Chapter 117
The courtyard of the Emiya estate.
Under the full light on the porch of a Japanese mansion sat a beautiful girl of 18 years old, on outstretched hands she held a nodachi that was no less in length than the height of the girl herself. But the most remarkable thing was what was happening with the katana. Its once red blade changed to almost snow-white along which strange inscriptions appeared in the golden light, did not escape changes, and the guard of the katana, combining gold and blue colors.
Yes indeed. Now sitting on the porch of this house, I tried to change my already so beloved katana in the manner of Excalibur. For this, I even asked Saber to show me her sword, while Rin was talking with Sakura, and Shirou was entertaining Taiga, because while she was awake, no one would do anything.
Archer's magic turned out to be too convenient, that just by looking I could learn the history of the weapon, including how it was created, and then copy it, but now I didn't just copy it, I tried to forcibly recreate Excalibur in the form of a katana using the technology I received from Zenin back in the world of magical battle, and I spent an indecently huge amount of energy on it. It even seems to me that the Fuyuki grail itself contains less energy than I spent over the past couple of hours. However, it is not surprising, because with this abyss of energy I am trying to replace the sacrifice of the spirit that gave its life and the crystallized desires of humanity that were stored in the inner sea of this planet. Honestly, I even envy Richard the Lionheart a little, who has the absurd ability to call anything Excalibur and use it. And what's most insane is that he received this ability because in life he called each of the swords he used Excalibur.
"This thing won't explode, right?" Tosaka's slightly worried whisper came from the house, seeming to have come looking for me.
"I don't think so," Archer's calm voice answered her. "She's almost finished."
"I'll never again fall for a witch's request to show me my sword," Saber's slightly offended voice rang out.
"Why the hell are you sounding so ambiguous?!" Tohsaka responded immediately, apparently not trying to distract me. However, Archer was right, I was almost done.
And soon the golden glow was completely absorbed into the fairy writing on the blade, which was now completely stable, although I am sure that it came out weaker, because Saber still has 13 more seals on her Excalibur that limit its power, but my sword came out as strong as hers sealed without any seals, but as was said above, I did not sacrifice anything, only a huge abyss of magical energy, which easily replaced the cursed one.
"Finally finished," Tosaka muttered, and I heard her walking quickly towards me.
"Well, how did she take it all?" I asked, turning to the girl.
"We had to knock her out," Rin answered sullenly.
- Seriously?
- She's too afraid of Zouken. So let's sort this out quickly. I put Taiga to sleep, so she won't bother us until the morning.
"Okay," I easily agreed, and when I was about to enter the house, I was met by Arturia's intent gaze, who, however, without saying anything to me, simply turned around and left.
- Was she so offended that I copied Excalibur into a katana? - I decided to ask Archer as the closest "person" to Arturia among those around her.
- In a way, what you did was akin to mocking Excalibur.
- Mockery? If this is akin to mockery, then what can we say about Richard the Lionheart turning a stick into Excalibur? - I was indignant.
"I don't think they met," Archer chuckled.
"Well, to hell with it then, she's not my servant anyway," I said before entering the room prepared for today's operation, where an unconscious Sakura was already lying, and next to her, a completely prepared Shiki was kneeling, with Oz sitting on her shoulder.
- Oz? - I called my familiar with an unperturbed face.
"Yes, my lady?" he answered calmly, remaining in place.
-...Forget it. - I shook my head before looking around.
"Is such a crowd really necessary?" I asked, seeing that literally everyone had gathered in this small room.
"We're not bothering her," Tohsaka answered for everyone, nodding towards Shiki.
"I see," I simply accepted before walking over and sitting down opposite the girl on Sakura's other side.
- Shall we begin? - she asked.
- Yes. - I confirmed, looking at Sakura's body and the sight was, to put it mildly, not very good, a multitude of worms of a strange shape and with teeth, they filled her entire body, such a sight made me feel a little sick.
