As always, he rode on the wyvern, circling in the skies above the Allied Capital.
"I am above Jiuliangliang Island, everything here is normal..."
Looking at the buildings and soldiers below, Lin Qi suddenly had such a line pop into his head.
His memory was pretty good—what he recalled wasn't far from the Allied Capital at all.
That saved Nero a lot of trouble.
And so, as a matter of course, he was once again responsible for aerial reconnaissance of the enemy's troop deployment.
"Wait—am I going to get shot down?"
Lin Qi thought of the person who once said that line and felt a little uneasy.
He shook his head.
No use thinking about pointless things. Better focus on observing the enemy forces.
Even so, the speed of both his observation and notebook scribbling increased slightly.
Suddenly—
He saw a red figure standing on the city wall, waving at him.
Lin Qi narrowed his eyes and looked carefully.
A young Iskandar?
Looks like he's already been summoned.
And the person next to him must be Lord El-Melloi II then?
Seeing that familiar long hair and coat, Lin Qi thought silently.
Just as he was thinking, a black light tinged with red suddenly appeared in his vision.
And it was growing larger.
A mana cannon!
The moment Lin Qi noticed the glowing point, he reacted instantly.
Without a word, he unfurled his flag.
Golden radiance poured down.
Alexander watched a jet-black beam shoot out from behind, tearing across the sky—
And hit the small black dot flying in the air with perfect accuracy.
His smile froze, and the hand he was waving stopped in midair.
Alexander couldn't help but sigh.
"...Looks like flying in the sky isn't that safe after all."
"Flying makes you too obvious a target. As long as there's any anti-air capability, no one's going to let that pass."
Lord El-Melloi II took a drag from his cigarette as he spoke.
Lord El-Melloi II, current Lord of the Department of Modern Magecraft Theory of the Clock Tower, and the very same Waver who once accompanied Iskandar (the adult Alexander) in the Fourth Holy Grail War.
After inheriting Zhuge Liang's power, he officially ascended as a Heroic Spirit.
And in this Singularity, he manifested as an uncontracted Servant.
The only reason he was currently on the Allied side was simply because he wanted to assist Alexander for a bit—
Just to satisfy his own wish.
The two continued chatting.
"Really? Flying that high in a normal war would actually be pretty useful. Hard for anyone to hit him, wouldn't you say?"
"Too bad this isn't a normal war. Flying is fine, but if he isn't agile enough, he'll just become a target dummy."
As he said that, several more mana cannons streaked through the sky.
Then after a pause, more than a dozen followed.
It was such a sight that everyone watching was stunned.
"...That guy seems a little frustrated."
"...Maybe his eyesight is just bad. After all those shots, I think only the very first one hit."
Lord El-Melloi II stared at the sky, where the slightly panicked but completely unharmed black dot was still flying, and spoke speechlessly.
If he had that much mana, he could have landed at least three or four hits.
And it wasn't like Lin Qi was even dodging much. How did only the first one land?
"Haha, in a way that makes him kind of interesting. Though he really is too confident in his summoning."
"But this works out nicely—I get to see what kind of Emperor this Nero really is."
"So I'll be counting on you for a while, Professor."
Alexander grinned at Lord El-Melloi II.
"Mhm. First we need to analyze the enemy Servants—their two Berserkers have insane destructive power..."
While the two of them were happily chatting—
On Lin Qi's end, things were a lot more intense.
After he activated his Noble Phantasm and blocked the first mana cannon, the impact alone blew him off the wyvern's back.
Thankfully, Lin Qi reacted quickly and grabbed onto the wyvern's leg before falling completely.
Following the trajectory of the mana cannon's blast, he saw Lev standing high in the distance.
No time to think.
Lin Qi swung himself back up onto the wyvern's back.
He hurriedly steered the terrified wyvern—whose flight path was now completely crooked—back toward their camp.
Several more mana cannons came firing again.
Lin Qi unfurled his Noble Phantasm once more—
Preparing to take the hit.
But the expected impact never came.
The shots brushed past both him and the wyvern beneath him, not a single one landing.
He even saw one that missed by at least twenty meters.
Lin Qi froze.
"A master of outlining human shapes?"
Forget it. Run run run. If he gets lucky and actually lands a hit, that won't be funny anymore.
Just to be safe, Lin Qi dove downward with the wyvern and fled.
Far in the distance—
After firing another dozen mana cannons out of sheer refusal to accept reality, Lev looked at his now smoking finger.
His face instantly darkened.
He flicked his sleeve angrily. He was in no mood to watch any more.
——Divider——
Back at Nero's military encampment, Lin Qi let the thoroughly exhausted wyvern dematerialize.
Feeling solid ground beneath his feet again, he finally felt relieved.
"From now on, if the enemy has anti-air units, I'm not flying that high!"
Wiping off the cold sweat from his forehead—sweat brought on by near-death several times—Lin Qi silently made up his mind.
"My guard! That was truly perilous just now! But I did not expect your flying skills to be so superb—none of those shots hit you after the first!"
Seeing Lin Qi return, Nero practically skipped over, face full of excitement.
She looked like she wished she could have flown herself just now—to taste what it felt like to weave through a storm of mana cannon fire.
"No, that was purely because the enemy's aim was awful..."
Lin Qi said awkwardly.
Then he recounted what had just happened in detail, making Nero burst into wild laughter.
But the amusement didn't last long.
Intelligence had a time limit, and Nero quickly reorganized her army and marched toward the Allied Capital.
Amid roaring battle cries, Nero soon realized that when it came to military strategy and battlefield formations—
She was completely being outplayed.
No matter how she commanded her troops, she was always led around by the nose.
"Who is the opposing commander? I can barely even fight back."
Nero frowned beautifully.
Only then did Lin Qi realize—
He had forgotten to tell her.
He quickly explained:
"The opponent is none other than Alexander the Great, with Zhuge Liang from my homeland. When it comes to commanding armies, there probably isn't anyone here better than those two."
Nero didn't know who Liang was, but the other name she knew very well.
"What? Alexander the Great? He was summoned too?"
Nero was shocked.
Wasn't this supposed to be a chaotic showdown between Rome's ancestors and her, the true Emperor of Rome?
Alexander the Great existed long before Nero—not even Caesar compared. Caesar was actually an admirer of Alexander the Great.
"I came, I saw, I conquered" was also copied from Alexander.
She had to admit—
Lev's summoning choices weren't bad.
In a war of armies like this, Alexander truly was a perfect choice—
Except he had been summoned too late. The enemy was already at their doorstep.
And Alexander might not even listen to him...
"Then that explains it. If it's him, it would be difficult for me to win in a proper army battle—"
"In that case! It is time for my two generals to take the stage!"
Nero decisively summoned her two generals.
The two Berserkers charged!
The two Berserkers slaughtered everything in their path!
The two Berserkers... got lured away?
Lin Qi covered his face.
Called it.
"The two generals are certainly brave... but their battlefield judgment is really worrying."
Nero also held her forehead helplessly.
The enemy hadn't even used any Servants—just a few squads of soldiers, and they were already led away.
"No choice. It seems I must take the field myself!"
Nero drew the Aestus Estus and pointed forward.
"My guard! Prepare to charge!"
"Yeah yeah..."
...