the Noble Phantasm Orion wielded as a Grand Servant, meant solely for the execution of Beasts.
Originally a Noble Phantasm that targeted only demonic entities and Magical Beasts, it had been elevated after he obtained a Grand Spirit Origin, ascending into a power that rendered all beasts within its reach unavoidable prey.