Chapter 256: The Beginning of the Final Battle
"Ugh!" Far away at Ryūdō Temple, Irisviel suddenly clutched her chest and collapsed onto the ground. In that very instant, she felt that something within her body had become completely full. Her body began to heat up, and her consciousness gradually became blurry...
"Lancer..." Sakura, who was sitting under the eaves quietly waiting for Hikigaya Hachiman's safe return, immediately noticed Irisviel's abnormality. She quickly called out to Karna into the air.
Hearing Sakura's call, Karna, who was originally guarding the temple gate, flashed and appeared before the two of them.
Seeing Irisviel, who had already lost consciousness on the ground, Karna instantly understood what had happened.
He picked Irisviel up by the waist and, following Hikigaya Hachiman's instructions before leaving, placed her on the right side of the magic circle that had been drawn in advance in the center of the temple's open ground.
On the left side of the magic circle, the Crest Worm, possessed by the soul of Matou Zouken, was bound by several golden chains, unable to move.
"After placing them, I just need to input prana?" Thinking of the task Hikigaya Hachiman had entrusted to him, Karna injected his own prana into the mercury in front of him.
Immediately, a gentle golden prana gradually colored the mercury.
As the magic circle slowly activated, a phantom image of a cup simultaneously appeared on the surface of Irisviel's body and the Crest Worm containing Matou Zouken.
The difference was that the phantom image above Irisviel's body was more solid, while the one above Matou Zouken, from Karna's perspective, was merely an illusory projection.
Suddenly, countless black threads flowed out from the area of Irisviel's heart, winding through the magic circle and crawling toward Matou Zouken.
"What is this?!" Matou Zouken, who had lived for hundreds of years, suddenly had the fear he had long forgotten reawakened the moment he saw the black threads.
He controlled the Crest Worm, struggling and twisting its body forcefully.
However, how could the chains formed from Inari Divinity be broken by the power of a mere worm?
Under Matou Zouken's despairing gaze, the black threads gradually swept over the entire Crest Worm, eventually completely wrapping it and forming a pitch-black sphere that entirely swallowed the phantom cup image above the Crest Worm...
And as the black threads continuously flowed out from Irisviel's heart, the color in Irisviel's face improved at a speed visible to the naked eye.
After an unknown amount of time, the seemingly endless black threads finally drained out of Irisviel's body.
Seeing this, Karna immediately moved Irisviel out again, placing her on the eaves corridor where Sakura had been sitting earlier, to rest.
Finally, he turned back and focused on the only living thing in the magic circle at that moment—Matou Zouken.
No, the current Matou Zouken could no longer be described as a living creature.
Karna frowned as he stared at the pitch-black, spherical object in front of him, which he didn't know how to describe.
"Is this the Holy Grail? Why does it emit such an ominous aura?"
Just looking at the spherical object gave Karna an impulse to destroy it.
But constrained by his status as a Servant, Karna ultimately decided to let Hikigaya Hachiman determine the necessity of the object's existence.
After confirming that the magic circle was operating in an orderly manner, Karna returned to guard the temple gate.
After about twenty more minutes, apparently drawn by the prana fluctuations emitted during the Holy Grail's formation, a golden flying machine in the distance was rapidly approaching Ryūdō Temple...
"I didn't expect Rider to have been taken out by Saber." Gilgamesh, seated on his throne, listened to Kotomine Kirei 's report, a hint of regret showing on his face.
After all, Iskandar was one of the few individuals in this Holy Grail War that he was interested in fighting, but he didn't expect him to be taken out so quickly...
"Compared to the matter of Rider, judging from the current situation, things look very unfavorable for us."
Kotomine Kirei stood on Gilgamesh's right side. As an Executor of the Church, he easily noticed Karna, who was guarding the entrance to Ryūdō Temple.
"To leave Lancer to guard the base? If that's the case, the situation is troublesome..."
Without a doubt, after dealing with Rider, Hikigaya Hachiman was rushing back with Saber.
