Not even attempting a block, I instantly dodged to the side, barely avoiding a coming strike. From a corner of my eye, I could see how rocks and dust were thrown into the air. I always wondered if that man ought to use a hammer and not a sword. I quickly created some distance between us while throwing all the magic I could at him.
As most likely a person who knows best how to fight against mages, he enveloped himself with an anti-magical miracle without even uttering a prayer, using incantation as easily as breathing. At the same time, his sword bloomed with gold, creating a slash of light flying at me.
This time, I didn't choose to dodge. Even with his enormous faith and power, be it miracles or magic, such attacks could do little harm to me, whose body was composed of almost half of pure Originium Glintstone. I simply struck it down, absorbing what power I could in the process, creating even more crystal growths around me.
Seeing that his attack was ineffective, he simply teleported right next to me, already in the middle of the next slash. But I haven't fought by his side for so long as not to know his style, quickly using a spell to also teleport to the side, striking at him with my swords. Slightly changing his attack, he easily blocked my strike and pushed me back with his strength. At least he tried, as I used this strength to spin and strike with my other swords at his undefended side.
In response, I received a strike from his shoulder, this time successfully sending me flying back as I watched my sword slide on his skin, not even leaving a mark. But this was expected; even weakened, an Elden Lord was still far above even the demigods. This exchange allowed me to roughly tell his strength, giving me a chance to formulate a plan on how to win this fight.
First, I needed to check if a strategy similar to how I defeated Rider would work here; as such, I attacked that man a few more times, trying to get past his defenses and leave a few crystals on him. This wasn't that hard, either due to ignorance or blatant disregard for me; he barely defended and just attempted to strike me on every given occasion.
I was still unable to leave any wounds on him, but some crystals were now visible on his skin and armor. I continued to trade blows with him, letting them grow, but I quickly noticed that with every move, he could easily shatter them, making my strategy ineffective. I still let them grow on him, just in case, while I moved on to another strategy.
The idea now was to use an attack powerful enough to pierce through his thick skin. Sadly, without support from my tower or previous preparations, my possibilities were limited, especially as I still needed to avoid his attacks. As mentioned before, even if that man appeared to disregard my attacks, he still can easily resolve most, if not all, spells of the Carian and Glintstone schools due to his past as the leader of the war against Raya Lucaria.
Other conventional schools of sorcery, like Gravity, Night, or Crystalian, were also too weak to deal enough damage. My only chance lay in either some taboo sorcery or some spell from my dream. As I was thinking, I noticed that I fell into a fallacy; I never needed to defeat that man alone. Instantly, a viable idea appeared in my mind, prompting me to act on it.
Using one of that man's strikes, I created some distance, letting go of one of my swords in mid-air. In its place, I grabbed my Royal Scepter, but rather than using it directly, I pushed it to float toward where many of my crystals were gathered. Re-grasping my sword, I continued to avoid strikes, controlling magic power in the crystals to gather toward the Scepter in the process.
Channeling all energy into the Scepter, I started to activate a ceremony inscribed on the Scepter. This was the first time I was using this peculiar power on such a scale, especially after it turned from just a magical technique into a Noble Phantasm. Soon, a white shadow started to surround the Scepter, slowly forming a familiar figure to me.
Even that man stopped his relentless attacks and turned his attention there. For the first time, I seemed to see a flash of emotion in his eyes, but it might as well be my illusion. Not one to waste an occasion, I quickly took out the sword bestowed upon me by my Mentor, pushing it toward the other gathering of crystals. I repeated the same process using the sword, quickly forming a second figure in its place.
Seconds later, a now fully formed figure grasped the Royal Scepter, looking at that man, ready to strike. I couldn't help but let a somewhat ironic laugh, thinking that two of them, that man and Queen, could reunite on the battlefield with those false manifestations. But feelings aside, the battle still needed to be won.
On the other side, Remembrance of my Mentor also took form, and she didn't waste time, rushing at that man with full force. The Queen also moved, casting sorceries to assist my Mentor. That man responded to the two of them with miracles of his own, but his combat style became much more defensive than before.
While Remembrances possessed only part of the original's power, two of them could easily compare to that man who was summoned by the Caster. They exchanged blows, destroying almost all the surroundings, but neither side could deal any real damage to the other.
To avoid becoming an accidental casualty, I flew into the air, using any available chance to strike at that man. But even with our best efforts, that man could still calmly resolve our combined offensive. We continued pushing him back, but I knew that this state of things couldn't continue. Even though I could supplement my magical reserves by simply letting my crystals grow all around, this was not sustainable.
As such, I sifted through all the spells in my memory, trying to find something that could work in this situation. After thinking for some time, I decided to try a spell that should be able to deal with this situation, but due to the Noble Phantasms' nature, it might take much more power than normal.
My idea was rather simple; since that man was effectively a summoned construct by Caster's Noble Phantasm, his existence here was nothing more than a spell. And that made him susceptible to the same weaknesses all spells possess, such as counter spells, mainly dispel. The only issue now is how to empower the simple dispel to the point where it can eliminate a Noble Phantasm strengthened by three command spells.
With the Queen and my Mentor occupying that man's attention, I started to move around the battlefield, inscribing Primordial Runes to create a ritual that would strengthen my spellcasting. Luckily for me, we were close enough to my tower that with some slight support, I should be able to use it from here. So I first established a connection with it, after which I began preparation for the mightiest dispel of all time.
Runes in place, I concentrated on the casting before anything could go wrong. That man has completely ignored me for some time already, but I couldn't help but feel that he was observing my actions. Being a rather simple spell, casting dispel was an easy task; even with it bloated with magic power to strengthen it, it was far easier than my previous modified blizzard. Due to that, everything was ready not even a minute later.
