Chapter 88: The Massive Volcano Buried Under the Mountain
Gawain, the Knight of the Round Table from the legends of King Arthur.
As one of the earliest knights to follow the King, he was a loyal and righteous knight who fought alongside King Arthur and served him until the very end.
He wielded the Holy Sword of the Sun, known as the sister sword of Excalibur. Blessed with the protection of a saint, he was renowned throughout the world as an unrivaled knight during the daytime.
How strong was the Heroic Spirit Gawain at his peak?
According to the descriptions in the Heroic Spirit EMIYA's own memories, in a frontal battle, he himself would fall within just a few rounds.
This is because Gawain's most suitable class among the Seven Servant Classes in the Holy Grail War is the powerful Sword Knight, Saber.
Furthermore, not only does this Holy Sword, Excalibur Galatine, gain a boost under the midday sun, but the blessing of the "Saint's Number" increases his power by threefold for three hours starting from 9 a.m. until noon, and three hours from 3 p.m. until sunset, corresponding to the Celtic sacred number '3'.
Unlike Noble Phantasms that use concepts of causality, such as Gae Bolg, the effectiveness of Excalibur Galatine is more dependent on the amount of magical power infused into it.
For example, if Gawain himself were to fully operate this Holy Sword, the effective range of the light cannon could reach as far as thirteen kilometers.
However, due to Emiya's limited magical power and the shroud of night, the deteriorated version of the Sun Holy Sword barely achieved a range of about two kilometers, just managing to pierce the nearby mountain.
However, only the range was greatly reduced; in the center of the light cannon, the brilliant sun, which was powerful enough to incinerate everything, remained dazzling.
From the initial visual effect, the flame condensed and shot out by Jogo was as magnificent as Excalibur Galatine's light cannon. However, the golden-yellow light was clearly faster and more concentrated than Jogo's flame Cursed Technique.
The scene of the two colliding in the high air lasted for less than a moment before the light on the left completely overwhelmed the flame on the right, pouring down toward Jogo's location like a flood breaking through a dam.
Compared to the range of the light cannon, Jogo's figure looked exactly like a scene of an anti-aircraft gun shooting a mosquito. If Jogo were a frequent user of the internet, it would probably understand how utterly humiliating this moment was.
"No... impossible!!!!!!!!"
With just enough time to leave behind such a shrill cry, Jogo's figure completely vanished under the shroud of light.
"..."
"Did that resolve it?"
Emiya himself does not possess the defensive power of many powerful Heroic Spirits, who can ignore most attacks that haven't reached a certain level of potency.
For instance, the Noble Phantasm God Hand of Heracles can even completely adapt to the subsequent release of a Noble Phantasm after experiencing it once.
As a mortal in the flesh, he cannot physically withstand intense attacks and has not yet learned the Reverse Cursed Technique like Gojo Satoru, which can easily heal even fatal wounds.
Therefore, close-quarters combat with a Cursed Spirit whose Cursed Technique has a wide destructive range and clear killing intent is clearly not a good choice.
After analyzing the battle situation, the current situation was the best strategy Emiya could devise.
There was a high probability that this arrogant and short-tempered Cursed Spirit would be provoked by words.
Therefore, after getting the opponent to agree to a one-hit decisive battle by inflating its emotions, the best winning strategy was to unhesitatingly use the strongest attack.
Excalibur Galatine, this Holy Sword of the Stars, is Emiya's most powerful offensive Noble Phantasm at present.
Magical power and time are the things he currently lacks the most.
"However, I still need to confirm it slightly."
After all, this Cursed Spirit's Cursed Energy was at such a high level. The excessive Cursed Energy generated from the concepts of the earth and the volcano might be constantly pouring into its body.
Such a Cursed Spirit, as long as it wasn't hit directly in the body by something like Unlimited Lost Works, still had a chance of survival.
Before Emiya, the area from the foot of the mountain to the center of the mountain was completely leveled by the blast of Excalibur Galatine. The ground, now a vast empty depression, didn't even have scorch marks left behind.
Walking within this groove, which was several tens of meters wide, Emiya gradually approached the hole in the mountain.
He suddenly realized that the temperature inside the Barrier had not dropped; on the contrary, it was still rising, reaching the intensity of the scorching midday sun in just a few dozen seconds.
It wasn't until he finally saw what was revealed inside the hole that Emiya understood the reason for all of this—
The opening created by Excalibur Galatine revealed a massive cavern within the mountain, and an entire lake of rolling, boiling magma.
This magma lake was not calm. Huge bubbles occasionally surfaced and burst, spewing out. Lethal gases and air distorted by the high temperature severely limited visibility.
Emiya didn't even know how large this magma lake was. At the barely visible endpoint, the surface of the lake was merely cut off by a fallen rock wall, not reaching a true end. Considering the worst-case scenario, the entire mountain range might be underpinned by this churning, scorching lava, ready to break out.
"This is... an active volcano?"
Emiya had never seen the true appearance of a volcano before and couldn't judge whether the scene before him was good or bad, or what kind of disaster would result if it erupted.
But at the very least, the nearby city and surrounding villages, which weren't far away, wouldn't escape.
Wait, if the concept that empowered that Cursed Spirit was indeed the volcano, then that means it's here.........?!
"Heh heh... HAHAHAHAHA!
That weapon's power was truly astonishing, but I imagine you can't unleash a second burst in a short time, can you?
"ow that we're in this volcano, it's completely my home field!
After I kill you, that sun-like weapon will be mine too, Emiya Shirou!!!!!"
Jogo's figure stood not far from Emiya, atop a steep rock wall.
Its clothes appeared to be largely undamaged, but the missing arm and its hideous, contorted expression stated the truth for it.
As a Cursed Spirit born from fire, it had almost been killed by intense flames just now... This was like a fish being drowned by water, a death so ridiculous it would be laughed at.
If it hadn't managed to drop its body into the lava below immediately after the light cannon blasted it into the mountain, it would only have about a third of its body left now.
Its body's recovery rate couldn't keep up at all!
Kill him, kill him, I must absolutely kill him!!!!!!!!
But contrary to Jogo's expectations, Emiya showed no fear or any similar emotion regarding its survival and fury. Instead, he quite casually threw the Holy Sword in his hand toward it.
"Ah? Wh-What??!"
Seeing the Holy Sword, which was still shining with the light of the sun, flying toward itself, Jogo instinctively reached out with its remaining hand to catch it.
Its whole body wobbled slightly from the sudden action, and it nearly fell into the magma lake below, sword and all.
But before it could even fully process its emotions to deal with the situation, a strange noise suddenly came from the Holy Sword in its hand.
Crack
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