“So, it just ends like that? What about the reason for visiting the mountain?”
“I have achieved the intended goal of my visit. It was something even the King's eyes could not observe, but it seems the Crusader forces attempted a fire attack to claim the mountain. Because of this, the Assassin Order and the Archer Servant were preoccupied with the emergency and lacked the leeway to signal the danger.”
“A fire attack... that makes sense. No matter how well-crafted a camouflage is, it becomes useless once it burns. But they’re still alive, right?”
“I have confirmed their status personally. Though the Archer suffered a significant wound near his right arm, the mountain is rich with leylines and the Assassin Order possesses potent medicinal salves. He should recover quickly.”
“That’s a relief. Still... Arash is no pushover even in close-quarters combat. Who was the one that attacked him?”
“A Saber-class Servant wielding a longsword, apparently. Curiously, nearly half of his armor was stripped away, replaced by cloth garments, and he held a book in one hand.”
A Saber carrying a book... unfortunately, no such Servant exists in my immediate records. Is he a case summoned in connection with the Crusaders?
“I’ll need to meet with Agravain. If he’s sharing the King's vision, he must have seen what kind of Servant it was. Confirming it directly should allow us to formulate a countermeasure.”
“Understood. Since there are no other stops, let us return to the Sacred City.”
Tristan spoke as he urged his horse forward.
“How do you plan on returning?”
“Ordinarily, the Enforcer Knights would remain here to defend the ‘Mountain,’ while Sir Mordred or I would take flight to the Sacred City atop the Archer’s ‘Arrow.’ If Sir Agravain deactivates the bombardment-prevention Bounded Field surrounding the city, we use that opening to breach the interior.”
To put it simply, they used the ‘Arash Flight’ to return to the Sacred City.
As I pondered which was crazier—Arash for performing such a reckless feat casually, or Tristan for speaking of it so nonchalantly—Tristan continued in a voice that sounded as if he were suppressing a simmering rage.
“However... as you, Master, cannot enter the mountain, and given how uncooperative they are being, we must use a different route. We must return on foot.”
“...Is that feasible? If they have multiple layers of encirclement, it won’t be easy to break through their lines and enter the castle.”
Tristan gestured to the few Enforcer Knights following us.
“No matter how elite the siege-engineers attacking the castle may be, they are but a drop in the ocean compared to the Enforcer Knights, who can trade blows with Heroic Spirits. While they cause a distraction, we will slip into the castle with our presence suppressed. Once your existence is identified, reinforcements will be dispatched. Regardless, we only need to reach the castle walls.”
“I’m impressed you managed such dangerous reconnaissance missions so frequently...”
“Sir Mordred and I were granted Gifts specifically designed to break through such situations. In truth, Sir Lancelot is the finest among us in terms of raw martial prowess and his Gift, but as the Garrison Commander guarding the walls, he cannot partake in such duties.”
Indeed. Whether it was Mordred, who possessed an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm and the Gift of Insight, or Tristan, who possessed high skill in slaughtering the weak and the Gift of Reversal—a pseudo-God Hand—they were truly specialized for forced reconnaissance and guerrilla warfare. In a pinch, they could simply tear through the encirclement physically or endure a direct assault to make their escape.
Furthermore, if we treated the Enforcer Knights created by the Lion King as disposable pawns—and factored in my own presence—honestly, breaking through the encirclement wasn't that difficult. Since the Sacred City was so vast, the enemy's blockade was naturally forced to be thin in places.
“How do you intend to break through?”
“Penetrating the walls guarded simultaneously by the Roman Emperor and Sir Gawain is impossible. That is where the most troops are concentrated, and many ‘Corrupted’ Servants reside there; physically breaking through would be taxing even for us. Thus, we shall circle around to the flank.”
“How so?”
“We will use the Enforcer Knights to sow chaos in the enemy formations. Sir Mordred and I usually move out in the open, but if the Enforcer Knights charge while merely wearing empty armor, the enemy will be forced to grow suspicious.”
“And while their attention is divided...”
“We approach the walls. We should arrive roughly around noon... That is when Sir Gawain reaches his peak performance, and it is also the time when Sir Lancelot begins his patrols. Even if things go slightly awry, a commotion near the walls will surely...”
“Catch Agravain’s attention. A magnificent strategy, Tristan.”
“Think nothing of it.”
Having said that, Tristan demonstrated the divine feat of plucking Failnaught to fire arrows while atop his galloping horse.
In the process of tearing through and slaughtering scouts and squads alike, our position might have been compromised. However, using the Animal Path to summon Phantasmal Beasts to devour the remains and burning everything with fire to erase traces seemed to serve as a sufficient distraction.
“Phew, how exhausting.”