But when the spell took effect, it quickly became apparent that it wouldn't be enough to end this fight. At least to finish it quickly. The dispel did indeed have some effect on that man, but rather than instantly getting rid of him, it was only able to slowly sap his strength. On many other occasions, it would be enough, but with Priest still in control of the Greater Grail and other fights possibly ending at any moment, pushing the amount of dead Servants beyond the needed minimum, the time was no longer on my side.
With no better idea in mind, I settled on simply continuing the fight, accelerating how fast he was losing the strength that way. Seemingly aware of his inevitable defeat, that man's strategy changed once again, now focusing solely on attacking me. He would ignore my Mentor's and Queen's attack, taking them head-on if that meant having one more chance to strike me.
This achieved the acceleration I wanted, but also proved that my strength was nothing in front of truly powerful beings; all I could do was run away and dodge, barely surviving thanks to my mobility. With every swing of that man, he would send a slash of light at me, often forcing me to use crystals that were now almost everywhere to block and absorb them.
That game of cat and mouse continued for half an hour or so before a strike from Queen finally broke through that man's defenses. That proved to be beginning of the end, as not even five minutes later the dispel started to fully take its effects. As his figure was disappearing, I took one last look at that man and noticed him looking at me. Like before, I couldn't get rid of the feeling that there was something more in his gaze, but before I could even look once more, he was already gone.
Not wasting time on other matters, I put my wandering thoughts in the back of my head and turned my attention to the duel of Rulers still taking place nearby. Quickly arriving at Jeanne's side, I noticed that she had accumulated quite a lot of damage.
-"As expected, it wasn't able to stop you."-Priest spoke with his usual carefree attitude.-"But sadly, it was enough."
He looked at the Grail that was behind him. Following his gaze, I just then noticed an abnormality in its state.
-"Jeanne?"-I looked at the girl next to me.
-"It just started."-She spoke while catching her breath.-"We need to hurry."
-"No, it's already too late."-Priest smiled.-" No one can stop the wish from taking effect."
As he was speaking, Black Rider flew on his hippogriff, carrying Atalanta and the heavily wounded Red Saber with him.
-"By the gods will, let us offer our prayers to thank him for his blessings. Humanity shall know paradise once more!"-Priest continued his victory speech.
I was already thinking how to resolve this situation when Jeanne grabbed my hand.
-"There is only one way: we need to destroy the Grail."
-"I'm afraid that it truly is the only way."-I sighed, knowing that she was right.-"My spells should be able to do so , but it might take some time to achieve it."
-"No need."-She shook her head and smiled at me.-"Will you stand with me, this one last time?"
-"Of course."
Hearing my answer, Jeanne handed me her standard. Having my swords already shattered multiple times during my fight, I was emptyhanded so I accepted it a little puzzled. I looked at her to understand her true meaning, only to see her reaching for the sword by her side.
-"I might not be able to accompany you after this War, Eno. I know that it's wrong to break promises... I can only offer you my flag, something that carries all my faith to apologize."
-"You..."
-"Please, take care of Laeticia after all of this is done. While I hope she can live a peaceful life, her talent that allowed me to manifest in her body makes it hard to achieve."
Knowing that my words won't change her mind now, I could only nod, unnamed anger burning inside me due to being too weak to prevent this. As Jeanne knelt down to make her last prayer, I could only step in front of her, unfurling the flag handed to me.
Despite being sure of his victory, the priest noticed our actions. Not allowing his hubris to destroy everything at the last moment, he quickly acted to stop Jeanne. I could feel a slight connection with the flag, and after concentrating on it, I was able to understand this Noble Phantasm and how to use it. As such, I could not only use the standard as a powerful seal, but even unleashing its true name became possible for me.
Seeing this, the priest became even more desperate, but after fighting that man, his attacks were almost pathetic in my eyes. No matter what he tried to do, everything was simply blocked by the barrier I created. As he grew more desperate, a pillar of flame suddenly erupted behind me. From it, Jeanne walked out, now fully in white, the flame that once took her life now a weapon to defeat her opponents.
She stopped next to me, looking at me one more time before unleashing her attack toward the Grail. The priest, noticing that, tried to block her attack, but not wanting Jeanne to waste her life for naught, I stepped in and pinned the priest to the ground so that he couldn't get in the way. With desperate cries under my feet, I watched as the flame consumed the Grail, but as everything was about to end, the situation changed one more time.
From outside the time and space of this worldline, a ray of light capable of destroying cities struck the flames, almost fully extinguishing them before anyone could understand what was going on. I teleported to Jeanne's side, supporting her while looking for the cause of the current situation. And it wasn't hard to spot it, as the ray of light finally dimmed, a being appeared next to it.
Looking at it, I was surprised to see a person I was able to recognize as someone often mentioned in Morgan's books, King of Magic, Solomon. But my empathy was also blearing alarms, whatever was standing in front of me was not human, not even divine. It was an abomination molded by all the cruel and ugly parts of humanity, almost overpowering my senses with anger, hatred, and outright bestiality.
Jeanne, noticing my abnormality, grabbed my hand that was supporting her waist, what was left of her flame still sustaining her existence. She looked at the monster in front of us.
-"Humans, ugly as always."-Solomon took one look at us and turned toward the Grail.
He extended his hand, and soon the Grail started to change, finally falling into his hand as a small chalice. With his purpose achieved he didn't even spare us a second glance and stepped forward, entering a passage that he arrived from, but as it was about to close, he glanced back. As if changing his mind, he showed a cruel smile, speaking some obscure spell under his breath, but before I could attempt to understand it, a enormous sense of dread enveloped me.
Looking up, a bunch of rays of light, like before, started to fly at us. Looking at them, I was able to quickly understand that this wasn't a simple problem of surviving this strike, but rather preventing it from destroying this whole worldline.