Ruler and the "Red" Saber walked through a room riddled with pits and traps.
Though they were called pits, there was nothing visible in their depths but darkness.
Since infiltrating the Hanging Gardens and reaching the first room, this was already the tenth room they had broken through. Every room was almost the same: a space of roughly one hundred square meters enclosed by gray walls, filled with spike traps, pendulum scythes, pit traps, and poison gas. It was a place absolutely overflowing with killing intent.
"That old hag has seriously awful taste. Vile!"
Mordred shouted in irritation.
Since earlier, all she had done was dodge traps. The magic sword in her hand had barely had a chance to do anything, aside from slicing an incoming pendulum scythe in half.
"Calm down, Saber... Assassin is trying to provoke you."
"I know that!"
The traps laid throughout the Hanging Gardens had no effect on either of them. Mordred possessed A-rank "Instinct," while Jeanne had the cheat-like skill "Revelation."
Neither of them was the sort to ever fall for a trap, but if they carelessly stepped on one or fell into a bottomless pit, they could be transported who knew where and completely lose their way.
Semiramis had Projected countless trap rooms throughout the entire fortress, using them to steadily wear down the intruders' patience.
Before long, the two entered a room packed with Dragon Tooth Soldiers, and Mordred finally flashed a smile she had not shown in a while.
"Step back, Ruler."
She cracked her knuckles and excitedly licked her lips.
"Wait, I'll help too," Jeanne said.
"Don't need it! Get in my way and I'll cut you down too!"
Mordred activated "Mana Burst," becoming a crimson missile that shot toward the Dragon Tooth Soldiers.
A little over ten seconds later, more than a hundred fully armed Dragon Tooth Soldiers had become toys for the Knight of Rebellion to vent on, reduced to piles of powdered white bone.
The girl, who had annihilated half the Dragon Tooth Soldiers with overwhelming force, thrust the Silver Royal Sword into the ground, raised her head, and shouted in provocation.
"'Red' Assassin, Semiramis! Isn't it about time you crawled out here?
Tell me, are you really that scared of me? And you still think you're the queen ruling this Garden?
If all you can do is hide in the back, then you'd be better off staying a princess!"
Mordred's provocation worked, though not in a good way.
The Dragon Tooth Soldiers that had already been reduced to fragments of bone reassembled themselves, returned to human shape, and staggered back to their feet.
"Huh?"
Mordred was briefly stunned.
Revived by the Queen of the Garden's anger, the Dragon Tooth Soldiers seemed even stronger than before. Raising battle axes, bows, swords, spears, and all manner of weapons, they charged at their enemies.
"Tch!"
Mordred hurriedly pulled out her beloved sword again and met them head-on.
"Radiant and Brilliant Royal Sword (Clarent)" was a magic sword that symbolized royal authority.
Its purpose was to amplify the king's majesty and aura. Specifically, it could raise the user's physical abilities, Strength, Endurance, and Agility, by one rank.
During her lifetime, Mordred's break with her younger sister Artoria had caused it to fall into corruption and become an evil sword.
The Noble Phantasm's rank fell, and the stat-enhancing effect it granted when equipped was lost as well.
However, in this manifestation, she had regained her father's approval, so that ability of the magic sword had returned.
Incidentally, the carefree Mordred knew nothing about this.
She simply thought that because her father had praised and doted on her, she could bring out 120% of her strength this time.
Aside from improving her parameters, Clarent, like Excalibur, also functioned as a Mana amplifier, making it a perfect match for Mordred, the genius warrior who had mastered the "Mana Burst" skill.
The girl merely swung her blade on instinct, and a whole crowd of Dragon Tooth Soldiers was blown away by her Mana.
However.
The Dragon Tooth Soldiers that were sent flying and smashed apart did not return to dust and earth. Instead, they stood up once again.
As long as Semiramis wished it, they could revive endlessly. They were undead soldiers in the truest sense.
"Tch... This'll never end!"
Mordred stomped the head of a Dragon Tooth Soldier trying to grab her calf, crushing it underfoot, and glanced behind her from the corner of her eye.
"Hey! Ruler! Stop slacking off!"
