"No objections here."
Childe toyed with the water-blade in his hand. Azure eyes gleamed with excitement, a rakish smile on his lips. "As long as there's a fight, I don't care who I help."
He hadn't come to the Holy Grail War with any complex goal—either grow stronger through battle and win the Grail, or die a glorious death under a mighty foe.
Either outcome would be an exhilarating end. As for right and wrong—never part of his calculus.
He had no stake in this world.
Hoshimi Miyabi, however, knit her brows slightly. She was a martial fanatic, no less hungry for the strong than anyone—but unlike Childe's freewheeling ways, her mother's words always echoed in her ears:
"A true hero draws the blade not to destroy, but to protect."
Looking at the crying civilians in the distance, at those struggling under the antimatter legion's claws, what surged in her heart wasn't fighting spirit, but a heavy weight she couldn't name.
Rather than duel other Servants, what she wanted was to wield her blade to shield the innocent.
"Miss Miyabi, don't force yourself."
Meng Hongchen spoke softly, full of understanding.
After so long together, she knew that beneath Miyabi's cool exterior—and occasional airheadedness—lay a steadfast creed.
"Go do what you want. It's okay."
Meng Hongchen never believed Masters should boss Servants around—especially top-tier ones like Miyabi. Forcing orders against a Servant's heart could backfire.
A Master's restraints weren't as strong as people imagined. Servants like Karna or Siegfried, so agreeable and obedient, were the exceptions.
Miyabi blinked, eyes growing gentler as she looked at Meng Hongchen. She nodded slightly, the demon blade's chill light dimming, then flashed away toward where civilians were gathered.
Where her blade now fell, it wasn't to challenge the strong, but to strike precisely at threats to civilians. Every cut was controlled to perfection—killing the enemy without harming the innocent.
Jing Hongchen watched her go and sighed lightly, without displeasure.
Both he and Kong Deming respected her choice—even if she didn't choose to help them. She was saving Sun Moon civilians—the very people they ought to protect.
And Kong Deming hadn't expected extra help anyway.
…
"Jing Yuan. Hoolay!"
A brilliant meteor tore across Mingdu's night sky and halted midair.
Feixiao was wreathed in raging airstreams, silver-white hair whipped by the gale, her long-hafted battle-axe glinting coldly.
Her gaze locked onto the zone swathed in golden lightning and blood-red flame. The familiar auras let her recognize both figures at once—the Stratagem General Jing Yuan and the Borisins' warhead Hoolay, an ancestral foe of the foxian.
On instinct, Feixiao tightened her grip and dipped to dive.
She saw it clearly: Jing Yuan had the upper hand, but the scarlet flames around Hoolay still churned stubbornly—he hadn't reached the end of the road.
Abundance aberrants had notorious vitality. Though Hoolay wasn't an Abundance Aeon's Emanator, he inherited that tenacity that was so hard to put down for good.
Jing Yuan wasn't Jingliu. He lacked the sword-tech and ice that countered Hoolay. To finish him would take time—this would be a war of attrition. The question was how long Hoolay could hold out.
But the moment her body shifted, high above in extradimensional space, Celenova's fingers stroked a void projection.
The Lord Ravager's gaze was glacial. Clearly, she didn't intend to let Feixiao interfere so easily.
Crack!
The sky over Mingdu shattered like glass, fissures spreading everywhere. A vicious aura poured through the breaks, congealing the very air of the city.
Feixiao froze, snapping her eyes to the sundered vault above.
She felt it—a terrifying power descending, intent on annihilation.
With a dirge from the sky, a claw wreathed in countless wraiths thrust through first—armor blackened like magma, purple-black cracks curling around its talons, swallowing light itself as they passed.
From that hand alone came a pressure that could unnerve a Titled Douluo.
A moment later, a second giant claw—pale bone, frosted with crystalline patterns—reached out. Blue-white energy flowed between its talons, as if freezing time.
The two monstrous claws pulled apart in opposite directions. Space, already fractured, tore like paper.
From the depths of the void, a colossal draconic body, hundreds of meters long, emerged. Its main carapace was dark-gold, each scale glinting with metallic chill. A tail of shadowed calamity stretched behind it, its tip wrapped in dusky violet energy like a shattered star-ring.
Most terrifying was its chest—a dark-red orb floated there, dark-matter currents flowing within, webbed with crack-like energy veins radiating a power that could shake the land.
Roar!
The earth-shaking bellow carried the wails of countless spirits—a proclamation from hell.
The dragon of destruction fully descended from the other space onto Douluo, hanging over Mingdu, its shadow blanketing nearly half a district.
"Doomsday Beast…" Far away, Lu Jingming's mouth twitched at the sight.
Back when the soul beasts of the Jingyang Mountains were wiped out in one sweep, he'd suspected Celenova was secretly forging this—using hundred-thousand-year soul beasts as base material, thrown into the furnace of war, tempered with the resentment of myriad bones and the unquiet wills of the masses—into a machine of war.
That dark-matter engine in its chest was the core, providing endless energy.
This was a pure anti-planet weapon. Even the budget version cobbled together by Celenova with Douluo's materials would still have demigod-level power.
Even in Celenova's hands, such monsters were likely rare—kept in reserve unless absolutely necessary.
The Doomsday Beast's scarlet eyes locked onto Feixiao at once, as if singling out the most troublesome foe.
Its wings spread wide. The dark-matter core flared, rivers of dark matter coursing like veins through its body, its aura surging again.
