Chapter 31 Methods to Break Through the Nemean Lion's Pelt · I
"You are strong. It is undoubtedly a blessing that in this modern age, severed from the age of gods, such a capable hero still exists."
Alcides solemnly brandished his bow-staff, the very representative of death.
"It is simply that... the timing of our encounter was poor for both of us."
He said:
"Human, you may well feel proud. You are not inferior to the Heroes engraved upon history."
"…"
Is he joking? If I feel proud at this moment, his staff will take my life instantly.
Currently, it is the fortieth move.
Shirou can only see thirty moves ahead—a vision of a combat exchange plunging continuously toward a cliff.
However, based on his experience fighting Saber, his death would be staged by the hundredth move.
The effect of Mind's Eye on Alcides was subtle, partly because the battle had only just begun. Rather, the reason Mind's Eye functioned even slightly was that Shirou had seen the muscular posture of his archery and used it to deduce his combat habits.
As for the second reason, Shirou suspected—he likely possessed a similar ability.
Predicting each other, Alcides' refined insight served as a substitute for Saber's "Instinct."
The only good news was that because he used his bow as a staff, he left behind slight openings that could not be perceived by those who had not surpassed humanity with a human body. A true staff would never have the skewed angle of a bow's limbs or the difference in the center of gravity.
In terms of balance, at close range, he exerted a pressure equal to Saber's with ease, without using any Noble Phantasms.
However, Alcides was not one to quit while ahead. Death drew near for Shirou.
Shirou understood this; almost mechanically, he used his refined instantaneous thinking to respond to the lethal consecutive strikes.
How many moments until death? How many minutes? How many seconds?
The process was agonizing, like walking slowly toward a moving train. He bet his very existence on the clashing of blades, solely to prolong this fleeting combat.
Why did the knight in the stories charge at windmills?
Because he saw them as monsters—that is merely the surface-level conclusion.
To ask further: why challenge a monster you cannot possibly defeat?
Because the monster's existence would harm others.
The knight's folly lay not only in seeing windmills as monsters but in the fact that, because he saw a monster, he charged toward it without hesitation.
Shirou was undoubtedly foolish as well.
Shirou was foolish enough to not only see the monster before him and charge without hesitation but to feel no regret for doing so.
Because Shirou had successfully saved his most important younger sister—no, in her words, she should be his "older sister."
Parrying the side of the bow that acted as the staff's tip, the Yin sword flashed.
Naturally, he failed to turn defense into offense. The counterattack was beaten back, and Shirou was again pushed to the absolute limit.
Using the results of a lifetime of training, he staked his life to charge at the monster radiating a clear presence.
Even if this single charge would shatter Shirou's body into a thousand pieces.
.
,
,
The seventieth move.
The image of his own death finally surfaced in his mind. It had been a long wait.
The countdown began. The number of exchanges climbed upward.
Life reached its final end.
—Shirou, stay alive and wait for me!
In a hallucination, Shirou seemed to remember what Illya had said before she ran away.
He remembered it a bit too late.
However, Shirou found something ignited deep within his heart—pure, mellow fuel that was definitely not regret.
The final ten moves.
Moonlight spilled onto Shirou's blades, and from somewhere, the scent of magical energy wafted—a scent Shirou could no longer distinguish.
Even if he couldn't tell which King it belonged to or from which land the Divine Construct originated, at the very least, it brought a sliver of a breeze to Shirou.
Shirou wiped away the blood and looked up; beneath his messy red hair, his golden eyes burned with fire.
—At least let Shirou take one gamble.
For example, let me, as a human, try to defeat you, a Heroic Spirit.
Sensing the meaning in that gaze, Alcides accepted it head-on.
"Crane Wing: First Strike"
The scale was entirely different from the mock battles with Saber. The twin blades, infused with maximum magical energy, left his hands and flew forth.
Alcides clearly swatted them away and immediately prepared to appear before Shirou, who had momentarily lost his weapons.
"Freezing: Released"
Instant projection.
