Zenith was fishing—literally fishing. Watching other people fight was honestly a bit boring, so he enclosed a small pond on the ground, created an infinite water source, and cast his fishing rod.
"How did you do that??"
"Magecraft, duh. Anyone with hands can do it." Zenith jerked the rod up, reeling in a raw salmon.
This was blatant, undisguised contempt. Lancer was furious. He rapidly retreated to open up some distance, intending to unleash his Noble Phantasm and end the battle right then and there.
Shirou Emiya didn't know what the enemy was planning, but he understood one basic principle: in a fight, you have to stop your opponent from doing what they want to do.
Channeling mana into his legs to boost his speed, Gold Experience threw a powerful punch. "Muda!!"
He didn't even know why he yelled it out, but the emotions transmitted from his Stand made him scream involuntarily, "Muda Muda Muda Muda Muda!"
There it was—Shirou Emiya's JoJo pose. In that moment, Zenith felt as if he were witnessing the passing of the torch, almost seeing those iconic Araki lines etched onto Shirou's handsome face.
"Damn it." EMIYA glanced at Zenith. There was nothing he could do; without his Master's command, he couldn't just attack Zenith recklessly. But now that the distance had widened, he could rely on his Archer-class advantage in long-range combat to assassinate Lancer.
Projection Magecraft—replicating weapons he had seen before in the form of projections. Although their power couldn't match the originals, he had an endless supply, and he could even fire the projected Noble Phantasms as arrows.
Caladbolg!
A greatsword resembling a jousting lance was compressed into a slender arrow, immediately shooting toward Lancer in an unstoppable streak of light.
It was incredibly powerful. From the perspective of pure destructive force, a Stand's abilities were at a disadvantage. A Stand's focus wasn't inherently on raw power, but rather on rule-based abilities.
*'I can't dodge it!'* His brain processed it in a split second—he absolutely couldn't dodge. If that hit him, he'd be half-dead even if he survived. Lancer made a split-second decision. He tanked a barrage of punches from Gold Experience, grabbed Shirou Emiya, and hauled the boy in front of him as a human shield.
Unbelievable, pulling a Guard Vent, huh!
Zenith couldn't sit still anymore. If that attack landed squarely, Shirou would absolutely not survive. If a human body took a direct hit from a Noble Phantasm, there wouldn't even be a chance to save him.
"Then, let time accelerate!"
Zenith stood up, tapped his toes lightly, and flew forward. With one hand, he tossed Shirou over to the edge of his fishing pond, while with the other, he placed a thick, five-block wall of Obsidian directly in the arrow's inevitable path.
It wasn't that he wanted to conveniently save Lancer, but that idiot EMIYA had fired the arrow horizontally, and right behind them was a block of residential buildings.
Seriously, these Heroic Spirits and magi always preached about keeping things a secret, but the moment a real fight broke out, they all lost their minds and stopped caring about the collateral damage.
The thirty seconds ran out. A violent shockwave suddenly expanded outward. Even a wall as hard as Obsidian had four entire layers blown clean through.
*'When?!'*
Under the effects of time acceleration, those thirty seconds were more like an extra margin of time created out of thin air. Relying on dynamic vision and presence detection alone made it absolutely impossible to notice.
EMIYA and Lancer's pupils shrank simultaneously. Zenith, meanwhile, reached back, grabbed Lancer by the collar, and hurled him forcefully in EMIYA's direction.
"Shirou, if you want to become an ally of justice, you first need to possess enough combat power. You still need a lot of practice in that regard!"
The Hand!
"Watch closely. This is how a Stand User fights. You can't defeat your enemies by relying on brute force alone!"
Erasing space to perform high-speed movement, it looked just like continuous, uninterrupted teleportation. Wielding a Netherite Sword and coordinating with The Hand, Zenith alone was actually suppressing two major Heroic Spirits!
The true strength of Heroic Spirits lay in their Noble Phantasms. If you took Noble Phantasms out of the equation, their bodies were just as fragile; they would get hurt, and they would bleed. Just like ninjas, they were the epitome of high attack and low defense, and they were even more dependent on their gear.
As long as they weren't given the chance to unleash their Noble Phantasms, Heroic Spirits weren't actually all that outrageous in terms of conventional combat power.
"So strong... Uncle's combat power is actually this high! To protect others, do I first need to possess the power to protect them...?"
This was already a battle that Rin Tohsaka couldn't easily interfere in. She was a genius magus, but she hadn't fully matured yet. Asking her to intervene in a battle between Heroic Spirits at this point was simply asking too much.
"Shirou, I didn't expect you to be a magus too. And this guy is your uncle? Why have I never heard of him before?"
"If you're asking about that..." Shirou scratched his head awkwardly. "Honestly, I find it pretty weird too. I only just found out last week that I had an uncle, and a foreigner at that."
"A guy who just popped out of nowhere, is super strong, and incredibly rich... I really don't get it."
Zenith was still fighting. Shirou suddenly realized that the enemy wasn't just the blue guy, but the red Archer as well.
"Rin, what's your reason for participating in the Holy Grail War?"
"No special reason. I'm a child of the Tohsaka family. Isn't it only natural for me to participate in the Holy Grail War?"
Rin answered. The moment she turned her head to look at Shirou, she vaguely spotted red marks on his hand.
"Wait, are those Command Spells?!"
"What Command Spells?" Following Rin's gaze, Shirou also noticed that, at some point, three perfectly square, blocky marks had appeared on the back of his hand.
"? When did these show up!"
Naturally, they were temporary tattoos Zenith had casually slapped onto him just a moment ago. His own combat power was honestly a bit too hard to explain, so he figured he might as well disguise himself as Shirou's Heroic Spirit.
As for Saber... well, since Shirou already had him as a Heroic Spirit, wouldn't it be perfectly reasonable for Zenith to become Saber's Master instead? It was equivalent exchange—fair, just, and a win-win situation.
That's right, he alone was winning twice!
Using an Ender Pearl to open up some distance, Zenith prepared to start his monologue. He spread his legs wide, placed his left hand on his right knee, and pointed his right hand high toward the sky.
"I am Shirou's uncle, and also the Heroic Spirit summoned to this world in response to his strong will. To realize Shirou's wish of becoming an ally of justice, and to completely stop the Holy Grail War from repeating time and time again, I will defeat all of you!"
Spilling all of his own intel right from the start... who the hell fought a Holy Grail War like this? Lancer and EMIYA completely lost their composure. This guy's combat power was insane, but was there something wrong with his brain?
Shirou's brain blue-screened. His uncle had become a Heroic Spirit, and he had become a Master. He had just declared that he was going to defeat all the Heroic Spirits, so how did that boomerang end up hitting him so fast?
"As you can see, my class is Caster. I am a Magician."
*'No matter how you look at it, you should be a Saber-class swordsman, right? And did you just say Magician?'*
A Magus and a Magician were two completely different existences; the difference was like comparing a cheap Daban bootleg to a genuine Bandai kit. An existence capable of wielding True Magic was an absolute dimensional strike against them. After all, the root cause of the entire Holy Grail War was nothing more than an incomplete True Magic.
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