Boom!
"Ah!"
"Ugh!"
Fafnir's breath crashed against the defensive barrier. At the same instant, Jeanne and Mash, who were sustaining it, let out strained groans beneath the impact.
"The surroundings are... melting?"
Ritsuka stared beyond the barrier and murmured in disbelief as the stone buildings around us began to run like wax.
It was only natural. That torrent held prana of such density that it surpassed even an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm several times over. No common structure of stone could possibly endure it.
And Jeanne, hearing Ritsuka's words, spoke with even greater urgency.
"Urgh... we cannot hold much longer! My banner will not endure!"
[Aaaaah! You're barely stopping the breath of a top-class dragon as it is! What do we do, what do we do, what do we do? Isn't there anything? Anything at all?]
As Romani panicked over the communicator, Mash answered through gritted teeth while still bracing her shield against the blast.
"Doctor, please calm yourself! If you lose your composure too, matters will only worsen...!"
[But this is a life-or-death moment! ...Ah, right. Mail, mail. This is exactly when the power of the internet shines!]
"...What, do you actually have a method?"
I asked despite myself, a flicker of hope rising in me. Was the acting director of Chaldea truly about to produce some means of breaking this deadlock?
[Go to the page of the internet idol! Magi☆Mari's Treasure House of Knowledge, Magi☆Mari's Treasure House of Knowledge!]
"Wh-what? Magi... Mari?"
[If you ask, "We are barely holding back the breath of a top-class dragon, but it looks like the barrier will soon break. What should we do?" then...
"Hmm☆ Perhaps you should die once and be born anew?"
Wow, how cruel, internet idol! She doesn't understand the human heart at all!]
"...I ask only to be certain, but is that pitiful chicken truly the man standing at the head of the organization charged with safeguarding Human Order?"
"Yes... I am very sorry."
The answer that came from behind me shattered my expectations with perfect thoroughness. I cast a look of utter dismay toward the communicator.
Mash, perhaps ashamed on Romani's behalf, flushed red even as she held back the breath with her shield and offered that apology. I shook my head.
"No. More importantly, I have thought of a better way. Mash. Jeanne."
"Ugh... yes."
"Yes, Elius."
"I shall release my Noble Phantasm. Mine is an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm. It should be enough to cancel out a breath attack whose force has already been diminished by your defensive barrier. Can you dispel the barrier at the same instant, on my signal?"
Jeanne and Mash hesitated for but a moment before answering.
"...I believe I can."
"...Yes. I think I can manage it."
"Good. Then let us begin..."
The light of guardianship that had once defended our lost ideal realm. The final fragment of Mystery that yet remained.
Hearing their answer, I began to gather prana into my sword. As I prepared for [True Name Release], magical energy converged upon the blade and it began to shine.
Even amidst the dragon's breath, the sword blazed like a black star.
Jeanne d'Arc Alter, having witnessed that radiance once before, seemed to grasp what I intended. She let out a scornful laugh.
"Heh. Do you truly believe that the release of such a paltry Noble Phantasm could cancel out Fafnir's breath? As ever, you are a fool."
"A fool, you say... It seems you are laboring under a grave misunderstanding."
"...What did you say?"
Jeanne d'Arc Alter shot back in disbelief, only to notice something strange. Her voice dropped to a murmur.
"Fafnir is... afraid...?"
The evil dragon she rode was trembling, however faintly.
At that sight, Jeanne d'Arc Alter's eyes shook from side to side, as though she could not accept what she was seeing. I answered with a thin smile.
"You seem to have misunderstood my legend rather badly."
I raised the holy sword, now so swollen with prana that merely looking upon it was painful, and leveled it at Fafnir. Jeanne cried out at once.
"Now, Mash!"
"Dispelling Noble Phantasm!"
The defensive barrier that had been holding back the dragon's breath came undone. Yet even as the torrent rushed toward me, I only smiled.
The star-forged holy sword that had once defended our ideal—
"I am the one who slew Vortigern, the dragon that succeeded Albion of the Boundary—"
A dragonslayer.
"[Excalibur Twilight Alternative; The Sword of Victory Upon Which Twilight Falls]!!"
With the [True Name Release], the golden prana that had been amplified within the blade to its utmost limit burst forth in an instant, becoming a single colossal beam of light.
That torrent of energy, dense with the power of dragon-slaying, tore through the breath attack and surged straight toward Fafnir.
Seeing it, Jeanne d'Arc Alter cried out in alarm.
"...!!!! Fafnir, quickly, evade—"
"Too late."
Flash!
Fafnir twisted his body in desperate haste at Jeanne d'Arc Alter's command, yet the golden beam, having utterly pierced the dragon's breath, still struck his left wing.
The left wing, unable to withstand the immense energy and dragon-slaying force contained within that light, was not merely scorched away. It was severed cleanly from the heavens.
Realizing that his left wing had vanished, Fafnir let out a howl as unbearable agony surged from the place where it had been, and the evil dragon plummeted to the earth.
"Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr—!!!!!!!!!!"
"Aaaah!"
"Now! Leave La Charité at once!"
"Wah—!"
"...Understood!"
As the witch fell together with the crashing dragon, I swiftly scooped Ritsuka into my arms, turned, and ran. Jeanne and Mash followed close behind me.