Discarding the tactic of avoiding injury, he took a massive gamble, using a thrilling counter-movement to propel himself out of the bow-staff's attack range. Bearing the cut of the wind pressure in that instant, blood sprayed from his cheek.
In the moment he flew backward, he threw another pair of Crane Wings.
"Tracing Overedge: Crane Wing "
When he knocked away the second set of Crane Wings used as a feint, Alcides' expression froze.
It seemed he, too, had noticed. He noticed the warning his combat experience was giving him.
However, it was too late.
Stepping onto the edge of the building, Emiya Shirou crushed the ground beneath him and lunged forward.
What Shirou held in his hands were no longer two mid-range short blades. The twin swords expanded, transforming into thick, long blades resembling the wings of a crane.
If this Archer, Alcides, had noticed, he should have realized it by now. There were more than two blades coming for him.
The reinforced Kanshou and Bakuya (Overedge) in his hands possessed supreme aggressiveness.
The iron crane wings, completely sealing the Heroic Spirit's movement path, followed one after another from behind him. The monster of a Heroic Spirit tightened his fist around the bow, fully grasping the current situation.
Six lethal blades closed in for the kill against a single mythological hero, vowing to surpass his myth.
Whether it was the flying Crane Wings or the long blades capable of shattering vertebrae—in just the few moments Alcides hadn't noticed, the roles of offense and defense had reversed to this extent.
The setup was complete. Even someone as strong as Saber would enter a dead-end at this moment, triggering a flashback of their life.
Once the Triple-Linked Crane Wings is formed, it is absolutely impossible to evade.
It was truly a divine technique dubbed with the name "Certain Hit."
As a human, it was a divine technique reached by exhausting all wisdom and skill.
It was so beautiful that it even reminded Alcides of the scene when he created [Nine Lives] during his lifetime.
Therefore, it was absolutely impossible for Shirou to know—Alcides narrowed his eyes as if blinded by a bright light.
He abandoned all action and walked forward. He didn't even lift his arm to swing the bow-staff—because doing so would instead create an opening in his pelt.
Alcides walked slowly.
The beautiful cross of blades, flying and intersecting, struck hard against Alcides' back.
They developed cracks, lost their momentum, and fell.
They were thrown with the intent of self-destruction from the start. But conversely, a Noble Phantasm exerting its maximum power to the point of self-destruction dealt no damage to Alcides.
The second pair of flying Crane Wings slashed toward Alcides' head.
He did not resist, letting them trace a soul-stirring arc. As they struck the cloth, they shrieked and died, losing all force.
And then—the twin wings Shirou thrust forward could not be stopped either.
When the twin swords were about to shred Alcides' spine, Shirou experienced firsthand what had just happened.
They wouldn't cut in.
The pelt on Alcides' body was incredibly soft, yet it acted like a black hole, sucking away all the momentum of the Noble Phantasms, likewise rejecting Shirou's Noble Phantasms named "Kanshou and Bakuya."
Like a shield that ignored everything, the pelt pronounced a verdict of impossibility.
What the hell is that thing—the frozen mind of the son of man likely could not process it.
"If you were using a Noble Phantasm of the correct nature, I would probably fall into a mortal crisis. It is a pity you are not a person of the Age of Gods."
Alcides gazed at Shirou.
What dwelled in his pupils was sympathy.
He lifted his arm holding the bow-staff with a light yet heavy motion. He would grant peace to the great human before him, whose defenses were wide open after such a large movement.
"—"
Shirou's expression was hidden by the shadow of his hair.
This human has fallen into despair.
Alcides calmly perceived it as such.
"......... Trace on..."
The words now chanted were nothing more than a desperate, suicidal struggle. With one more strike of the staff, Alcides would end the youth.
Such a thought lasted only an instant.
Until he discovered that within dozens of centimeters in every direction of his halted body, eerie, curved short swords had appeared out of thin air.
The number—thirty-three blades.
"Dammit."
For the first time, Alcides' expression changed drastically.
Countdown 00:00:00
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