This Ruler—could she possess enough military power to overturn the entire Red Faction on her own?
Looking at the dozens of Purification Knights that had suddenly appeared, whose spirit core reactions were not inferior to ordinary Servants, Atalanta couldn't help but purse her lips.
Although for her, it was something that could be mostly resolved with a single Noble Phantasm, summoning dozens of them so effortlessly suggested she could easily assemble an entire army, couldn't she?
The 'cannon fodder' tactics previously prepared by the Red Faction were likely useless now.
And this Ruler possessed the martial prowess to easily crush Karna...
Plus, there were other Servants within the Ruler Faction...
One could only say, it was a good thing she defected quickly!
"Eh? Is the Red Faction's Archer planning to jump ship to our side?" Daniel asked, looking at Atalanta with some surprise.
While he could guess that Atalanta might be friendlier toward him because of his attitude toward Jack the Ripper, he never imagined she would actually defect because of it.
Atalanta looked toward Jack the Ripper, who was smiling inside the temple, with a soft gaze, then turned back and nodded to Daniel.
"But even if you say that, I already have command spells on the backs of both my hands. There's really no space left," Daniel said helplessly, pulling up his fingerless gloves to reveal the command spell marks on the backs of his hands.
"Um, command spells don't necessarily have to be engraved on the back of the hand," Jeanne, who was standing nearby, suddenly spoke up. "Extending them to the arms or the back is also possible."
She held a supportive attitude toward a Servant from the Red Faction defecting.
After all, the Red Faction was controlled by the greatest enemy of her current manifestation.
Reducing the enemy's power while simultaneously strengthening their own combat potential—why would she refuse?
"Then can my mana support so many Servants existing at once?" Daniel asked, looking back at Jeanne.
Come to think of it, with Sanzang opening the 'Temple' and simultaneously consuming mana for the project of cleansing the sins of tens of thousands of vengeful spirits, it was quite strange that he hadn't shown any signs of excessive consumption.
"Well... actually, yes!" Jeanne's eyes sparkled as she looked at Daniel. "I don't know the specific reason, but your magic circuits are quite peculiar. The rate of mana generation even far exceeds the current rate of consumption. However, your own mana storage has remained in a full state; instead of overflowing, there's even extra consumption as if it's supplementing something."
Daniel looked up at Artoria with a speechless expression.
Is this what you meant by 'neither quality nor quantity are much to look at'?
Oh, you're a god, so never mind.
By the way, I also want to ask, what level of magecraft did you mean when you said 'it's best not to release magecraft'?
Atalanta observed Jeanne with a strange look.
She always felt this Lancer was a bit odd.
"Um, can we start transferring ownership?" Atalanta reminded them. "I'm worried that if we hesitate any longer, my master will use a command spell to forcibly summon me."
"That's what she said, Ruler," Daniel turned to Jeanne. "Shall we begin?"
"Yes!" Jeanne nodded heavily, then struck the butt of her flag-spear firmly against the ground.
In the next moment, a magnificent summoning circle expanded beneath the feet of Daniel and Atalanta.
Atalanta looked back and forth between Jeanne and Artoria in shock.
What kind of trick are you guys pulling!
King Arthur isn't the Ruler, but this somewhat naive-looking Lancer here is the true Ruler?
How on earth did you manage to deceive Karna!
Atalanta once again felt lucky that she had defected early.
This Ruler Faction is both dirty and strong; if you don't defect, are you just waiting to lose?
A command spell engraving that looked a bit like a lollipop gradually emerged on Daniel's arm.
"It's a good thing I'm wearing long sleeves, otherwise if my friends saw this tattoo of mine, they'd be so heartbroken," Daniel muttered, looking at the 'lollipop' on his arm with emotion.
Well, his 'illness' was acting up again.
Atalanta, however, raised her hand in surprise, then looked at Daniel with raised eyebrows.
Under the enhancement of her previous master, her stats were as follows:
Strength: D; Endurance: E; Agility: A; Mana: B; Luck: C; Noble Phantasm: C.
After changing masters, her stats became this:
Strength: B; Endurance: C; Agility: A+; Mana: A; Luck: C; Noble Phantasm: B+.
Except for Luck, which remained unchanged, all attributes had increased significantly.
"It's truly hard to believe that you are currently consuming enough mana to support the existence of three Servants," Atalanta remarked to Daniel with emotion.
"Alright, since I've now switched sides and become your companion, shouldn't we exchange some information?" Atalanta asked. "For example, which of these two is actually the Ruler?"
Atalanta's gaze shifted back and forth between Jeanne and Artoria with a complex expression.
"It's me, of course," Jeanne answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Although Miss Artoria is very powerful, she is not a Servant."
"I thought so," Atalanta twitched her lips, but she really couldn't force a smile.
"After all, it's impossible for the Holy Grail War to summon a god's true body."
"I'm more curious about how this kind of common sense—which could be seen through even without Karna's lie-detection ability—actually managed to fool Karna," Atalanta said, looking toward Artoria in confusion.
"Ah, that... actually, I slightly blurred the common sense of the Holy Grail War," Jeanne explained, scratching her cheek sheepishly. "Because shortly after meeting them, they suggested swapping identities, so I used my Ruler privileges a little bit."
"The reason you can perceive it now, Atalanta, is only because you've changed factions and have become part of the same third-party force as me."
What a 'fair' referee Jeanne is!
Daniel looked at Jeanne in astonishment.
He had originally thought Artoria herself had fooled Karna, but it turned out the referee had been blowing a biased whistle in secret!
Atalanta once again felt glad she had defected early.
With the referee personally stepping in to fix the match for the stronger side, how could the Red Faction win?
