Chapter 260: Duel

The Heart of the Red Dragon. Its origin is none other than the undisputed king of dragons. It provides one ample amount of mana that couldn't be easily spent, making it more "infinite" in nature. Being a servant changed this rule, but having a physical form instead of the one provided using ether gave Salter access to it once again.

Excalibur, the Divine Sword forged by the six faeries in the heart of the world. Once finished, it became a tool for the world to protect itself. Having a direct connection to it, its power is simply limitless, even amplified if the world is conscious enough just like Gaia. It has a simple yet powerful function: to amplify. The sword allows her to "overlap" the mana provided to the sword, thus turning it into a powerful attack that could break through its obstacles.

When these two things are present in a single entity, one would wonder what kind of monster it could make. Well, the Hero Maker, Merlin, knew about it too well.

{The enemy must be more powerful than oneself.}

As the knight was given the responsibility to hold the first seal, Bedivere's voice rang out of nowhere, crossing space and time to reach the side of his king.

{The battle must be one-on-one.}

With the current state, it is completely coincidental that this battle turned out to be a legitimate "one-on-one" approved by the seal. Its holder, Palamedes, would agree with the judgment, however. Even if he abandoned his king in most of the world lines, he didn't do so in Saber Alter's world. She is different from the original Artoria who allowed Britain to reach such a bad situation or Lion King whose humanity is gone. While retaining her humanity, Saber Alter chose the most appropriate decisions to maintain her country, even at the cost of sacrifices.

{The enemy must not be an elemental.}

Lancelot declared in his usual tone. As Excalibur is forged by the faeries, they set some countermeasures for it.

{The battle must be one against evil.}

Artoria's "son", Mordred, reached her turn. At this moment, the tainted Excalibur regained its former luster, albeit briefly. Salter might have been "evil", but she has the resolve to do good.

{The battle must not involve personal gains.}

{The battle must not be against humanity.}

{The battle must be inhumane.}

{The battle must be for truth.}

{The battle must be to live.}

Upon reaching the twelfth seal, Salter muttered under her breath, "The battle must be... to defend the human order."

She placed the now brightly shining Holy Sword and cried out:

"EXCALIBUR!!!"

With the restorative power of this world as well as the sword's capabilities, a pillar of light was summoned forth; its height can't be seen due to how high it is. It cut through clouds before reaching the starry sky of this fake world. Under its pressure, cracks began appearing once again.

Seeing it, Madoka went into her "God Form" and forcefully prevented its destruction. After all, their efforts would be meaningless if everything is exposed as "true" to the outside world.

HUMM-!

BUZZ-!

SSSHHH-!

The pillar of light soon tore into the ground, creating a deep ravine in its wake. The skyscrapers present were all obliterated into dust, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake. As for its target, she was "forced" to defend herself with several of her [Movements].

Story revision.

Plot Point Rejection.

Gap Expansion.

...

...

...

Each one of them has the power to "deny" the outcome which is Altair's "injured state" under Excalibur's blast. It made use of the holes present in this crossover story, stealthily shifting the audience's acceptance of her.

Though, no one knew the outcome as the light blinded them all... for the third time, that is.

"Nice try. It won't work, though."

A provocation was sent after everything cleared up. Unlike her previous self, she wore a calm smile reminiscent of her confident self moments ago. Still, only she knew that more than half of her abilities were invalidated in this attack. If she loses when she hasn't recovered yet, her life might be endangered.

Hence...

"Let's have a duel. You like this very much, no?" She asked. "The audience would like to see it too. Don't you think so?"

"...Fine. Do not interfere, you two."

"Do as you like..." Touka replied with a hint of casualness. To her, buying time is what she... no, everyone needs the most. She believes that this fight can reach its resolution if Shiro recovers and the others return.

Salter moved into a middle stance she is very familiar with. The blade that shone brightly had returned to its corrupted form—one that grants her stronger firepower in exchange for weakened defense.

Opposite her, Altair stood with her rotating blades. Something had changed in her aura since her first appearance in this place, yet no one can pinpoint what it was.

Is it her charm as a special villain in this crossover world?

Is it her mannerisms that attracted viewers like 'Tail White'?

Is it her mysteriousness that shrouded her personality?

Nobody knows nor could they tell. This girl in front of their screens...

"Let's dance."

...is just someone drowning over the evils in this world.

*****

Moments ago.

Silence.

Silence.

Silence.

Everyone was speechless. Right now, things took over a strange turn. The protagonists of this crossover were mostly defeated by the unknown assailant. Everyone was captured by her beauty and charisma seconds ago and the next set of events came off as unexpected for them.

Tail White's appearance, the untold characters that suddenly appeared, and their sudden attacks caught them off guard. They did not act like anime characters and more like real characters. They moved with such practicality that the "strategists" on the Internet were moved by their advantageous moves.

They suddenly attacked in turns and gave her no room to breathe, only talking to her when they were buying time. Simply put, this is how real-life supernatural battle would look.

Moreover, they had no doubts when they saw 'White', the epitome of pragmatism. She brought over reality over a simple tokusatsu-magical girl fusion world.

"what"

"wut"

"who daresss!!!"

"AHAHDHJKEKEQFWHSDKJNWEJK"

"F*ckk nooooo"

Seeing 'White' being severely injured, the Internet nearly crashed. Berating the lying author is one thing, their resentment of Altair was set to the max. This made it extremely similar to what Setsuna had experienced.

The concentrated hate of the world. Without any support, she felt the entire world was against her, wanting to eliminate her existence in it.

Then, that event came.

"...hurting my wife."

"Eh?"

"Ah?"

"Hah?"

Gasps of disbelief occurred all over the globe. Never had they expected a revelation to appear right at this serious moment. Immediately, comments were sent out rapidly.

"what? is this real?"

"a new fricking ship? I'm fucking in!"

"I wasn't informed of this."

"My imagination suddenly worked at this time"

"Be careful writing with a single hand bro"

Meanwhile, the same couldn't be said for Meteora.

"What is this? Another interference? An external force managed to crawl its way into the bird cage? Impossible. Everything should be seen from here... no. What if..."

Hearing Meteora mumble with a grave expression, everyone went silent. As of now, the only thing that they could do is to entrust the world's fate to several unknown people as well as Shiro who "fooled" them since the beginning.

Clang-!

Clang-!

On the screen, it was shown that Salter managed to parry every single blade coming in her direction with great precision. Her tempo was taken into mind with her movements, allowing her to continue this strong momentum against Altair. Visibly, she wasn't becoming stronger. But, the acceptance rate on the monitor gradually increased. If high enough, it could make a simple attack into a deadly one.

However, Meteora and Touka held the same thing in their minds:

'How could it be this easy?'

In the end, Meteora decided to give out intangible enhancements to Salter, all the while attentively watching the fight.