“It’s not very convincing when you aren’t even breaking a sweat. Here, rations.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Communication with Chaldea was still severed—likely because they were too busy defending against the King of Demon Gods—but the supplies I had stashed in the Naraka Path remained perfectly intact.
Marveling at the power of modern MSG, Tristan savoringly devoured a frozen pizza. As a few Enforcer Knights stood guard, I spoke while warming myself by a campfire created with Flame Magecraft.
“Have you achieved any significant military gains while wandering with Mordred? Like killing Servants?”
“I wonder. I am not certain if it can be defined as slaying... We did have successes in eliminating several Servants. However, those Servants...”
“...All ended up Corrupted. I thought as much.”
“I have no excuse... It is simply sorrowful.”
“No need to blame yourself here. So, aside from killing Heroic Spirits, any other achievements?”
“Reconnaissance is more effective when Sir Agravain uses the King's shared vision... My task, along with Sir Mordred’s, is to disperse the enemy's strength as much as possible and to definitively grasp information that cannot be seen by the King's eyes or was not understood accurately.”
In other words, it was a position where it was difficult to earn proper merit.
“Do Servants participate in the sieges as well?”
“Of course. The troops are cycled every week, and the commanders are the same—but all those commanders are Heroic Spirits.”
“...True, to break through a wall defended by Gawain and Dragasès, Heroic Spirits would have to take the lead personally.”
“The one who has slain the most enemy Servants to date is Sir Gawain. It is only natural, I suppose, given that all the enemy’s offensives are concentrated on the gate of the Southern Wall he defends.”
“If only they had simply returned to the Throne of Heroes.”
“I agree. He has slaughtered thousands of troops beneath the walls and taken over ten thousand heads in total, but the problem is that it only amounts to a mere one percent of their numbers.”
“It would be much easier if there were some other support besides the Old Men of the Mountain...”
At that moment, Tristan and I both bolted upright.
The Enforcer Knights, who had been standing idle and alert, also readied their weapons. Before long, the sound of tolling bells and booming war cries echoed from all directions.
“...An enemy attack? That would be inconvenient.”
“No, if it were an attack directed at us, a rain of arrows would be falling by now. This... it seems they are fighting a different enemy.”
“Then it must be Mordred.”
Though we had been riding all day since leaving the mountain, we were still quite a distance from the Sacred City.
Gawain was at the gate, Lancelot at the wall, Dragasès and Agravain were managing the overall defense... Thus, Mordred was the only Heroic Spirit likely to be out for support.
There was Mash, Gareth, and Kiyohime contracted with Ritsuka... but honestly, this battlefield was currently too overwhelming for Ritsuka to join the fray.
However, Tristan spoke as if puzzled.
“While it is true Sir Mordred is the only deployable force in this situation... our assigned sectors are distinct. It is not here... but in the exact opposite direction.”
“Could Agravain have sent reinforcements knowing our situation?”
“That is a possibility. Regardless, if they are fighting the Crusaders, we have no reason to be hostile.”
Under a silent agreement, we headed toward the battlefield where shouts and the clashing of steel echoed. Sure enough, one of the encampments we had tried to bypass due to its size was engulfed in flames.
“Shieldmen, block the frontal assault! Magecraft Corps, strike the flank! Fire!!!”
The one commanding from the front... was a commander I didn't recognize. Scanning with the Rinnegan revealed that unless he was suppressing his presence, he wasn't a Heroic Spirit... just an ordinary commander.
His right arm was shattered and bleeding profusely, likely hit by flying debris. He was screaming commands with his upper garments half-stripped—perhaps he had been interrupted while indulging in some pleasure. To a casual observer, he looked quite desperate.
But what caught my eye even before the commander... was the creature they were fighting.
“Aaaagh! Save me! Save me, please, no!!!”
“Oh, God! Please deliver us...”
—Crunch!
It wasn't an onomatopoeia for crushing or swallowing something... it was the sound of literal trampling.
The monster, nearly 200 meters long—roughly the size of a swimming pool—looked like a hybrid between a whale and a dog. It resembled the Leviathan Narbareck had shown me, but with Retriever-like legs attached. Its massive mouth was filled with jagged teeth, and its surface was covered in spiky patterns that could have been either scales or fur.
“...Tristan, do you know anything about that Phantasmal Beast?”
“No... one thing is certain: even in the Britain where the King and I resided, such a beast was rare. Excluding outliers like Vortigern... it is easily among the most dangerous beasts I have ever seen.”
“That much?”
“I would have to go all out to take that down. For those humans to hunt it... it is quite impossible.”
And as if to prove Tristan’s point, the building-sized ‘whale-dog’ smashed the shieldmen in its way simply by stepping on them with its forepaws. It swallowed the magecraft bombardments and swept away the rest with its tail.