"Krrr!"
"...Damn it."
Three Wyverns had taken position near the entrance.
Of course, we could break through them.
But the true problem was the delay. In the time it took to force our way past the Wyverns, the enemy Servant might catch up to us.
I cast a glance behind me toward the evil dragon. It seemed those monsters were already beginning to recover their senses.
I had no choice but to break through...!
With Wyverns barring the way ahead and an enemy Servant threatening to hem us in from behind, I tightened my grip on my sword.
Crash!
"Krrrrrrrrr!"
No—I tried to.
As I reached for my sword, the scream of a Wyvern made me look past it.
There, a carriage drawn by horses of glass came thundering forward. Two of the three Wyverns blocking the entrance were unable to withstand its charge and died shrieking beneath its force.
Perhaps because the first two absorbed the impact, the last one barely survived. The Wyvern sprawled upon the ground lifted its wounded face, trying to see its attacker, but—
"Krrr—"
Crunch!
A glass horse brought down its hoof and smashed the creature's face apart, killing it outright. We stared for a moment at the Wyvern that had died with its skull burst open, then turned our eyes to the carriage behind it.
Through the carriage window, I saw a man who looked to be a musician and a woman who bore the air of nobility.
"Good grief. I did ask you to drive a little more gently."
"Forgive me, Amadeus. But if we were to break through, there was no helping it!"
The woman laughed as the man—Amadeus—sighed, then leaned her head out through the open window and looked toward us.
"Hello, everyone! I am Marie Antoinette! It seems you are in need of aid!"
The woman who named herself thus smiled brightly as she spoke.
At Marie's question, Ritsuka, still staring blankly from within my arms, answered in return.
"Um... can you help us escape from the Dragon Witch?"
"Of course! Quickly, climb aboard!"
"Yes!"
The carriage door swung open. At Marie's invitation, I set Ritsuka inside.
Mash and Jeanne climbed in after her. Seeing that the seats within were now full, I vaulted up onto the roof of the carriage instead. Marie saw this, shut the door, and called out cheerfully.
"Then off we go! Hold tight, Sir Knight!"
Rattle, rattle!
And so we fled La Charité at great speed.
**
In the city of Thiers, flames rose into the air. There, two Servants were locked in a quarrel even as they fought—one with purple hair and jade-green eyes, the other with green hair and golden eyes.
"Take this! Take this, take this, take this! Insolent! Little! Backwater squirrel of the Far East!"
"Ufufufufu. Which of us, I wonder, is truly the insolent one? Do you really believe that a half-formed dragon such as yourself can defeat me, a true dragon, Miss Elizabeth?"
"Ughhh!!!!!"
The purple-haired girl, Elizabeth Bathory, cried out in fury at the green-haired Servant's words.
"I'm so mad I could scream! Before I deal with Carmilla, I'll make you my blood sacrifice first, you sticky little stalker!"
"I am not a stalker. I am merely 'rear security so devoted it appears clandestine.' This Kiyohime is a woman who lives by love, after all."
Kiyohime, the green-haired Servant, said this while looking at Bathory. Elizabeth shook her head violently.
"No... your love is a violation of human rights!"
"That is a most curious accusation coming from a deviant with a blood-torture fixation. Since it is you, I imagine you were doing all manner of such things... were you not?"
"What is that even supposed to mean!?"
At Bathory's shout, Kiyohime's eyes widened slightly in sudden realization.
"...Eh? Elizabeth, surely you do not mean..."
"Aaaaaaaaaah! Quiet, quiet, quiet! I'll kill you first!"
"I return those words to you exactly!"
At Elizabeth's cry, Kiyohime raised her fan once more to resume the battle. Seeing that, Bathory drew in breath, preparing to unleash her own draconic blast.
Then the two rushed at one another.
"Taaaaaaa—what is that!?"
"Taaaaaaa—that is..."
No—they were about to rush at one another.
But then, far away, a brilliant pillar of light rose into the heavens.
Though it was at an immense distance, the power contained within that column was so vast that its radiance reached even here. The two Servants halted and turned their eyes toward it.
"...What is that?"
"...Good heavens."
Both Servants stared at the tremendous pillar of light, unable to close their mouths. They both understood at once that it could only be a Noble Phantasm.
Yet that was not what truly astonished them.
"I can feel the prana all the way from here? What sort of monster is over there...? And there's dragon-slaying in it too, faintly... ugh... huh?"
Bathory rubbed at the gooseflesh rising on her arms from that distant prana and the faint trace of dragon-slaying within it, then looked to Kiyohime standing beside her.
Kiyohime was simply staring at the pillar of light in silence. Bathory, puzzled by the sight, called out to her.
"...Hello? Are you all right, backwater squirrel?"
"...This feeling..."
Kiyohime gazed at the pillar of light. She could sense the force of dragon-slaying within it, yes—but there was also a warmth in that prana, as though it were gently embracing and protecting her.
It felt as though she were being wrapped in warmth and sheltered from harm. That sensation made her heart tremble.
And as she felt it, Kiyohime's eyes began to shine.
Her cheeks flushed red, and she whispered softly,
"...My husband?"
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