[Outside the Round Table Fortress]
Roughly a hundred kilometers away, Shirou gazed with pupils dyed in the color of mana.
[Eagle Eye: C+]
"Lord Shirou, that is the fortress of the Knights of the Round Table."
Hundred-Faced Hassan respectfully said, "Their defenses are as solid as iron walls, but at night they're no different from scarecrows without eyes, so we can wait…"
"No need, I have a better method."
As Shirou spoke, he had already projected the Spiral Sword.
Hundred-Faced Hassan hadn't yet realized how serious the situation was. Hearing Shirou say there was another way, she admired him, "As expected of Lord Shirou, surely you must have an easy method to rescue our companions?"
Then she saw in Shirou's hand a Noble Phantasm so dangerous she dared not even touch it, the mana spilling from the blade alone enough to make hearts tremble.
Suddenly, a bad premonition rose in her heart. Suppressing her unease, she said with difficulty, "L…Lord Shirou, what are you trying to do?"
"Of course, to say hello first," Shirou answered lightly.
He drew the bow, and the Spiral Sword turned into a slender arrow. Immense mana gathered, and before Hundred-Faced Hassan could react, a violent wind swept up sand and dust.
It blew her long hair.
The air stirred by mana turned into a vortex, and then came the sound of something breaking through the sky, raising layer upon layer of storm in its path.
Before her nerves could even register what was happening before her eyes, the deafening roar had already exploded.
A massive mushroom cloud soared into the sky, carrying with it a storm of yellow sand.
As if a golden dragon buried beneath the desert awoke and roared!
"All right, let's go."
Target achieved. Shirou put away the bow and walked forward, leaving behind a still dumbfounded Hundred-Faced Hassan.
'Wait, is this really how you use a Noble Phantasm?'
———
[A Few Hours Earlier]
The soldiers standing guard at the fortress gates.
Soldier A said, "The workload these days is insane, already three times what it used to be!"
Soldier B: "No helping it. Seems something terrifying happened at the Holy City. I heard two Knights of the Round Table were already defeated."
Soldier A: "Yeah, I know, it was that red-haired ogre, right?"
"Just thinking about it is scary. For the Knights of the Round Table, the great lords, to be beaten up like street thugs… Didn't the King punish him personally?"
"Of course!", Soldier B, "They say the King personally drove that red-haired ogre out of the Holy City and passed divine judgment upon him. But guess what? The red-haired ogre didn't die. Half a day later, he showed up in the western mountains, blocking Lord Lancelot's operation to hunt down the rebels."
"And with him were the Corrective Knights. Except for Lord Lancelot, all were wiped out."
"Hiss! Too terrifying!", Soldier A sucked in a breath of cold air, "The Corrective Knights were summoned alongside the King and the Round Table knights, beings nearly equal to Servants. And yet all of them wiped out?"
Soldier B: "What did you think? Lord Lancelot only escaped because he ran fast enough. Otherwise, he would've been eaten alive by that ogre too."
"Wait, why's he called the red-haired ogre anyway?"
Soldier A was puzzled, "At first I thought it was red-haired demon."
"That's what you don't know," Soldier B spoke mysteriously, "I heard rumors, besides having red hair like Lord Tristan, that red-haired ogre, whenever he defeated a Knight of the Round Table, would immediately treat them as food, eating them alive with his drink. Lord Gawain supposedly died like that."
"When they locked him in prison, that ogre was still gnawing on Lord Gawain's arm, laughing like a devil, making weird noises while saying he wasn't full yet!"
"Uwaaaah, that's horrifying!"
"Luckily we won't run into that guy here. Otherwise, even if the Knights of the Round Table came, they couldn't save us."
Soldier A spoke with relief.
Then he looked at the rolling dust ahead, confused, "Don't you feel like something's out there?"
"Could it be Lord Lancelot?"
Soldier B peered forward.
Since the army had been annihilated, Lancelot failed to complete his mission and couldn't return to the Holy City.
He could only come here to resupply.
From the western mountains to here took about two days, so right around now.
Yet, when the two soldiers looked up, they did not see Lancelot's figure emerge from the dust. Instead, what appeared in their eyes was a blazing weapon radiating a fierce mana reaction.
Like a meteor streaking across the heavens.
But weaving through the sandstorm, could that be a tornado?
A red tornado?
"ENEMY ATTACK!"
The soldier above the fortress wall, first to notice this storm of power, wasted no words and pulled the alarm.
That was all he managed before a wave of scorching heat swallowed him, burning him to ash.
BOOM!
The supposedly indestructible fortress melted under this force.
———
At the same time as the explosion, Lancelot, having lost his horse in the blast, after more than a day of travel on foot, finally neared the fortress.
Hearing the detonation, his face changed, and he shot forward like a cannonball.
———
"L…Lord Shirou!"
Hundred-Faced Hassan was nearly in tears, "Didn't you just blow up our comrades too?"
"Relax."
Standing before the fortress, or rather, the ruins, Shirou spoke calmly, "I already checked. The prison is underground, and very deep. I was careful not to affect it."
'This is not about affecting or not affecting.'
'Who uses a Noble Phantasm to open with, just to wipe out small fry before even meeting anyone?'
'Do you think mana costs nothing?'
"Go."
With the system that made every path smooth, Shirou easily located the passage to the underground prison. Smashing through the boulders blocking the way, he brought Hundred-Faced Hassan down with him.
All the way down, when monsters guarding the cells appeared, Hundred-Faced Hassan wanted to show off, but it wasn't needed.
No matter what showed up, System-Shirou exorcised them with pure physical force at lightning speed.
Leaving Hundred-Faced Hassan trembling in fear.
'Are you a Berserker?'
'In fights, you can't even leave behind a whole corpse?'
No, rather, it took three of them to barely piece together a single complete corpse.
'Too terrifying. No wonder Cursed Arm Hassan fought him once… head-on, at that.'
'That brave?'
'How is he still alive?'
"Found it."
System-Shirou spoke coldly, cutting apart the prison chains without hesitation.
But inside wasn't Quiet Hassan, it was Touta.
If it were Shirou, he would've immediately asked him to show the Endless Rice Bag.
But System-Shirou was different. Like a machine without feelings, he looked at the bewildered Touta and coldly said, "Take him."
It sounded like a mob boss ordering a kidnapping of some innocent woman.
Almost made Touta think he'd been kidnapped again.
After Hundred-Faced Hassan confirmed his identity and explained, they exited the cell, just in time to see Shirou carrying an unconscious Quiet Hassan on his back.
"L…Lord Shirou?"
Hundred-Faced Hassan's legs nearly gave out in fright, "She… she is!"
Shirou glanced at her, and his cold expression nearly made her kneel on the spot.
But in the end, he simply tossed Quiet Hassan to her like throwing away trash, and said with a blank face, "Carry her. Immediately."
"Y-yes… yes!"
Under Shirou's terrifying pressure, Hundred-Faced Hassan didn't dare ask a single question, nodding rapidly.
"Um, thank you, sir…"
Before Touta could finish speaking, System-Shirou had already turned and left, treating him like air.
If not for the single word, "Follow."
Touta would have thought Shirou regarded him as nothing more than the prison bars.
"Uh," Hundred-Faced Hassan awkwardly explained, "Lord Shirou means no harm, he's just… in a hurry."
"No problem," Touta answered cheerfully, "On the contrary, I think he's very pure. But too hollow, probably doesn't even enjoy meals, huh?"
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