“Its mere walking is a destruction equivalent to an Anti-Army Noble Phantasm... That could rival the beasts of the Age of Gods.”
“I think so too. No, even among the beasts of the Age of Gods, that level is rare.”
But apart from that... I couldn't help but feel a sense of doubt.
‘...Something is wrong. It's not strange for the Hassans to be hostile toward me, nor for the Crusade Servants and the Roman Emperor to be summoned.’
If I forced a logic to it, the Hassans might have misunderstood something or I might have inadvertently committed an offense to earn their enmity. The Crusaders or the Roman Emperor could be interpreted as Goetia's meddling or the Counter Force’s summons in response.
But for a beast of that caliber to be wandering around so casually?
“That is absolutely not a naturally occurring beast. It's one hundred percent a summon or a familiar.”
“...But Master, managing a familiar like that would be impossible even for a Servant unless they invested a considerable amount of time.”
“That’s... true.”
From what I knew, there were only two Servants who could create familiars of that scale.
One was the Caster of the Age of Gods, Medea, and the other was Avicebron... and considering even they would need significant preparation for such a thing, it seemed unlikely to be the work of a regular Servant. It was too crude to be Avicebron’s Keter Malkuth and used more like a disposable pawn, and it was fundamentally different in appearance from Medea’s Dragon Tooth Warriors.
“If it’s not Avicebron or Medea... then who?”
“Master, wait... someone is approaching.”
At that moment, an elderly gentleman in a rather flashy outfit and a black hat began walking slowly from beyond the monster.
At some point, the surrounding troops had all been brutally crushed or laid low by debris. The old man, who was a ‘collective’ of countless squirming things, approached the fallen commander whose arm was shattered.
“You... who the hell are you! How dare you treat me, the 27th Commander of the Great Crusade, like this!!!”
“Ah—how tedious.”
—Crunch!
This time, accompanied by the genuine sound of biting... the old man's ‘finger’ bit into the commander's neck.
Fingers, eyes, feet, even the clothes... everything was a swarm of tiny organisms moving organically. As if he were the master of the beast before him, he began to dismantle, devour, and savor the Crusader commander with ruthless cruelty.
Sucking the blood, tearing at the corpse, and finishing his ‘meal’ until only bones and armor remained... it was a colony of hundreds, thousands of rats.
Tristan watched as the entity vanished suddenly along with the monster after draining the blood of all the surrounding corpses.
“...A blood-sucking species. Is it a True Ancestor caught up in the Incineration of the Human Order?”
“No, that's a Dead Apostle... Damn it, of course I didn't recognize him. I've only ever seen his true form.”
“Pardon?”
A member of the Holy Church’s Burial Agency and an acquaintance of Arcueid.
I had those connections, but in truth, I had only met him twice. Once was by chance while visiting the Holy Church for cleanup after the hunt for Michael Roa Valdamjong and the assault of the Crimson Moon, and the second was when he accompanied Narbareck as a ‘guard’ during the alliance between her and my AOD, alongside Arcueid.
Since I had seen his true form both times... it was natural not to recognize this ‘cover identity.’
“There’d be no reason for him to wear a disguise in front of Arcueid or inside the Burial Agency...”
“Master, do you know who that blood-sucker is?”
“I do. But he’s a massive headache. There is someone who could 100% persuade him, but... I can't reach her right now.”
If I could just contact Chaldea, I could definitely turn Merem into an ally... but without that, he’s just a troublemaker.
“Now that I think about it, that brat Merem once said he went on a rampage for three days and nights during the Second Crusade.”
...And at that moment, another thought related to the Crusade flashed through my mind.
“...Hey, Tristan. Is Agravain observing things like Phantasmal Beasts or blood-sucking species as well?”
“Uh... no. It was said that the beasts and blood-suckers native to this Singularity are less dangerous than the Crusaders before our eyes, and since we cannot cooperate with beasts, they were expected to eventually eliminate each other and vanish.”
“Sigh...”
He wasn't wrong.
Servants. A Crusader army of a million.
It was a staggering force that could instantly grind most Heroic Spirits or blood-suckers into dust. It was only natural that local civilian forces, beasts, or vampires wouldn't be seen as much of a threat.
“...It wasn't just the Crusaders they summoned, those bastards.”
“Excuse me?”
“The ones who went wild alongside the Crusaders during their rise are also in this Singularity... perhaps even summoned specifically.”
Unless I could contact Arcueid... Merem Solomon was a total wildcard who could go anywhere.
...And then there was the dangerous enemy who could never be an ally: Nrvnqsr Chaos.
They too existed within this Singularity.
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