"Immunity? Hahaha… mortals wouldn't be able to understand, but within the temple we are omnipotent!"
"Things like spatial fixation, instant movement, Phantasmal Species… with just a casual adjustment we can cause phenomena that go beyond human understanding."
"As magi from the Age of Gods, the 'foundation' and 'system' we use are different from the modern era."
"We never seek to reach the [Root], because that has no meaning… but don't think that just because we are 'mages' we can't create miracles. Got it?"
The hawk-winged witch looked down at the people of Chaldea. Although the gatekeeper Asterios was being held back by Karna, she wasn't worried at all.
After all, Karna was an exception even among Servants. Unless he willingly removed his golden armor, even a true god wouldn't be able to kill him.
The fallen Minotaur trained by the two witches had originally been meant to hold down troublesome opponents like Karna and the Red Berserker.
But now that the temple had been activated, there was nothing left to fear.
"This temple is the Twilight Garden that stands at the end of the world. Here, we are equivalent to two 'goddesses.' Mere Servants are nothing but dust!"
"Is that so?"
Before the words had even finished, a cold gleam of magical power cut across the void. A nimble figure leapt into the air.
The crushing pressure of the temple seemed meaningless to him. The anti-air barrier was ignored.
The restriction effects were completely useless. Vast magical power rapidly compressed, and along a brilliant arc of flight he slashed diagonally toward the Greater Grail and the witch...
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
The sharp sword light broke through three layers of shields in succession, unstoppable as it reached the hawk-winged witch. Circe's eyes suddenly widened.
However, though she was extremely surprised, just as she had said before, inside the temple the two witches were equivalent to "goddesses," nearly omnipotent.
At the critical moment, the hawk-winged witch suddenly vanished from where she stood, avoiding the sword pressure and letting it pass through empty air.
She reappeared at the other end of the platform, still shaken, and had just raised her tin staff to cast a spell when a bone-chilling killing intent made every hair on her body stand on end.
Whoosh!
Almost at the same instant Circe appeared, the black-haired boy appeared beside her. The fingers of his left hand lightly touched the staff...
Clang!
His right hand held the sword as it cut from the witch's neck down to her chest and abdomen. Blood burst out and scattered with the sound of the wind.
Under the sharpness of the Ame-no-Murakumo Sword, the witch's body was no different from an ordinary human's. Flesh, skin, and bone were cut open smoothly without encountering any resistance.
But before Iori could follow up with a second strike, the hawk-winged witch disappeared from before his eyes. Even the splattered blood had not yet fallen to the ground.
"Hm?"
Iori was the first to notice that something felt off from the sensation in his hand. Only afterward did he realize the target was gone. Without much surprise, he looked up.
Sure enough, beside Medea he saw Circe collapsed on the ground in a pool of blood, her body almost split in two, yet unexpectedly still alive. Medea had just lowered her fingertips.
"Substitution magecraft? No, something more advanced than that. Spatial manipulation?"
"Looks like your claim about being able to use 'miracles' wasn't baseless bragging after all. This just got troublesome~"
Shaking the blood off his blade, Iori's smile didn't change.
"My [Magic Resistance] is very low. Unlike Jeanne, I don't have high resistance. If I'm careless, you might just burn me to ashes, right?"
"..."
Medea silently watched this man. Though she said nothing, the heaviness of her mood could be felt.
Among the many Servants, the one she feared most was not Karna, the son of the sun, but the Red Berserker before her.
Karna was certainly powerful, but his abilities and Noble Phantasms were all within known parameters. Berserker, however, was an unknown hidden in the fog.
Judging from the exaggerated combat strength he displayed when he killed Yamata no Orochi, it could basically be determined that his true name was "Susanoo," someone closely connected to that serpent.
As a god descending in Servant form, he must have given something up, but his exact parameters and Noble Phantasms were still unknown.
From his performances in previous battles, it was also clear he was someone with a flexible and ever-changing fighting style, with endless methods.
For a magus, the most annoying thing was "uncertainty," and this man Iori was practically full of surprises… Medea did not want to become the sacrifice for some hidden trump card.
So she had to remain one hundred and twenty thousand percent vigilant.
"Ugh… aaah!"
Under the push of massive magical power, the wound rapidly healed. Circe let out a pained groan, but in just three or four seconds she had fully recovered and stood up again, glaring at Iori with deep resentment.
"How dare you offend me like that!"
Her hawk wings spread wide. Gorgeous magical totems shifted across them. Complex magic circles appeared one after another in midair.
Huge amounts of magical power gathered, compressing and refining continuously.