Jeanne smiled. "Weren't you the one who told me not to get in the way?"
"Guh...!"
"There really is no helping you... There we go."
Ruler put away the pure white banner that symbolized the Holy Maiden.
After all, Mordred was that person's daughter...
Tolerating a delinquent girl spoiled to the extreme was also a mother's, or stepmother's, job. Hehehe♡
Wearing a smug expression, the Holy Maiden closed her eyes and placed her interlaced fingers before her chest.
With a deep breath, the girl gradually calmed her expression. Then she parted her lips and offered a prayer of blessing to the dead.
"Lord, grant us the means to escape calamity."
"Your grace is immeasurably deep, and Your mercy is eternal."
The prayer flowed smoothly from her throat.
"You dwell in a desolate wilderness, knowing not the road to a place of life."
"Hungry and thirsty, your soul grows faint."
"Sing His name and receive salvation. Sing the name of the One who guides you to a place of life."
A change occurred.
The Dragon Tooth Soldiers surrounding Mordred all froze in place, as if someone had pressed a pause button.
"Fill the thirsty soul, and satisfy the hungry soul."
"Save those bound by suffering and iron in the depths of darkness."
"Now, break the shackles and rescue them from the depths of darkness."
The Holy Maiden's voice was filled with power. It was not simple salvation, but the invocation of a ritual.
What took form was a torrent of powerful Mystery, one so strong that even the "Hanging Gardens of Babylon" could not shut it out.
A magical foundation, in essence, referred to human faith, or to a state engraved upon the land through a similar logic.
Then, if the power formed by the faith of more than thirty percent of humanity, 2.4 billion people, was engraved upon the world...
This was "Baptism Rite," what magi called "humanity's greatest Thaumaturgical Foundation."
"Grant salvation to those bound by sin and tormented by injustice."
"Give songs of joy to the righteous, and silence to the unjust."
"May the departed souls find rest (Pax exeuntibus)."
The Dragon Tooth Soldiers collapsed one after another, as if prostrating themselves before divine majesty.
They quickly began to crumble, turning into sand and earth in the blink of an eye before weathering away.
The room grew calm once more.
Jeanne took out the Holy Banner again and looked at the girl beside her, who stood there completely dumbfounded.
"All right, let's go, Saber."
"Oh... ohh..."
Mordred muttered inwardly, Why has this woman been acting like my mom since earlier?
...
...
Somewhere in the Hanging Gardens, two men had forgotten the nature of the Holy Grail War and were simply enjoying a one-on-one duel.
The "Red" Rider, Achilles, son of the hero Peleus.
The "Black" Archer, Chiron, son of the great god Kronos.
On one side was the immortal hero of the Trojan War, whose fame could be called among the highest in the world.
On the other was the centaur sage who had raised countless heroes, including Heracles, Theseus, Jason, and Asclepius.
At the same time, Chiron was also Achilles' teacher.
For the hero of the Trojan War, the centaur who had raised him could be considered his father in all but blood.
Memories of eating and sleeping under the same roof.
Memories of listening to the other tell stories on sleepless nights.
And memories of having his head patted after defeating a beast, even while covered in wounds.
Former master and disciple.
The supreme great sage and the strongest warrior.
Father and son.
Having sealed away all those precious, warm memories, they now clashed as opposing Heroic Spirits.
Achilles, who had been killed by an arrow in life, believed it would be difficult for him to defeat his bow-wielding teacher.
Even if he could win, it would take a great deal of time.
He wanted to decide the battle in a far shorter span, in one numbing instant.
And so, he used his Noble Phantasm.
Diatrekhōn Astēr Lonkhē, Spear-tip of the Star Traversing the Skies. In simple terms, it was a spear for single combat.
It completely severed time and the surrounding environment, creating an arena that would not disappear until one side was defeated.
In terms of Magecraft principles, it was similar to a Reality Marble while still being something else entirely. Rather than eroding the world, it layered a space over the existing world.
This was the space Achilles had once created to settle things with his archenemy, Hektor.
Hektor was Troy's strongest warrior and commander, the man who took charge of the army in his father's place and whose younger brother Paris sparked the Trojan War by taking Helen.