Now, the ritual to summon the Holy Grail had already begun inside Ryūdō Temple.
If Gilgamesh and he couldn't break through Karna's defense before Hikigaya Hachiman and Saber returned as reinforcement, they would lose this battle!
"Kirei, relax a little." Compared to the somewhat worried Kotomine Kirei, Gilgamesh seemed to completely disregard the trouble before him, taking out a bottle of specially brewed red wine from his treasury and sampling it.
"With the Command Spells I took from Tokiomi and your father, even if Lancer is very powerful, he absolutely won't be able to stop our attack."
"That is true..." Hearing Gilgamesh mention Tohsaka Tokiomi and his own father, Kotomine Risei, Kotomine Kirei rolled up the sleeve of his right hand, looked at the dense cluster of Command Seals on it, and a slight curve appeared on his face.
Because they were trusted acquaintances/closest kin, those two had absolutely no defense against Kotomine Kirei's surprise attack from behind.
Thinking of the complex mixture of expressions—astonishment, shock, confusion, blankness—on the faces of the two right before their death, Kotomine Kirei raised his hands and covered his face.
"This is truly unfortunate... Just recalling that scene makes my heart involuntarily fill with pleasure. This is disadvantageous for the coming battle..."
"No, Kirei. It's precisely because you witnessed things that were quite wonderful to you that your fighting spirit is higher, isn't it?"
The Vimana had already arrived over Ryūdō Temple.
An invisible prana was resisting the Vimana, preventing it from flying further up the mountain.
After instantly seeing through the characteristic of Ryūdō Temple that it could only be assaulted from the main gate, Gilgamesh stood up from his throne and looked down at Karna, who was stationed in front of the gate.
Sensing Gilgamesh's gaze, Karna also raised his head and met his eyes without the slightest hint of fear.
"Interesting..." After gazing at him for several seconds, Gilgamesh was the first to withdraw his gaze.
He turned his head to look at Kotomine Kirei behind him and said casually: "I'll be held up by that fellow for a while. The Holy Grail is up to you."
Having said that, Gilgamesh leaped off the Vimana and onto the steps in front of Karna.
"No need for pleasantries. If you are a god, then let the War of the Gods continue once more at this moment!"
Casually stretching his body, Gilgamesh, who was somewhat frustrated that Rider hadn't been defeated by him, gave Karna no time to reply and immediately opened the Gate of Babylon.
Instantly, four of the most supreme Noble Phantasms were hurled from the golden wall behind him, slamming fiercely toward Karna!
Facing the incoming attack, Karna merely glanced up, showing no expression on his calm face.
Casually raising the spear in his right hand and lightly brandishing it twice, the four Noble Phantasms were struck flying, and then returned to Gilgamesh's treasury.
"Oh?" Feeling Karna's power directly for the first time, a hint of surprise appeared on Gilgamesh's face.
Judging by the ease with which Karna deflected the Noble Phantasms just now, it was clear that the opponent had not used his full power.
"Interesting... If that's the case, then how about this?" The wall of light expanded further, and sixteen various supreme Noble Phantasms slowly emerged from the wall.
"..." Looking at the Noble Phantasms in the wall of light behind Gilgamesh, Karna slightly frowned and simultaneously began to mobilize the prana within his body.
At the same time, Hikigaya Hachiman, sensing the prana being drawn from his body, instantly knew the news of the attack on Ryūdō Temple.
"Saber, you go on ahead." Sitting astride the giant fox, Hikigaya Hachiman said to Artoria beside him.
Although the speed of the foxes they were riding was actually the same, Artoria possessed the Riding Skill.
If she acted alone, the speed at which she could rush back to reinforce would be much faster.
"I understand." Artoria, who was already anxious about the possibility of the Holy Grail being stolen, nodded after hearing Hikigaya Hachiman, and instantly widened the distance between herself and him, galloping forward.
"She's really fast..." Although both of their foxes were similar, the difference in speed was so obvious that it couldn't help but cause a moment of depression in Hikigaya Hachiman's heart.