The power of multiple shots comparable to an Anti-Army Noble Phantasm instantly raised the temperature of the entire space.
An EX-rank magic cannon was about to swallow him whole. The hot wind lifted the ends of his hair, revealing calm, restrained eyes.
Just before the magic cannon reached him, he activated Shunpo and left the covered area. Though the magical light was powerful, it accomplished nothing.
"Gone? Damn it, then I'll just wipe out everything around here..."
"Calm down, Aunt. If he wanted to kill you, he could have done it just now. The only reason you can still feel your heartbeat is because he spared you once."
At this moment, Medea instead showed remarkable composure.
"Besides, such a simple and crude spell won't be able to catch an agility-type Servant."
"Tch!" Circe slowly dispersed the magical power she had gathered again, but still maintained the magic circles behind her, seemingly intending to use them as a deterrent.
"Why…"
"No idea. His logic of action has always been hard to predict."
Medea thought for a moment.
"Maybe it's because of the Greater Grail… the modification is already complete. Without us, even if they obtained the Greater Grail, they wouldn't be able to use it."
"So I survived because of that? How humiliating…"
Medea understood Circe's feelings well. After all, this witch rarely found herself at such a disadvantage.
But as a legendary figure who had participated in the Argonauts' expedition for the Golden Fleece, the black Caster had seen many heroes.
She knew these people often created miracles in impossible situations, exceeding everyone's expectations.
So she understood very clearly how difficult high-level warriors were to deal with… even with the temple, she couldn't be completely at ease.
...And indeed, that was true.
Not to mention innate skills like [Magic Resistance], which were practically the natural enemies of magi, warriors also generally had faster reaction speeds and more combat experience. Some even possessed abilities like "Mind's Eye," "Instinct," or "Protection from Arrows."
For example, Iori could, with the support of his Zanpakuto, push his perception to the extreme and predict the enemy's next move.
Against a hero like Karna with outstanding martial skill, it was only an auxiliary method. But against slow and monotonous magi, it was almost no different from future sight.
That earlier surprise attack of his had taken no more than the blink of an eye from start to finish, but he had already seen through how Circe would dodge…
Whoosh!
With another flash, Iori appeared at the boundary of the light, and behind him a figure quietly emerged. The silver-haired girl in a white coat, Sella, had arrived.
Since this might be the final battle that would put an end to the Holy Grail War, Sella had also come along so she could make contact with the Greater Grail as soon as possible and fulfill the long-held wish of the Einzbern family.
It was dangerous, but Sella clearly didn't care.
"Berserker!"
After Iori stopped, Ritsuka cried out in surprise.
"At the most critical moment… I knew you wouldn't just stand by."
She glanced at Sella. As a Master who had experienced the "FZ Singularity," she immediately associated Sella's appearance with Irisviel… they looked far too similar.
"The Greater Grail… could it be the one from Fuyuki?" Ritsuka connected the dots and then felt astonished. "The difference between the two is really huge."
After all, although it was the same Holy Grail, in this world line's Third War the irregular summoning had brought forth "Amakusa" rather than "Angra Mainyu," so the Greater Grail had not been corrupted and remained a pure omnipotent wish-granting machine.
"Yo! Long time no see, Master of Chaldea." Iori waved to her. Though he said that, he had actually helped Ritsuka many times from the shadows and could be said to have been keeping an eye on her all along.
It was also him who had held back Karna so Ritsuka and the others could hitch a ride through the anti-spirit barrier.
The reason Atalanta had encountered them so conveniently was also because Iori had arranged it in advance.
And the reason he had been able to infiltrate the labyrinth and find this place was because he had coordinated with Atalanta and followed using Kidō that tracked spiritual traces.
Jeanne had probably already noticed that Iori was following them, but judged that he wasn't an enemy, so she hadn't said anything.
"Master, if danger comes later, Mash and Jeanne will protect you… I might not have that much spare attention."
"Don't worry about me. Go fight as much as you want!" Sella's tone was firm, and she showed a strong expression as if she didn't need anyone's help.
But in reality, as Servants continued to fall, the pressure she bore was growing heavier… the moment when she would completely collapse and manifest as the Lesser Grail… was not far off.
...BOOM!
A loud explosion sounded. Under the powerful impact, rubble flew everywhere. Asterios and Karna flew out of the labyrinth together, both with extremely unstable auras. It seemed neither could do anything to the other.
However, since Karna had been summoned in the [Lancer] class, he should possess the thunder emperor's spear from mythology. He just hadn't used it yet…
"The situation is gradually turning bad." Medea frowned slightly. "Looks like we have to use that, Aunt."