After receiving confirmation, Shiki took out her wakizashi from the sheath on her belt and, taking a slow breath in and out, suddenly began to move. The blade that should normally easily cut through flesh passed through the limbs of the sakura tree as if it were an illusion, but I could clearly see how with each swift swing, another line of death was cut, and the worms disintegrated into magical energy.
"It seems my help was not needed here at all," I sighed mentally before noticing something strange in the yard. Movement, a strange silhouette that stood out for its... emptiness?
As if sensing my attention, this silhouette suddenly accelerated, heading in our direction. To the wall, in the very place where Mordred was behind the wall. It seems that someone does not want to die without struggling.
"Mordred, go out into the yard, perhaps the enemy will be waiting for you." I transmitted a message over our connection while I myself moved into the yard and slashed with a brand new katana where I saw a silhouette.
My blow never reached its target; as soon as I appeared, the enemy became visible and jumped to the side at great speed.
- Damn Zouken, he finally summoned a servant. - I cursed, seeing who my opponent would be. He looked pretty creepy, dark robe, white skull mask that was sewn onto his face, black dagger in his left hand ready for battle and strange disproportionately long red right hand that looked more like the hand of some demon.
- Assassin, Hassan of the Cursed Hand. - I voiced the class and name of the servant in front of me.
- You are a damn dangerous enemy. One touch and the enemy's heart is in your power. Too bad I am your opponent. - I grinned before rushing forward, simultaneously filling the blade with energy for a partial release of the phantasm.
There was a swing and an explosion that literally evaporated the place where the Assassin had stood.
- And you're fast. - I grinned, not paying attention to the daggers thrown by the servant that hung a few centimeters from me, colliding with infinity. - It's a pity that you're simply not capable of harming me.
Taking the katana in both hands, I strengthened my body and rushed at the Assassin again with much greater speed, reaching supersonic speed.
"ding"
Striking sparks, the katana collided with the assassin's dagger, which, using the force of the blow, flew out of the mansion and immediately began to run away, throwing daggers at me along the way.
"So you're counting on luring me to a convenient battlefield?" I chuckled, remembering how Lancer was killed in a similar way in Sakura's route.
- Okay, I'll play along, - I grinned, anticipating an interesting, but nevertheless quite safe battle for me.
"Oz, tell the others to be careful, I'm going to go after Assassin." Having conveyed this message, I instantly moved behind the fugitive, delivering a blow accelerated by infinity, which he, having turned right in the air, blocked, flying under the weight into the roof of the building, leaving a small crater on it.
"Be careful my lady," came Oz's reply to me.
"Of course I will," I chuckled, watching the assassin run away again, this time not bothering to throw knives at me.
"You seem to have gotten smarter," I muttered, seeing how this time he ran not across the roofs of buildings, but jumped onto the roadway and maneuvered this time across the roofs of cars towards the forest, where, if my memory serves me right, the Antsbern6 mansion is located.
- To take advantage of the princess's kindness so brazenly, what a brazen fellow. - I sighed and instead of pursuing him from below, I rose higher and calmly walked across the sky, periodically teleporting forward so as not to lag behind the servant on the ground.
Until finally we got outside the city limits and he stopped among the trees.
- Well, here we are. But tell me, what was the point of you trying to lure me out here? If you tried to fight in a densely populated area, my hands would be tied. - I decided to chat a little, after all, if I wanted to, I could have killed him back there on the roof by cutting the line of death, but I'm not sure that it's worth killing in such a way, after all, even Gilgamesh, no matter how annoying he is, can be useful on the throne of heroes, and the eyes of death perception finally destroy that part of the heroic soul that participated in the Holy Grail War without return. And Hassan the Cursed Hand is not really bad, he's just too obedient.
- Zabaniya! - was his answer to me and his red grotesque hand suddenly lengthened and rushed towards my chest at great speed.