However, Hikigaya Hachiman's attention was soon forced onto the matter of prana depletion.
"What kind of attack did Karna face? Why did he suddenly consume so much prana?"
Originally, the prana consumed by Karna was within the normal range, but in that very instant, Karna suddenly took three-quarters of Hikigaya Hachiman's total prana without even activating a Noble Phantasm.
A sudden deficit of prana in his body immediately brought a feeling of weakness and dizziness crashing into Hikigaya Hachiman's brain...
A sudden stinging sensation came again, and Hikigaya Hachiman's previously hazy brain cleared up once more.
Looking at the small white fox in front of him, whose expression was innocent but whose mouth still held a trace of blood, Hikigaya Hachiman helplessly reached out and stroked its fluffy head.
"Thank you..."
"It's nothing, Master, it's what I should do!" Licking the residual blood from her lips, Kogo's eyes instantly narrowed into slits.
After obtaining one-seventh of Inari's Divinity, Hikigaya Hachiman was, in a sense, Inari Ōkami himself.
And Inari Ōkami's blood naturally held an attraction for them, who were created by Inari Ōkami...
"Um, if Master doesn't mind, I can help clean the wound~" Having dealt with the blood on her lips, Kogo immediately looked eagerly at Hikigaya Hachiman's right hand, which she had just bitten.
"Kogo!" However, before Hikigaya Hachiman could answer, the majestic voice of the giant golden fox beneath him rang out.
"Eek, Sis, I'm sorry!" Hearing the voice of the Head Miko, Kogo instantly bristled. She no longer mentioned continuing to treat Hikigaya Hachiman's wound and immediately transformed back into a mark, adhering to Hikigaya Hachiman's arm.
"..." Hikigaya Hachiman silently watched the farce unfolding before him.
With a formidable enemy right in front of them, being interrupted by the playful fox suddenly made him less tense.
However, this was clearly just an illusion.
After his consciousness returned, the feeling of physical emptiness rushed back again.
Especially since Karna was continuously demanding prana from him, in the situation where output could not keep up with supply, Hikigaya Hachiman could only watch helplessly as the prana in his body gradually ran dry...
And this was not the worst part!
About ten minutes after Artoria left, the prana consumption increased again, doubling the previous amount.
Clearly, Artoria had rushed back to Ryūdō Temple and had engaged Archer in combat.
"With two of them, they should definitely be able to defeat Archer, right?"
From a distance, Hikigaya Hachiman could already see the three people fighting at the foot of Ryūdō Temple mountain.
Karna had his usual indifferent expression, though his somewhat messy hair and damaged golden armor seemed to indicate how fierce the preceding battle had been.
And next to him, Artoria, who had only joined the battle a short while ago, looked even worse.
However, the defense of her prana-materialized armor was far inferior to Karna's golden armor. At this moment, the armor on her body was not only tattered, but her body was also covered in wounds...
Likewise, Gilgamesh, the opponent of the two, had clearly not fared much better.
Originally, he and Karna were Great Heroic Spirits of the same caliber, their strength being comparable.
Furthermore, with Artoria's reinforcement joining Karna, under the pincer attack of the two, even with the defense of endless Noble Phantasms, several deep cracks were still left on Gilgamesh's armor!
Not only that, but a thin, long streak of blood now marred Gilgamesh's originally handsome face, disrupting its former harmonious beauty.
He was currently controlling his Noble Phantasms to bombard both Karna and Artoria, but with the two of them cooperating to defend, the dense rain of Noble Phantasms could not cause any damage...
"Have they reached a stalemate for now?"
After only glancing at Karna's battlefield, Hikigaya Hachiman bypassed them directly and headed toward the interior of Ryūdō Temple.
Before completely resolving the issue with Archer, he still needed to check on Irisviel and the condition of the Lesser Holy Grail.
Unfortunately, however, just as he stepped through the main gate of Ryūdō Temple, he ran into Kotomine Kirei, who was holding the exact same thought as him...
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