[144] An Anomalous Existence

Two Noble Phantasms pierced through Heracles' chest.

The axe-sword in Heracles' hand smashed Gilgamesh's head completely. Blood sprayed.

"Ugh... this might be a situation where both sides suffer," King of Conquerors sighed as he looked at the scene in front of him.

"Rider... does this mean we've won?" Waver asked, looking at the current situation. It seemed like Berserker and Caster were both defeated.

The remaining Archer had depleted his mana, and his spiritual core was about to collapse.

Just this side remained.

Completely intact.

Mana at its peak, Command Spells fully restored.

"No! Wait, it's not over yet!" Rider looked at the Greater Grail placed on the side and said, "If what the manga said is true, then the Lesser Grail should have appeared when there were only two Heroic Spirits left. But there's no sign of that happening now! There must be one of the two still alive!"

"It's Caster, isn't it?" Archer said, "That guy... seems to be immortal... no... indeed, he's immortal."

Saying that, he looked towards Gilgamesh's direction, the King of Heroes who had fallen to the ground was slowly getting up.

The place where his head had collapsed was now restored.

If it weren't for the part of the shoulder armor that had shattered, it would seem like he hadn't been injured at all!

"I told you... you shouldn't be careless, shouldn't be careless... using EA right from the start wouldn't have been good, would it? If not for my body being somewhat special, you would have returned to the Throne of Heroes by now," Kazuya told Gilgamesh, well... he could wait a little longer.

Gilgamesh's summoning time was thirty minutes. There were still twenty-six minutes left...

If it didn't end by the time there were about ten minutes left... he would take action himself, considering that using Enuma Elish would reduce the time Gilgamesh, King of Heroes, could exist by ten minutes according to the information he had received.

"What does it matter," Gilgamesh said with a smile, "This is the only chance this King gives to challengers, or you could say victory is as commonplace to this King as eating and drinking, but failure is different. Occasionally failing once or twice... hmph, it spices up life, doesn't it? Otherwise, wouldn't it be too boring?"

Crack, crack, crack—

Saying that, Gilgamesh's armor shattered completely.

Revealing his upper body.

However, there were no red patterns on it, because... summoning that Gilgamesh required four Command Spells. No... now it seemed to require three Command Spells.

At different periods, Gilgamesh exerted different effort, so the summoning method naturally differed.

Gilgamesh summoned by Kazuya this time was the cheapest one.

"Well... so that's how it is, so to say... now only this King and you haven't fought," King of Conquerors laughed and said, "This King is unprecedentedly powerful now. Assemble! My fellow compatriots!"

"CaladbolgⅡ——" At this moment, Archer had recovered his mana with the help of Emiya Kiritsugu's last Command Spells, and in an instant, he shot it out.

The target was neither Gilgamesh nor the King of Conquerors but the Greater Grail!

A hum—

The radiance of the Reality Marble covered everything in the next moment.

Archer, Rider, and Gilgamesh were all enveloped in it—only the arrow!

That arrow unquestionably shot straight towards the Great Holy Grail!

"If it's like this... it's over," Archer watched as the Reality Marble slowly dissipated before him, "Well... it's not enough. I didn't get to say it in the end... that word... Father. What a pity."

"Hmm, it seems this time it's just the two of us left. And... behold, my unparalleled army!"

"Huh?" Gilgamesh looked around.

This time, the army no longer came from just one direction.

They surrounded Gilgamesh not far from where he stood—closest was a soldier less than ten meters away!

Countless soldiers enclosed him in an instant.

"Hmph, I won't give you a chance to use that Noble Phantasm!"

"Scum is still scum," Gilgamesh smiled, and countless Noble Phantasms' radiance appeared all around him. "Don't tell me you think I only have EA?"

...

Let's rewind time slightly...

Emiya Kiritsugu watched the arrow shooting towards the Greater Grail and slightly relaxed. With this, no one could stop it.

The Greater Grail received this strike, and at least more than half of it would disintegrate.

This was also thanks to that Karna.

It directly evaporated the area on the Greater Grail, making the large cavity that was originally deeply buried underground exposed and much easier to deal with.

"Hmm? Is that—?" The next moment, Emiya Kiritsugu's face changed as he watched.

The arrow.

Was blocked!

...

There were many people who had been closely monitoring this, not just Emiya Kiritsugu, but also Kayneth and the Mage's Association...

After all, it was the time for the Lesser Grail to appear.

Who would obtain the Holy Grail this time, and what wishes they might make, they didn't care.

They only needed to do one thing:

To determine the exact purpose of the Holy Grail.

To ascertain whether the Holy Grail possessed the ability to continue the Leylines.

If it did, the Mage's Association could concentrate all their strength on the Holy Grail.

But if they failed...

The Mage's Association's leadership couldn't make up their minds. To be precise, the democratic faction and the neutral faction couldn't make a decision.

However, achieving the Holy Grail solely through the noble faction where Kayneth belonged was a bit difficult. So, they wanted to use the data from this incident to convince the other two factions.

In that case, all of the Clock Tower's power would be concentrated on making the Holy Grail descend once more.

But—

Now, an arrow was shot.

It aimed at the Greater Grail.

Intent on destroying the Greater Grail.

"Damn you, Emiya Kiritsugu!" Kayneth's face looked grim, but he no longer had the ability to block it. After all, that was an Heroic Spirit's Noble Phantasm, and he couldn't stop it now.

Not to mention that he and the other members of the Mage's Association were still quite a distance away.

"Huh? What's that—?"

The arrow didn't explode but disappeared!

Within the Greater Grail, a figure appeared.

The Noble Phantasm shot by Archer dissolved into countless particles at the moment it touched that figure.

It wasn't an explosion or anything else; it just dispersed into countless particles in the air and vanished.

"What is that?"

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