KRA-KOOM! CRASH! KRA-KOOOM!!
"Dieeeeeee!!!!"
"—Madness!"
The sheer, immense heat radiating from the banner, which I had blocked with my blade, forced a curse to spill from my lips.
Even if only in small quantities, the heat bled through the Armor of the White Dragon, inflicting constant, creeping damage upon me.
'...Damn it, this is wretchedly bothersome.'
To make matters worse, wyverns had joined the fray. While they could not penetrate my [Armor of the White Dragon (Armor of Vortigern)], there was one persistent problem—
THWACK!
"—Argh?!"
CRASH!
They knew how to exploit the smallest opening, even if it meant throwing their own lives away.
Naturally, Jeanne shielded me from most of them. But battle is never a solitary endeavor.
No matter how skilled Jeanne d'Arc may be at defensive warfare, it was functionally impossible for her to block every single beast while we remained in such a state of overwhelming disadvantage.
The few that slipped past her guard followed the Dragon Witch's command, hurling their bodies at me to impede my movements.
In the end, I permitted an attack from Jeanne and was sent spiraling through the air alongside the wyvern that had been gnawing at my armor, colliding with the earth with undiminished velocity.
Seeing me smeared with filth and rolling through the mud, Jeanne quirked one side of her mouth into a sneer.
"—Ha! What a pathetic sight! Where has that confident provocateur gone now?"
"....Ptooey."
FWOOSH!
".....Krrrrrrr-"
CRUNCH!
I spat the dirt from my mouth in response to her taunt and, with a burst of magical energy, blasted the muck from my body in an instant.
The wyvern that had crashed with me opened its eyes, as if only then regaining its senses, but I simply raised a leg and crushed its skull into the dirt with a singular stomp.
I purged the spraying blood with another burst of mana and fixed my gaze upon her.
"....Yes, it is rather pathetic. To be pushed back by mere curs like these. In my prime, I wouldn't have even needed to draw my blade for such trifles."
"....Ha. That is rich. Do you take yourself for King Arthur or some Knight of the Round Table from those legends?"
Hmm...
Technically, I am not the King himself, but I am indeed a Knight of the Round Table.
Struck speechless by her eerily accurate deduction, I clamped my mouth shut.
However, she seemed to take my silence as an admission of agreement to her derision, and she let out a snort of mockery.
It was a truly absurd situation.
"—Pffft!"
"....? And why are you laughing like a nuisance, other-me?"
It seemed Jeanne shared my sentiment. As she suppressed a laugh while fending off the wyverns, Jeanne eyed her with a look of pure confusion.
I turned my head toward Jeanne, my expression serious as I finally spoke.
"Did I not introduce myself?"
"No, you did not."
"....? What in the world are you talking about-"
"Well, I didn't, so there is no helping it... See for yourself."
I glanced at Jeanne, who looked utterly perplexed, and spoke while brushing my hand against the hilt of the blade embedded in the ground.
"My True Name is Elius Alter. I am a Knight of the Round Table, manifested into this Singularity as a Berserker."
"....What?"
Oh, dropping the formalities, are we?
Perhaps stunned by the impact of my revelation, Jeanne reflexively abandoned her polite speech and stood frozen in shock.
I could not hold back my laughter at her petrified form. Seeing me laugh, she realized what she had said and why, causing her cheeks to flare a brilliant shade of crimson.
Driven by pure shame, Jeanne stammered out a response in a tiny, trembling voice.
"H-How dare you, you, you-"
"....You?"
"—How dare you play me for a fool! You, you deceiver! You wretch, no better than Pierre Cauchon! I shall burn you from this earth today without leaving even a fragment of your bones behind!!!!!!!!"
....Excuse me?
I was so caught off guard by the sheer mix of shame and rage in her cry that my mind went blank.
....What did she just say? No, wait, you were the one who guessed my identity!
But before I could even process the absurdity, the flames beginning to manifest around her forced my mouth shut.
I stared at the erupting inferno and braced myself.
-Don't tell me... she's planning to release her Noble Phantasm? ....Surely not?
As if to confirm my fears, Jeanne gritted her teeth and growled.
"Grrr! I shall gather all the world's evils here....!!"
"—! It's a True Name Release, Elius!"
"Insanity! This witch is nothing but a bundle of spite! I'm releasing mine, too!"
I hastily channeled my mana into my blade. It began to pulse with a radiant light. Watching it, I chanted.
"—The light of protection, now lost, yet once a guardian of our ideals. The last lingering shard of Mystery."
"—This is the roar of my soul, honed by nothing but hatred!"
Jeanne leveled her flaming banner toward me. A wave of intensified fire surged forward. Seeing this, I clenched my jaw.
Damn it, it seems simultaneous activation is off the table!