He was both a brave warrior and a politician whose thoughts even the gods found difficult to read.
Hektor had smiled at Achilles, the man praised as the strongest warrior, and said, "If I fought someone protected by a goddess, this old man would be punished by the gods," before immediately running away.
That was why this Noble Phantasm did not suppress the enemy, but created a "space where a fair one-on-one duel could take place."
It removed all "chance factors" such as God's Blessing and Luck, leaving the outcome to be decided purely by strength.
Of course, Achilles' immortality, the "Andreias Amarantos," was completely unable to function there as well.
After learning these conditions, Hektor accepted the challenge, and in the end, Achilles won by a narrow margin.
Hektor accepted the duel thinking, "In that case, I should have at least some chance of winning."
What, then, was Chiron thinking?
Achilles had no way of knowing.
In any case, the two of them had now abandoned their spear and bow. Wearing smiles from the bottom of their hearts, they were beating each other with the most primitive weapons men possessed, their fists and feet.
"Ooooooooooooooooooh!"
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
The two roared as they threw punches that seemed ready to shatter the world.
If Atalanta saw this, she would probably stare in shock before coldly calling them "idiots."
The fists of the "Red" Rider were one-hit-kill blows, capable of smashing a Servant's Spirit Core with a single strike.
The fists of the "Black" Archer changed endlessly, an Age of Gods comprehensive martial art that could toy with an opponent in the palm of his hand.
There was no clear superiority between their martial arts. Only a difference in direction.
Achilles held an overwhelming advantage in strength and speed, while Chiron surpassed him in technique and knew his disciple's fatal weakness.
Neither could gain a complete advantage. Their favorable and unfavorable positions alternated like a magic trick.
But that balance would not last forever.
As the duel grew white-hot, their speed climbed higher and higher, nearly reaching the limits of their Servant bodies and even approaching the peak they had known in life.
Soon, this duel would be decided.
In a single thought. In a single instant.
No matter which of them it was, the slightest opening would become the trigger for total defeat.
Achilles threw a punch.
It was actually a feint. A punch with such obvious intent should never have landed on his cunning teacher. And yet.
His fist struck Chiron squarely in the cheek.
Not only that, Chiron raised a leg and sent Achilles flying with a kick.
As expected of a centaur, even in human form, his leg strength was terrifying.
The "Red" Rider forced himself up through the pain and protested to his opponent.
"Teacher, why did that punch hit just now... huh?"
Achilles saw something he could not understand.
The "Black" Archer who had just kicked him away was lying in a pool of blood.
The punch Achilles had thrown as a feint naturally could not have had that kind of power. What had wounded Chiron was "something else."
No, it should be called "someone else."
A third party had intruded on his one-on-one duel with Chiron and attempted a sneak attack to kill them both.
Chiron had noticed it, so he kicked Achilles away.
The "Red" Rider's mind reacted quickly, but he still could not understand.
The space created by Diatrekhon Aster Lonkhe was a domain that absolutely isolated third parties. How had the enemy gotten in?
No, more than that, there was another fact that made Achilles' hair stand on end.
The weapon piercing Chiron's body was none other than the stake that had rampaged across the Romanian battlefield several days ago.
"How is this possible..."
Achilles' eyes went wide, and he roared, "Are you still alive, Lancer?!"
"..."
The "Black" Lancer, who should already have been destroyed, stood there.
His face was expressionless. He had neither the dignity of a king nor the madness of a vampire, looking instead like a puppet.
But Achilles could not mistake that overwhelming Mana.
What he was seeing was no illusion. It was the genuine Vlad III.
"Good evening."
Achilles followed that chilling presence with his gaze and saw the figure of a petite girl, lovely as a flower.
"You two were taking too long, so I thought I'd help out~"
Manaka Sajyou tapped her chin with a finger and said, "Anyway, if you kept going, you were going to take each other down."
She was not a Magus of Yggdmillennia...
Achilles gritted his teeth. "You're the Master of the 'Black' Saber?!"
Why could she control the "Black" Lancer? Had they been deceived? Had Vlad III never actually returned to the Holy Grail?
Countless questions ran through Achilles' mind, but he quickly suppressed the thoughts interfering with battle and drew his spear.
