Blue glyphs cascaded across my body, forming and dissolving in tremendous quantities. I was trying to decipher these... runes, but it was taking a massive amount of my processing power to barely scrape the surface of this ancient language.
I could decrypt them, no doubt. It would simply take considerable time and effort.
Lancer watched the phantom runes flash alongside the sigils of my [Beast Will] spell. His expression hardened instantly, his earlier battle-hungry smile melting away as every muscle in his body tensed.
"Kid... Where did you learn these runes from?" he asked, spear parallel to the ground, tip pointed toward my neck. Bloodlust in doves leaked from him, greater in intensity than when we had begun exchanging blows.
"You." I pointed my stake-chain toward him, my voice even.
Lancer blinked. Once. Twice. Then broke out into a laugh.
"Hahahahaha... If my Master knew... Hahaha... She'd probably lock you in her castle's basement." He spoke between laughs, his stance loosening imperceptibly.
I wordlessly advanced toward him.
His laughter abruptly died as he finally looked at me. Not as a Master. Not as a Magus. No longer as a lesser.
He looked at me as a peer. It was the first time someone had looked at me like this.
I tilted my head slightly as he continued.
"Kid... seems like I'll have to give it my all from now on." His grip on the spear became crushing.
"I don't believe so. You were getting pummeled earli—" My words were swallowed by the sound barrier being torn apart.
A crimson spear swelled in my vision instantly.
Lancer stood ahead of me, reaching me before the sound did.
His spear spun toward me, rotating at an uncanny rhythm within his grip.
It jerked up, then dove down, repeating that pattern countless times on its approach.
Up. Down. Up. Down. Down. Up.
I calculated where his spear would land. My stake-chain moved to intercept. Yet mid-motion, he released his spear entirely. I adjusted my stake-chain slightly, deflecting his weapon. But the throw was a feint.
In a breath, he was already on me.
Both hands free, he struck toward my chest and stomach. My other invisible hand turned, its flat side coming in front of his fists.
He stopped his punches just before the wind barrier, his knee driving toward my stomach instead.
I raised my own knee. Yet... a rope of runes materialized, binding my feet to the floor.
BOOOM!
Lancer's knee buried itself in my stomach. I tried to tense my muscles to divert the force downward, yet... the runes binding my feet shifted, turning everything beneath my heel into a slippery surface.
I slid back—onyx scales falling off my body.
Lancer opened his arm toward the side. His crimson spear flew over, settling itself in his grip.
He walked toward me.
I looked on while settling back into a stance.
Unruffled.
...
..
.
Home.
"Hrrooaah!" Heracles roared as countless spells spiraled to life around him, bombarding him from all sides.
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOM!
Smoke and dust spread from the impact. A gale erupted from within, revealing Heracles unharmed—not even a scratch on his skin.
Medea watched through a crystal ball from inside their home's boundary field. Her expression remained unchanged at the result.
"Ατλας (Atlas)." She chanted, bringing her hands close to the crystal ball projecting Heracles.
A complex magic circle with radiating purple light surfaced beneath him.
He had barely taken a step when the space around him solidified, freezing him beneath compressed layers of folded space.
"Roooar!" Heracles pushed against it, making the magic circle beneath him quake unstably.
It would not take long for him to break apart her space lock.
Yet... she only needed a second.
"Rain of Light: Machia Hecatic Graea." She chanted her strongest spell, completing it instantly.
Magic circles upon magic circles materialized and overlapped in the sky above Heracles, each charged with an enormous amount of mana—around A-Rank within every circle.
Heracles tried to move, his fingers twitching continuously.
Before he could, though... he was drowned under a continuous barrage of purple beams.
Everything was swallowed by a purple flash.
Medea watched, already knowing even this would not be enough to defeat Heracles.
Just as she suspected.
Heracles was revealed amidst the bombardment for a moment. The ground beneath him was disintegrating into ash, a huge crater visible where he stood.
As for Heracles himself?
Countless wounds ran across his body. Most of them were life-threatening.
If she continued her bombardment one more time, it might even kill him.
But the mana cost would put tremendous pressure on her Master, who was probably having an intense fight with some other Servant right now.
"Should I attack Berserker now, Caster?" Artoria asked from beside her, looking at Heracles' projection within Medea's crystal ball with a serious expression.
"Not right now, Saber. We can still hold out." Medea spoke while looking at her boundary field. It would still hold for a considerable time—even against someone of Heracles' caliber.
"Heracles likely has more than one life due to his legend of gaining immortality by completing twelve labors. We will only attack with everything when we are certain of stripping all his lives at once." Medea clarified, her gaze fixed on the rampaging Heracles.
...
..
.
Rider's stake-chains collided with Archer's Kanshou and Bakuya, both screeching against one another in a burst of sparks.
Clang. Clink. Clang. Clank.
Rider and Archer were going at it with escalating intensity when both jerked to a stop simultaneously, hurling their weapons to the left.
Kanshou and stake-chain screeched through the air.
A worm riddled with wounds was trying to sneak away amidst their fight.
It didn't even have a moment to react. Kanshou and a stake-chain pierced it with startling precision.
A single, shrieking wail tore from its throat—then it fell silent.
Rider pulled her chain back. Kanshou dissolved into nothing.
Both Archer and Rider glanced at each other and gave the other an acknowledging nod.
Clang. Clang. Clank.
Their fight continued afterward.
Like that worm had merely been a small inconvenience.
...
..
.
***
[200 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[5 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
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[Rain of Light: Machia Hecatic Graea] - This is Medea's main offensive Spell. It is a volley of rapidly fired beams of light each with an A rank power of attack. Each beam is a deadly spell on the level of greater magecraft with three times Shirou's entire amount of magical energy, capable of destroying the body of a Servant with a direct hit.
[Ατλας (Atlas)]: A spell which freezes the target in place by altering the pressure of the atmosphere to anchor a region of space. Everything in the targets surrounding is frozen, and it is potent enough to hold even Servants in place.
[God Hand]: It is a "hidden ability" possessed by Heracles, a continuously active-type Noble Phantasm that grants him a "body that knows no death." It basically nullifies all attacks at B-Rank and below. It also grants the effect of automatic regeneration, including resurrection after death, reviving him with a stock of eleven extra lives through layered resurrection magic. And on top of this... He adapts to what killed him before resurrection and can't be killed once again by the same attack.
...
[Authors Thoughts]
Honestly... I'm tired tbh.
I had so many college assignments today that I'm going straight to sleep after uploading this.
Goodnight, Everyone.