The sky turned dark red. Space-rifts snapped open under the strain.
The next instant, dense golden beams of destruction lanced out from its body like a torrential downpour—most locking onto Feixiao, with some raining indiscriminately onto Mingdu. Houses winked out on contact; the ground was plowed into bottomless furrows.
"Heh, just what I wanted!" Far from retreating, Feixiao's eyes blazed with battle fervor.
Azure winds raged around her. The phantom of a giant two-winged fox rose behind—her weiling, Flying Aureus.
Gales wrapped the battle-axe, its hum swelling.
Feixiao became a streak of cyan, bursting past the sound barrier, daisy-chaining sonic booms and ring-shaped shockwaves through the air.
She charged headlong into the rain of annihilation beams. Each sweep of her axe gathered wind into massive blades, cleaving the beams apart.
A clash between rule-breaking titans erupted over Mingdu.
Azure gales tangled with dark-gold scales. Destructive rays crashed into rending wind. The ruined city plunged into a deeper catastrophe.
"What the hell is that? A dragon?"
Du Busi's emerald soul power surged. He and several elders of the Body Sect were shielding Weina and the younger disciples, breaking out toward the east gate of Mingdu.
The sudden Doomsday Beast smothered the sky, seizing everyone's attention.
When the golden beams fell like rain, even the Limit Douluo's pupils shrank. He hurriedly unleashed his body martial soul, sheltering Weina and the others behind him.
He could feel it clearly—the destructive energy in those beams could kill an ordinary Titled Douluo on contact. Even as a Limit Douluo, he didn't dare take them head-on.
"Lady Feixiao… she can handle this onslaught with ease?"
He stared at the cyan figure in the sky, thunderstruck.
Feixiao danced among the beams, severing mortal strikes again and again with the winds around her axe. That effortless poise humbled him.
If he were targeted by the Doomsday Beast, even escape might be a luxury.
Clearly, when she fought him earlier, she'd been holding back oceans. Even holding back, he was no match.
"Grandpa, we have to go now."
Weina's voice was calm beyond her years, her spiritual sense already spread wide, taking in the battlefield.
"Mingdu is a dead zone. Staying longer is too dangerous."
She was steady by nature. Even under the antimatter legion's rampage and the Beast's pressure, her eyes stayed clear.
Du Busi drew a deep breath and nodded.
Mingdu was far more dangerous than expected. Even he had felt mortal threats from Servants several times just now. Those summoned beings each had power that could shake a Limit Douluo.
Just as he produced a tunneling soul tool to escape underground with his group, a blinding light erupted from the palace—an enormous mushroom cloud soared skyward. Solar fire lit half the night. A terrifying shockwave swept out, leveling the entire palace district!
"Hm? Someone attacked the palace?" A sharp light flashed in Du Busi's eyes as he locked onto it with his spiritual sense.
He knew the Sun Moon's politics well. The current emperor was bedridden; real power lay with the regent, Xu Tiannan.
That ambitious man was Heavenly Soul Empire's great bane. Du Busi had planned to remove him to buy Heavenly Soul Empire some breathing room.
But Celenova's sudden move upended everything. Even he had to flee, with no time for side schemes.
Now, though, an attack on the palace was heaven-sent—at a time like this, the target had to be Xu Tiannan!
"If I can behead Xu Tiannan…"
His breath quickened. "With Mingdu in ruins and the Sun Moon crippled, Heavenly Soul might counterattack and end this scourge!"
"You take Aotian and Weina and get out—break through, no matter what!"
He decided instantly, turning to the elders. "I'll be right back—time to see if I can take Xu Tiannan's dog head!"
Before the words finished, he'd become a beam of emerald light, cutting through smoke toward the palace.
"Be careful, Grandpa!" Weina didn't stop him. She knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
If Xu Tiannan died, Heavenly Soul's fortunes would reverse. The risk was worth it.
…
Over the palace ruins, He Caitou stood in heavy soul tool armor, eyes burning with revenge.
He looked at the fire-devoured wreckage, a long-suppressed satisfaction on his face—this had once been his home, also the grave of all his kin. Now it was ash.
Beside him, Karna stood quietly, golden armor shining with sacred luster in the flames.
The army-busting Noble Phantasm that destroyed the palace—Brahmastra—had been his work.
Blinded by vengeance, He Caitou hadn't cared about collateral damage. The moment he reached the palace, he ordered Karna to fire.
To him, no one in the royal household was innocent. Everyone in the palace had abetted tyranny. All deserved to die.
"How dare you attack the palace—seeking death!"
A roar came from the ruins. The Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Regiment surged out from behind the remaining barriers, instantly surrounding He Caitou and Karna.
Regiment Commander Xu Tianyuan's face was so dark it could drip. Near-mad destructive lust burned in his eyes, soul cannons fully deployed around him.
Karna frowned slightly, a strange look in his eyes.
With "Discernment of the Poor," he could see the essence of a person. In Xu Tianyuan, he saw a twisted blur—humanity corroded by some eerie force, his essence being rewritten.
"This corruption…"
Karna's heart tightened. His gaze swept the regiment—most bore the same signs.
If their essence had been altered, were they still themselves? Before he could ponder further, the ground shuddered violently and cracks spidered out.
Hidden underground, soul cannon platforms and devices rose and unfolded at once. A forest of black muzzles swung toward the center, cold murder pooling in their depths.