With Chiron's fall, the honorable, fair, and just one-on-one duel had ended.
Achilles gave himself over to rage and charged at the girl who had destroyed his sacred duel with his teacher.
"You bastard!"
The "Black" Lancer stood in front of Manaka Sajyou.
He raised a finger, and dozens of stakes formed, surrounding Achilles from every side.
Having lost his territory, Vlad III's stakes were far inferior to before in both power and number. They were nowhere near enough to stop the "Red" Rider.
Achilles roared as he swung his spear, knocking away the stakes closing in on him, then thrust the spearhead toward Vlad III.
It was completely one-sided.
Leaving aside the fact that Vlad III, deprived of his homeland bonus, was already inferior to Achilles, the more important issue was that without Divinity, he could not inflict any meaningful damage on Rider.
"Andreias Amarantos."
This was likely the special ability of the most famous hero in the world, a blessing bestowed by his mother, the goddess Thetis.
Every part of Achilles' body aside from his heel nullified enemy attacks. In other words, he was impervious to blades and spears.
Only Servants possessing the "Divinity" skill above a certain rank, or "Divine Armaments," could harm Achilles.
The "Red" Rider launched a ferocious assault against the "Black" Lancer. Although the latter also used a spear to block, he was no match at all, and a roundhouse kick learned from Chiron sent him flying more than ten meters away.
"Unforgivable..."
Achilles glared at Manaka Sajyou, fury burning out of control.
Someone who had defiled a sacred duel could never be forgiven, even if she looked like an innocent, carefree girl.
A warrior's instinct told him this girl was no ordinary opponent. To make absolutely certain he killed her, Achilles released his Noble Phantasm again.
"Go! Diatrekhon Aster Lonkhe!"
The meteor spear left Rider's hand, tearing through the air as it shot toward the girl.
"So it can be used that way too... Even though you used the same release phrase. How fascinating."
Manaka Sajyou's face lit up with delighted surprise, like a little girl curious about everything in the world.
The same Noble Phantasm, released with the same True Name, had produced an entirely different effect.
A thrown spear. That was another effect of Achilles' meteor spear.
After all, it was a weapon that had earned glorious achievements in myth, so of course it possessed destructive power worthy of its rank.
Because this spear had once killed the Amazon Queen Penthesilea, it could not use the one-on-one barrier against women. But when used as a projectile, that restriction did not apply at all.
When Achilles threw this spear with all his strength, a single strike could erase a Servant on Chiron's level from reality.
No matter how terrifying a Magus she was, she could not possibly survive a direct hit from the meteor spear.
Then a whisper reached Achilles, making his heart stop.
"Brahmastra Kundala."
The radiance of the sun arrived with the release of the True Name, filling the entire space.
The divine spear that shot forth carried the power of an "Anti-Country Noble Phantasm," vaporizing Achilles' prized spear in the blink of an eye.
"..."
After the flames scattered and faded, a new figure landed on the floor.
It was the teammate whose Mana presence Achilles had been unable to sense a few minutes earlier, the one he had briefly thought had fallen in battle.
"'Red' Lancer, why are you there?! Have you betrayed us too?!"
Achilles was overcome with emotion as he questioned Karna, the Hero of Charity, but the tolerance and humility that had once been in Karna's eyes were gone.
Like Vlad III, he too had become a puppet stripped of reason.
"..."
Achilles' throat went dry.
After Vlad III and Karna, more shadows appeared behind Manaka Sajyou.
Spartacus, Siegfried, Avicebron.
Rider's former comrades and enemies, Heroic Spirits who should have already returned to the Throne, appeared one after another and became the girl's servants.
"What exactly is your goal...?"
Achilles asked.
The platinum-blonde girl looked like the embodiment of purity and innocence, but in that moment, to him, she was a monster more terrifying than anything else.
"My goal... You mean my wish?"
Manaka Sajyou placed a hand on her gently rising and falling chest and smiled radiantly.
Beneath the fabric of her emerald-green dress was the mark symbolizing her connection to a certain person.
"My wish... is simply to help Saber.
So that my Saber can win for certain. Other than that, I don't want anything at all."