While the King of the End, Mithra, was gathering his subordinates to deal with a certain someone who had grown somewhat out of line under Prometheus's indulgence, another group at the center of the incident was still in the middle of tearing each other apart.
---o---
The Black Princess was strong.
This was a certainty.
She was the eldest princess of the Dead Apostle clan, and in her prime, she possessed combat power rivaling that of the backup body for the Crimson Moon of the UO—Arcueid.
With a power level roughly equivalent to three Gilgameshes, she would be virtually invincible in the modern Nasuverse if she unleashed her full strength.
However—
That was her prime state.
After getting hammered in a fight with her younger sister, the Black Princess was first ambushed by her sister's sycophant, then gravely wounded by the White Wing Lord, and on top of that, was scammed out of a massive amount of magical energy by a certain someone. Having suffered a series of injuries, her current strength was roughly 0.3 Gilgameshes.
And what level was the Immortal Fu Hua, with the God-Slayer buff added?
For this, we can use Kevin as a reference.
Kevin, a fellow super-soldier who also received the God-Slayer buff, possessed combat power greater than that of the Russian Lostbelt King, Ivan the Terrible, and the Norse Lostbelt King, Skadi.
And the strength of a Lostbelt King far surpasses that of a Heroic Spirit from Pan-Human History.
This, naturally, included Gilgamesh, the fan-favorite golden boy of Old Man Urobuchi.¹
So, what happens when the 0.3-Gilgamesh-level Black Princess encounters the Immortal, whose power is only slightly weaker than the enhanced Kevin Aotian?
The answer was painfully obvious.
The wind howled.
BOOM!
The very atmosphere seemed to mourn.
The once-vibrant countryside was now perpetually burning.
On the devastated battlefield, the Black Princess, unable to maintain her adult form and once again reverted to the appearance of a young girl, fled desperately through the air.
"Hah... hah..."
"Hah..."
Completely on the back foot, the King of the Dead Apostles dragged her two subordinates along, doing her utmost to dodge.
As she struggled to escape the battlefield, a woman's voice, as cold as frost, echoed across the land.
"That hypnosis art of yours. Was it fun to use?"
And then—
BOOOOM—!
In the next second, a terrifying impact that defied description erupted from the ground, and a black-red gas swept out in all directions.
Wherever the gas passed, the already scorched earth ruptured violently, kicking up countless shards of rock and clouds of dust.
That was the sword qi of the Immortal.
SWISH—!
A sharp, piercing sound tore through the air.
At the same time, a terrifying killing intent swept forth like a storm, and a bloody radiance exploded with the Black Princess at its center.
Countless blossoms of blood bloomed simultaneously, forming a magnificent net that forcibly intercepted the onrushing sword qi.
But—
Visibly, the bloody net showed the tragic signs of being on the verge of shattering.
Damn it!!
The Black Princess, who was no match for her opponent at all, felt her mood darken further.
"My wedding gown and bridal dress. Were they comfortable to wear?"
The woman, wielding a longsword, spoke to the King of the Dead Apostles, her voice sinister.
Blue wings of light unfurled behind the woman holding the Xuanyuan Sword. The genetic power of a top-tier Honkai Beast activated, and the Immortal swung her blade. The powers of ice, flame, and wind erupted simultaneously, surging towards the King of the Dead Apostles, who could no longer be called strong.
The Black Princess's face turned ashen. Ancient runes materialized at her feet. Grabbing her two knights, who had been instantly incapacitated by Fenghuang Down, she teleported in another direction without a moment's hesitation.
The next moment, the torrent of mixed elements slammed into the land. Be it trees or rocks, under the absolute temperature, they vanished in an instant like snowflakes under a blazing sun.
If I had been hit by that, even my immortality would have been significantly chipped away.
A cold sweat broke out on the Black Princess's skin.
And what in the world was this woman talking about?
The Black Princess, completely unable to comprehend this talk of hypnosis and wedding gowns, felt her mood worsen.
At first, she thought she had run into someone sent by the White Wing Lord to hunt her down...
But—
Looking at the Immortal, who looked for all the world like a woman whose husband had been stolen and was now settling scores, the Black Princess felt like she had been royally screwed.
She had run into some kind of lunatic.
"My wedding bed. How did it feel to sleep in it?"
"If your husband was stolen, go settle the score with the person who stole him! What does fighting me have to do with anything!!" the Black Princess, feeling that the Immortal was acting exactly like a jilted wife, gritted her teeth and roared at the woman who was bombarding her with sword qi.
"You're acting as if I'm the one who stole your husband!"
This woman was an absolute madhouse!
"You dare say that!!"
The Immortal, who would never forget how a certain King of the Dead Apostles had pushed her hypnotized self under the bed before pulling her lover into it to roll around in the sheets, wore a face as cold as winter frost.
As the person who had formed the earliest marital bond with a certain man in the timeline, Miss Fu Hua had long been aware that he had had many women.
She did not like to share, but considering her lover's personality—that he would never abandon anyone—and his mastery of time management, she had decided to treat those other girls as if they didn't exist.
