"Are you alright, Emiya?" Satoru yells, his eyes scanning me for injuries.
I'm... I'm alive?
The realization hit me so hard my knees nearly buckled. My heart was still hammering against my ribs, the phantom wind of the God's fist still cooling the sweat on my face.
"Are you alright?" Satoru asks again.
I just nodded, my throat too tight to speak. I looked down at my hands; they were shaking, the adrenaline still coursing through my system like a live wire.
Suguru stepped toward us, his gaze fixed on the clearing where the Mountain God had been thrown. "Satoru... why are you picking a fight with a 'Shy' Curse? Aren't they supposed to be left alone?" He paused, his eyebrows shooting up as he spots the girl at the edge of park.
"And, who is she?"
"She's with us," Satoru says shortly.
"So, she's the one whose house the spirit is attached to?" Suguru asks. "But how are you even fighting this thing?"
He looks at Satoru, then Satoru looks at me—then both of them are staring at me.
"I'll explain later," I say, taking a deep breath to compose myself.
Shoko interrupts with a heavy sigh, glancing up at the balloons circling overhead. "You guys haven't even put up a Veil. Do you want the whole city watching this air raid?"
She doesn't wait for an answer. Stepping forward, she chants:
"Emerge from darkness, blacker than black. Purify that which is impure!"
A thick, oily, black wall of the Curtain rippled down from the sky, swallowing the park and sealing us away. The sounds of the city died instantly, replaced by the heavy, stagnant air of the Curses.
As the Curtain settled, Satoru briefed them, his eyes never leaving the God. "The 'God' is a brawler and a tank, but the Maidens are the real problem. They can solidify Cursed Energy, project barriers, and fire those golden blasts. One's down, but—"
"Satoru!" I said, pointing at the crater where the first Maiden had been pulverized.
The golden worms weren't dissolving. Instead, they began knitting back together; within moments, she had reappeared.
"What the hell? I just crushed her!" Satoru growled, his eyebrows shooting up.
"They aren't separate entities!" I realized, the gears finally clicking. "The Maidens are just extensions of the God! They're his technique, his guardians! As long as he stands, they literally cannot die! It's like trying to kill a shadow without putting out the light!"
"Great," Satoru muttered, his playful demeanor finally vanishing. "A super-tanker with infinite respawns."
Suguru's expression hardened, his casual posture vanishing. He pulled his hands from his pockets, his Cursed Energy swirling like ink in water. "If they can't die, we just have to keep them busy. Satoru, you take the big one. Emiya, Shoko—you take one Maiden. I'll handle the other."
This is a battle of attrition now, where it depends on whether Satoru can actually excorcise the "God" before our Curse Energy runs dry.
The Curses have regrouped, standing in a defensive formation. The Maidens flank the fake God, one on each side, their hands raised and ready to use their techniques to support him.
BOOM!BOOM!
My Cannons roared, sending Cursed Energy projectiles screaming toward the Maidens.
They don't even flinch; a shimmering golden barrier blooms into existence, tanking the shells with relative ease.
But the distraction is exactly what we need.
Satoru vanishes using Blue, he reappears instantly in the path of the massive, humanoid "God." His fist glows with the volatile, electric blue of his Lapse technique.
CRACK.
The Blue-enhanced punch connects with the fake 'God's' jaw, sending the massive humanoid curse hurtling backward into the treeline. Satoru doesn't wait; he tails the beast into the shadows, a streak of blue light following the wreckage.
Suguru moves with a terrifying, fluid grace the moment my projectiles create the opening. He has already closed the distance with the first Maiden, his two-meter Gorilla looming behind him like a dark shadow.
"Bad girls get disciplined."
Suguru's voice sounded just before he drives a fist into the Maiden's gut. The impact is sickening—she's sent flying backward, her feet leaving the ground—but she doesn't get far.
The Gorilla's technique: Classroom activates.
Space itself seems to warp, snapping the Maiden violently back to her previous position as if she's tied to a invisible bungee cord.
She stumbles, her golden eyes wide with shock, only to see Suguru mid-swing.
WHACK.
He lands a brutal, open-palmed strike to her jaw. Then the cycle repeats: punch, snap-back, punch. It's a rhythmic, loop of "discipline" that keeps her pinned in a private hell.
"What is our plan?" Shoko's voice cuts through the impacts, snapping my focus.
I turn my focus to the second Maiden. I have thought of new way of fighting—something I couldn't experiment until now as the stakes were high.
"Shoko," I mutter, taking a deep breath. "Support me. If I get bound by her technique, just move me. I don't think she can maintain the solidification if the target or she moves from her position."
"Got it," Shoko says, stepping up behind me.
My Balloons shift their position, hovering directly over the Maiden's head.
I summon a single Barbarian five feet in front of her. The yellow-haired warrior roars, his blade raised. The Maiden sneers, her palm glowing with that lethal golden light, ready to incinerate him point-blank.
"RECALL."
He vanishes back into the "Village" just as the golden beam streaks through the space where his chest was.
Before she can even blink, I SUMMON him again—this time directly behind her. His cold iron blade swings in a lethal arc.
She senses the wind of the blade and leaps forward to dodge, but she's jumping exactly where I want her. My Balloons release their load.
BOOM! BOOM!
The bombs detonate at her feet. The explosion flings her sideways, her white robes scorched.
She's still in the air, struggling to orient herself, when I summon another Barbarian in her flight path. His blade is already mid-swing.
SHICK.
It bites deep into her torso, nearly bisecting her in a spray of golden worms.
She hurriedly points her fingers at the Barbarian's face for a desperate counter-blast.
"RECALL."
The Barbarian disappears into thin air.
BOOM! BOOM!
My Cannons fire again, the projectiles hitting her right as she loses her target. She flings backward again, trailing golden light like a wounded comet.
I summon a Barbarian directly in the trajectory of her fall, his sword held in a rigid, two-handed stabbing motion. She hits the blade with the full momentum of the explosion. The cold steel plunges through her midsection, then the barbarian pinned her to the ground.
"You've gotten way better at using your technique," Shoko's voice sounds from right behind me, a rare note of genuine surprise. "Since the last time we fought together."
I don't look back. My eyes are locked on the Maiden, watching the golden worms already beginning to writhe around the steel, stitching her spirit back together even as she's impaled.
"I'm going to get even better," I say, my voice raspy from the fight but steady. I can feel the Curse Energy pulsing in my veins, demanding more. "The fight isn't over yet."