"....[Howl, O my Rage - La Grondement du Haine]!!!"
Along with the tidal wave of fire, iron stakes wreathed in flames rained down from the heavens toward me.
I considered dodging, but I was already committed to my stance for the True Name release. If I broke my form now to flee, I would be open to her attack.
Standing still, however, would leave me utterly defenseless against the storm of fire and iron.
The only recourse—the only way to endure—was to nullify the strike with my own Noble Phantasm.
I poured every ounce of my mana into the blade, causing it to shine with the brilliance of a star, and unleashed my True Name.
"Star's Holy Sword that guarded our ideals! [Excalibur Twilight Alternative; Sword of the Fading Twilight]!!"
I swung the blade at the moment of final declaration. An immense beam of light erupted from the tip.
It transformed into a titanic slash of radiance, surging with overwhelming energy as it raced toward Jeanne.
-KRA-KOOOOOM!!
It collided with her Noble Phantasm. The resulting shockwave sent tremors through the earth. Trees in the vicinity were snapped in half, wyverns were torn asunder or maimed, and the gale-force winds kicked up a blinding veil of dust.
Yet, amidst that maelstrom, I could manage a smile. Why? It was simple.
"—Cough, h-how....?"
"...."
Despite her defensive stance, my concentrated Twilight had pierced through her expansive, chaotic Noble Phantasm.
What's more, it had inflicted severe injury. While partially offset by her own barrier, a Noble Phantasm is still a Noble Phantasm; it was a strike potent enough to push a Servant to the brink of death. She stood before me, scorched, blood spilling from her lips.
However—
"—Grrr, do you truly think my rage... my rage can be brought low by mere wounds such as these?! This is the roar of my soul, honed by hatred!"
"—This is madness!"
My face hardened as I watched her grit her teeth, clearly intending to activate her Noble Phantasm again.
While True Name releases are powerful enough to turn the tide, they consume vast amounts of magical energy. She shouldn't have the reserves—oh, wait. The Grail.
Jeanne was possessed of the Holy Grail, allowing her an infinite supply of prana.
As that thought struck, a chill ran down my spine. Wait, what were the effects of her Noble Phantasm?
I recalled the knowledge from my past life. The effect of La Grondement du Haine... Defense and Reflection.
It was a cheat-tier Noble Phantasm that amplified the damage she sustained to deliver an even more powerful counterstrike, with the output further bolstered by the death of her allies.
Which meant that with so many wyverns dead and her own body sustaining such grievous injury, she was primed to unleash a blast of terrifying proportions.
As if to prove it, flames even more violent than before gathered around her.
"[Howl, O my Rage - La Grondement du Haine]!!!"
Once more, the tidal wave of fire and the rain of burning stakes targeted us. I gritted my teeth.
There was no way to break through that. I had already exhausted my Noble Phantasm, and I lacked the prana to activate it again. I would be erased before the activation was complete.
I had no means of defense.
-Damn it. So, to follow the course of the world as I know it, must I sacrifice myself?
If I trusted in the Armor of the White Dragon—which reduced attacks above Rank A+ to A-Rank—I could act as the shield, taking the brunt of the direct hit. That would grant Jeanne a high probability of survival. I looked at her.
"....Jeanne."
"Yes?"
"I shall act as the shield and intercept this blow. That will ensure your life is spared. Once she activates her Noble Phantasm in succession, the recoil should leave that witch unable to move; you must flee then-"
"....No. There is another way."
"—What?"
Jeanne shook her head, stepped past me, and moved to the front. The banner in her grip unfurled in the wind.
She hoisted it high toward the heavens. As the banner began to emit a radiant glow, she spoke.
"My banner... guard my brothers and sisters in arms!"
"—[My God is Here - Luminosité Eternelle]!!"
Having declared her True Name, Jeanne struck the glowing banner into the earth. Simultaneously, a golden barrier expanded from the banner, which burned brighter and brighter with every passing moment.
The golden barrier collided with the waves of cursed fire and the stakes. They were completely nullified. I widened my eyes, stunned.
"....This is."
I had forgotten about Jeanne d'Arc's signature Noble Phantasm—a defensive, protective miracle that utilized her high Magic Resistance to manifest a barrier capable of deflecting even an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm.
Jeanne's protection brilliantly fended off the assault from her corrupted self, and the fires that were halted by the barrier eventually lost their cohesion and faded into nothingness.
Jeanne had succeeded in completely blocking Jeanne's attack. Witnessing it, the witch let out a ragged, hollow laugh.
"....Ha, ha....cough, damn it...lose.....live..."
THUD.
Collapsing under the weight of her injuries and the recoil of back-to-back Noble Phantasm activations, Jeanne fell to the ground, vomiting blood.
Jeanne and I watched her fall in silence.
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This is a damn chilling situation.....
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