But—
She could forgive anyone else.
This one, and this one alone, she could not forgive.
Without a shred of hesitation, she raised her sword.
BOOM—!!!
As if a great dragon were roaring, a terrifying boom shook the atmosphere somewhere in the English countryside.
Scorching flames burned brilliantly, expanding at a visible rate, fanned by a violent gale. The terrifying temperature distorted the surrounding air.
Simultaneously, dazzling bolts of lightning exploded across a vast swathe of the sky, sweeping in all directions. The sound of the explosions echoed to the heavens, like the roar of a dragon.
Lightning and fire churned the atmosphere for several kilometers, and the terrifying shockwave formed a wildly violent storm that swept from the clouds to the earth in an instant.
"You lunatic!"
The Black Princess tossed her subordinates aside and raised her hands high, causing the entire world to tremble.
The atmosphere began to howl, gathering towards the Black Princess like layer upon layer of crashing waves.
Under these conditions, the world, which had already turned blood-red due to the King of the Dead Apostles releasing her power, truly began to shake.
The ground was continuously swept up into the howling atmosphere, gradually breaking apart. Countless fragments of stone and rubble were carried by the airflow, converging around the Black Princess.
She swung her raised arms down forcefully, and the storm of rock transformed into a devastating tornado. Like a giant stone drill, it shot towards the Immortal.
Wherever the storm passed, the earth collapsed, and the rock tornado, carrying astonishing destructive power, enveloped everything before it.
One could imagine that if even a mountain were to be struck by such an attack, it would be instantly leveled.
Like a sharp blade, the man-made mountain tore through the domain of lightning and fire.
But—
Such an attack was still far too fragile in the eyes of a certain Immortal.
Completely abandoning close combat and releasing her power as if venting her rage, the Immortal called upon the Authority she had gained as a God-Slayer.
In Journey to the West, there is such a story.
The Great Supreme Elder Lord Taishang Laojun reported: "That monkey ate the Peaches of Immortality, drank the imperial wine, and stole the Pills of Immortality. Of my five gourds of pills, some were raw and some were refined. He ate them all, and using the Samadhi Fire, forged them into a single mass, creating a body of diamond steel, which cannot be easily harmed."
The word Samadhi is a transliteration of the Sanskrit samādhi. "True Fire" is a Daoist term. The combination of the two created the term "Samadhi True Fire."
Samadhi True Fire, also known as Samadhi Divine Fire, is a term that frequently appears in classical Chinese literature and Daoist culture. It is generally believed that "the heart is the ruler's fire, also called divine fire, its name is Upper Samadhi; the kidneys are the minister's fire, also called essence fire, its name is Middle Samadhi; the bladder, or the sea of qi below the navel, is the commoner's fire, its name is Lower Samadhi." This constitutes the Samadhi True Fire.
The Heretical God, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, possessed the Authority to release the Samadhi True Fire.
And it was this very Authority that Fu Hua had usurped from him.
Looking for all the world like she was on a mission of annihilation, the Immortal spoke to the King of the Dead Apostles, who possessed an extremely high level of immortality and could afford to die once or twice.
"Everything has a price. Since you dared to do what you did back then, now is the time for you to pay it!!"
Streamers of gold and red light raged, and the violent energy sent out rings of light. The moment the halos touched the air, it boiled and became scalding hot, changing the color of the entire sky and filling it with a golden-red twilight.
Within this beautiful and dreamlike scene was a terrifying heat that even the King of the Dead Apostles would not be able to walk away from if she took a direct hit.
The method of release was completely different from that in Journey to the West; it was as if she had summoned a torrential downpour of violent fire!
One could imagine that when this "rain" fell, the destruction it brought would be no less than that of the Tunguska event.
An unprecedented, bone-chilling sensation rose in the Black Princess's heart.
She looked back at the rain of immense fire controlled by the Immortal—who was clearly a jilted woman hunting down anyone in sight—and her delicate face twisted.
She was utterly defeated.
She was powerless to fight back. Any further resistance was meaningless.
The only end awaiting her was death or being sealed.
How laughable.
In the end, I won't fall at the hands of Arcueid, the Church, or even the White Wing Lord. I'm going to fall because of some madwoman?
Having completely accepted reality, she felt an unprecedented exhaustion and powerlessness.
But, rising in sync with the fatigue and helplessness, was a blazing fury that filled her chest.
Her subordinates were taken down for no reason, she was hunted for no reason, and now she might even die for no reason...
Honestly.
Looking at the Immortal's exquisite face, the Black Princess inexplicably wanted to know what kind of man her lover was.
If there is a next life, I really want to meet that man... and try to seduce him.
The Black Princess gazed at the person who had inexplicably hunted her for hundreds of miles, a slight smile forming on her face.
The look on this woman's face then... it would surely be priceless.
¹[Translator's Note: "Old Man Urobuchi" (老虚 - Lǎo Xū) is a fan nickname for Gen Urobuchi, the writer of Fate/Zero, who is known for giving Gilgamesh a very powerful and prominent role.]