Win with their heads?
"Forget it, knowing too much is bad for the mind. I'll just stay here quietly and watch how those children leave," Atalanta gave up thinking and approached the temple, slowly squatting down to watch how the black aura on Jack the Ripper was turning into golden light bit by bit.
Every strand of black turning to gold represented a child being redeemed.
"Uh... did I come back at a bad time?" Shishigou Kairi asked, looking at the additional Atalanta and Artoria by the temple, then turning to Daniel in astonishment.
"No, it's a perfect time," Daniel shrugged and explained. "The Red Faction's Archer has now jumped ship to our Ruler Faction."
"They even have job-hopping here..." Shishigou Kairi felt deeply regretful about his job.
Failure this time was certain; what he needed to do now was survive this increasingly bizarre Holy Grail War.
Therefore, clinging to the Ruler Faction's thigh was the top priority.
"By the way, is the magecraft to disperse bystanders already drawn?" Daniel asked, looking at Shishigou Kairi.
"It's all taken care of," Shishigou Kairi nodded, then added with some hesitation, "But if the Magi of the Yggdmillennia Clan intend to destroy it, no matter how perfect my previous work was, there's nothing I can do. After all, I'm only one person."
"Please don't speak ill of us behind our backs, Mr. Shishigou Kairi," Fiore's voice came from a nearby alleyway.
Atalanta immediately jumped up, drawing her bow and nocking an arrow as she glared at Fiore.
She already knew about the alliance between the Red Saber master-Servant pair and Ruler, so she hadn't reacted when Shishigou Kairi appeared.
But now, a master from the Yggdmillennia Clan had emerged.
Being more vigilant certainly wouldn't hurt.
"Not just Red Saber, but now even Red Archer..." Fiore looked at Atalanta, who was full of hostility toward her, in astonishment, then turned to Daniel. "Mr. Li Lin, have you allied with the Red Faction?"
Who is Li Lin?
Atalanta raised an eyebrow in surprise, then immediately understood the situation.
This new master of hers was no simple character; he even used a fake name when greeting people.
However, the other party was a Magus, so using a fake name was the most correct thing to do.
After all, one never knew if the other party would use your name to cause trouble.
"No," Daniel shook his head while observing Fiore, then silently moved a bit closer to Artoria. "Archer is no longer a Servant of the Red Faction; she just jumped ship to our Ruler Faction side."
As he spoke, Daniel even showed the 'lollipop' on his arm to Fiore.
Fiore looked at the new command spell on Daniel's arm, dumbfounded.
Caster, Lancer, Berserker, and now an Archer had been added.
Including Ruler, this faction already had five Servants.
And every single one of them was an opponent who wouldn't be easy to deal with.
Add to that the black-armored woman on Berserker's side and the Red Saber, who clearly favored the Ruler Faction.
Hiss!
Is the referee team actually the most powerful force?
They, the Black Faction, were about to lose an Assassin.
Although they had gained an extra Berserker in the previous battle.
And the Red Faction probably suffered the heaviest losses.
Not to mention losing Berserker, they had lost another Archer, and even Saber had clearly become estranged from them.
Fiore was very nervous now.
She began to worry about the purity of the Ruler Faction.
After all, they were even accepting defecting Servants from other factions... if even the referee joined the fray, then neither the Black nor Red Factions would likely have any chance of winning alone.
For a moment, Fiore even thought about contacting Darnic to discuss cooperating with the Red Faction to drive out the Ruler Faction first.
"I'm very sorry, but due to some misunderstandings on our part, the Black Faction's Saber, Archer, and Berserker are currently forced into battle with your Berserker and the Red Faction's Saber." Fiore took a deep breath, suppressed the unease in her heart, and looked at Daniel tentatively. "Can we stop the battle over there first?"
"That's happening?" Daniel asked with a raised eyebrow. "Sorry, Berserker didn't notify me, so I really didn't know."
Well, after all, Kriemhild lost her sanity the moment she saw Siegfried.
However, Albedo had indeed contacted Daniel.
But unfortunately, Daniel didn't know magic, so he couldn't respond to Albedo.
And Kriemhild was clearly worked up again, so his idea of using Kriemhild as a relay station to issue orders to Albedo had failed.
"Then, about stopping the battle..." Fiore looked at Daniel somewhat cautiously.
"Yeah, I'll tell Berserker," Daniel nodded, then looked at Fiore. "But why would you guys have a misunderstanding with Berserker in this town? And even have a fight break out because of it?"
Since this town wasn't named Chu, Daniel didn't ask the stupid question of 'why are you here'.
Instead, he asked 'why did they have a misunderstanding with Kriemhild in this town' and 'even reach the point of fighting for it'.
"Jack the Ripper." Fiore pulled a newspaper from her clothes and explained. "We came to investigate after seeing this newspaper and receiving intelligence that Jack the Ripper was killing people in this town."
Fiore glanced at Jack the Ripper and Sanzang in the temple, then continued.
"However, shortly after arriving, we discovered that the members of the Ruler Faction seemed to be performing a rite of passage for Jack the Ripper, so we temporarily suspended all actions."
"But then we encountered provocation from Red Saber. To avoid the aftermath of the battle affecting this area, Archer and Berserker wanted to lead Red Saber out of town. On the way, they met your Berserker and our Saber. At the time, because it was dark and there was a black-armored woman blocking the view, Archer didn't see Berserker and attacked the black-armored woman who appeared to have stopped Saber."
"We only found out afterward that the black-armored woman was actually your companion, Mr. Li Lin."
Her words neatly exonerated her side.
All the blame was shifted onto Mordred and Albedo.
This girl has quite a few little schemes, doesn't she?
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