- Gay Bolg! - They shouted from behind me and unlike Hassan's hand, this scream already scared me! I quickly turned around and at the last moment cut the line of death, which KILLED the noble phantasm, I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but the next moment I felt something that made me go cold inside. My back was touched in the area of the heart.
I looked at the Assassin, and the bastard was holding a copy of my heart in his hand.
- Damn nasuverse. - I cursed, hastily filling my body with positive damn energy.
"I'll have to try to repeat Sukuna's trick." I sighed before Assassin crushed the heart in his hand, and then I felt an incredible pain in my chest. Never before had I had such a hard test of willpower to not lose consciousness. Blood splashed out of my mouth against my will, and yet I remained standing on my feet, rapidly restoring my heart, however, I could no longer risk and stay in place, because Lancer came out of the shadow of the Trees, who stopped a little distance from Hassan, looking quite guilty.
- Forgive me, girl, but that's war, - he said.
- Yes, you're right. - I answered hoarsely, wiping the blood from my lips, and white feathers began to circle around me. - That's why I won't play with you anymore.
- OZ! - I called and in a purple flash he appeared next to me, immediately merging with me. The entire city was filled with clouds emitting unnatural purple lightning, huge black wings grew behind my back, and the katana that I took in both hands and raised above my head began to emit an almost blinding golden light.
- Ex…
"What the…" Lancer began in shock.
-…calibur!
Releasing a massive amount of energy through his katana-like Excalibur, a blinding pillar of light shot towards my enemies, vaporizing everything in its path.
- That was dangerous. You shouldn't just throw away noble phantasms like that! - Lancer cheerfully scolded me with a sigh of relief, as he seemed to have managed to get out of the attack radius at the last moment.
- Ex…
- Yes, you... - the smile disappeared from Cu Chulainn's face.
- …calibur!
Another pillar of light and this time Lancer was not able to escape completely unharmed, his left arm up to the elbow completely disappeared.
- Listen, let's fight fairly! - the lancer shouted nervously, seeing that my sword continued to shine, I again raise the blade, answering him with only one word.
- Ex…
- CRAP!
- …calibur!
- Enough already! - Lancer shouted, who no longer even tried to stop, but put all his strength into running as fast as possible, barely managing to dodge. However, it seems that it is not for nothing that Lancers are in 2nd place in speed after Riders, because after losing his arm, despite the fact that I, frankly speaking, mostly just vented my anger by attacking in the general direction, he still managed to manage to go just a little beyond the edge of the affected area, but each time it became more and more difficult for him.
- Excalibur! - was my answer.
Meanwhile, in the Emiya mansion, the operation to exterminate the worms in Sakura had already been successfully completed and, aside from Shirou who had stayed with her, the rest were now outside and watching as flashes of golden light occurred in the distance.
- Master is unfair, how could she leave me here and go have fun herself? - Mordred muttered resentfully, pouting.
- What difference does it make! - Tosaka shouted back. - How are we going to deal with the problem of the whole city seeing this apocalypse?!
"I want that too," Arturia admitted, ignoring Rin's words with slight envy in her tone.
Returning to the battlefield.
In the middle of a giant crater several kilometers in diameter, one could see Lancer, breathing heavily and standing on only one leg due to the absence of the other.
"Damn you, crazy woman!" Lancer cursed and put all his being into one last blow.
- Gae…
- Ex…
- Bolg!
-…Calibur!
The red light clashed with the gold light, fighting for dominance, gradually beginning to push back. When suddenly a bolt of lightning struck from the sky, which simply interfered with the fragile balance and dispersed the two raging energies, while pushing the red spear deep into the forest, crashed straight into Lancer, burning a hole in his chest.
- So these lightning bolts aren't for show, are they? - he croaked.
"You were just playing with me." With this realization, he began to disintegrate into blue particles.
"Don't worry, the one for whom these lightning bolts were collected will not survive this night." I said at last before looking towards the Mato mansion, where a certain old worm was hiding.