"…Good thing the preparations are already finished."
Circe and Medea stood together. The two of them waved their tin staffs at the same time. Immediately afterward, the platform beneath their feet...no, the entire ground...began to tremble!
This workshop built from steel and earth shook as if trampled by ten thousand warhorses. Then, from the cracking soil, a gleam of golden light emerged...
Buzz!
In an instant, ripples of magical power swept across the entire space. The underground workshop instantly became bright, as if everything was being plated in gold.
The heavy industrial machines, including the metal railings and crucibles, along with the stone slabs and pillars that formed the temple, all began to move at the same time.
As if given life, they became as soft and tough as blood vessels and muscles, then combined together in a strange way…
Gradually, a figure nearly a hundred meters tall, almost breaking through the ceiling, took on the outline of a skeleton.
It coiled like a great serpent, yet had an upper body as broad as a tree canopy. Then flesh and skin formed from magical power filled it in, turning into long slender necks and all kinds of grotesque heads...
A monster far surpassing a Servant's Saint Graph appeared.
"We are the followers of Hecate, goddess of the black moon, descendants of Nyx, mistress of the night, daughters of the endless sea, equal to the goddesses of glow and twilight, the Hesperides!"
"Here there is endless youth, infinite desire, and boundless temptation. That is the gold that can tempt even goddesses!"
"So appear, you offspring of Typhon, guardian of the world's end..."
"Golden Evil Dragon · Hundred-Headed Ladon!"
At the wedding of Zeus, king of the gods, and Hera, queen of heaven, Gaia, mother of all things, gave them a lush, flourishing tree as a gift. Golden fruits hung from its branches, overflowing with the breath of life.
To protect this precious gift, Zeus assigned the three daughters of the night god, the goddesses of glow and twilight known as the Hesperides, as its caretakers, and also placed a ferocious gatekeeper...
The hundred-headed evil dragon [Ladon].
It was said to be a monster born from Typhon, father of a hundred monsters, and Echidna. It had one hundred heads.
Its breath sounded like thunder. Its steps made the earth tremble. It never felt fatigue, and thus never rested. Even gods found it difficult to match!
Like Fafnir of Norse myth, it was a "dragon that guards gold (treasure)," and was ultimately slain by a hero chosen by destiny.
From the written descriptions alone, it was hard to imagine its majestic and terrifying form. But when this unimaginable monster truly appeared before their eyes, both the Greek huntress and the French saint girl couldn't help holding their breath, their bodies and minds shaken by that overwhelming presence.
Perhaps it wasn't equal to Yamata no Orochi, but it had already surpassed the strength of ordinary divine beasts.
It was absolutely not something mortals could oppose. Even gathering seven Servants might not give much chance of victory.
"How could this be… it's actually Ladon!" Atalanta narrowed her eyes and tightened her grip on the Bow of the Firmament.
She had complete confidence in her archery, but she didn't believe she could surpass Heracles. Yet even that son of Zeus had only managed to subdue Ladon with the help of the giant Astra.
Under normal circumstances, something like this would require power on the level of a god to fight, right?
Now she finally understood where Medea's confidence came from…
Come to think of it, the one guarding the Golden Fleece had also been a terrifying dragon that never slept.
Medea had used a hypnotic song and the blessing of a goddess to make the dragon sleep, allowing Jason to successfully seize the Golden Fleece.
This story was extremely similar to Heracles' trial to obtain the golden apples. Medea had taken Astra's role in that story…
Perhaps that was why she could use the Golden Fleece and the Rhinegold to summon Ladon.
At this moment, Medea and Circe had taken the place of the twilight goddesses. With their assistance, the Greater Grail was even harder to approach than the golden apples in the original tale!
"Roooar!!!"
"Oooooh!"
"Grrr!!!"
"Moo~~!"
…All kinds of beastly roars, even sounds like engine rumbling, came from those chaotic hundred heads. Everyone who heard it felt agitated, their blood surging.
Sella, whose constitution was weaker, even felt a sweetness rise in her throat and couldn't help coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Fortunately, Iori reached out in time and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Moisture filled with divine power gently enveloped her whole body, making her feel much better.
She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and nodded to Iori.
Before she could even speak her thanks, Ladon had already stretched out its bizarre body made of steel and stone. Its ragged wings covered in various parts were plated in gold, and suddenly released wave-like arcs of light.
"Watch out!"
"Senpai!"
"Hmph!"
[T/N: For me the best part of bringing you chapters everyday is reading your comments. Be it anything witty or a simple "Tftc", they all keep me motivated to keep posting chapters. So, do comment and please give a REVIEW.]