Or, why don’t you find another savior?

Chapter 2: Encounter ()

This attack, which was also a probing one, was launched by Shiomi using the red spear in his hand to hook the prototype Noble Phantasm named Harpe among the Noble Phantasms fired by Gilgamesh and then threw it out to restrain Gilgamesh.

Of course, it's no surprise that the sickle was blocked by Gilgamesh's other Noble Phantasms.

As the smoke and dust quickly dissipated with the wind, Gilgamesh saw two people evacuating to the forest on the side of the church.

"You know you can't defeat me, so you want to retreat to the forest, right?" Gilgamesh sneered and said to himself, "Well, hunting is about chasing the prey while attacking. It would be boring to kill with one strike."

He walked leisurely, following the route the two had taken, and walked into the forest.

There are many cemeteries in this forest. Most religious citizens are buried as believers after their death and are buried in this area.

Walking through the cemetery path filled with the atmosphere of the afterlife, Gilgamesh thought that this place was very suitable as the burial place of Shiomi and Saber.

Although Servants will not leave behind any remains after their death.

The first to rush out was Shiomi, who moved between different tombstones at an extremely fast speed.

In terms of speed, he was already far ahead of Kirei.

"Is this how you can reach the realm of a Heroic Spirit as a human?" Gilgamesh continued to evaluate Shiomi calmly, "But speed alone is not enough."

Along with the words came the different numbers of Noble Phantasms.

However, Shiomi used the tombstone as a cover and obstacle, making it difficult for Gilgamesh to lock on accurately. The treasure was either easily knocked down or smashed on the tombstone.

The distance of only ten meters was shortened to within reach by Shiomi in the blink of an eye.

The red spear was thrust out, but before it reached Gilgamesh's body, it was blocked by the black and red dagger that he casually swung.

Sensing danger, Shiomi quickly retreated.

"That is... a treasure that carries the curse of revenge." Shiomi prepared for a second attack.

At this time, Gilgamesh had taken out a sharp silver knife and lightly slashed it through the air. An unknown cold wind suddenly blew up and attacked Xiomi.

Without hesitation, Shiomi also summoned a strong wind to counter the attack of the treasure.

Although the body was not touched, Shiomi also noticed that even the air around him had formed ice crystals, freezing the area blocked by the "vacuum wave".

The power is no less than his great magic "Ice Age".

While Gilgamesh's attention was drawn, Artoria jumped out from the bushes behind her and slashed at the Golden Servant with her sword.

But an even bigger sword, one that only a giant could wield, smashed down and cut off her attack route.

Another sword of the same specifications but different shape fell towards Shiomi.

Barely avoiding the huge sword that was falling vertically due to its weight, he rolled over, stepped on the sword and flew up, quickly reaching a height of ten meters in the air.

"watch out!"

The red spear cut through the air and flew towards Gilgamesh.

He wasn't wearing that armor, and now was probably the best time.

Gilgamesh raised his eyebrows, "That gun?"

Then, the golden gate fired a Noble Phantasm that was extremely similar to Shiomi's gun, and the two guns collided with each other, canceling out the attacks.

Shiomi caught the gun that bounced back, somersaulted several times in the air, and finally landed lightly behind Altria.

"It's really troublesome that even this exists." Xijian smiled bitterly.

Realizing that a normal attack would not be able to effectively cause damage even with the advantage of terrain, Altria took advantage of the moment when Shiomi and Gilgamesh were fighting to release the "Wind King Barrier".

Shiomi's attack is just a diversion, this is the main event.

The area around her began to shake, and the wind formed a vortex, becoming a whirlwind that protected her.

Then, the golden sword appeared.

Gilgamesh noticed this and his playful smile gradually disappeared.

"Is that the holy sword that was forged from the inner sea of ​​the star?" Gilgamesh remained calm. "That's perfect. Let me take out something that matches your abilities and test your strength."

He raised his hand, and a very strange treasure appeared in the golden door, it was even unclear whether it should be called a "sword".

Cylindrical blade.

The sword blade, composed of three parts, began to rotate in different directions.

With just a glance, although he was unable to grasp the real name and more information, Shiomi already knew what the form of the treasure meant.

Heaven. Earth. Underworld.

Together they mean "universe".

"A battle of Noble Phantasms?" Altria was not afraid at all. She restored the magic power in her body to its maximum, preparing to release the true name of the Noble Phantasm.

"It's time to go out, Ea." Gilgamesh said coldly.

"Oath (Ex)——" The Knight King did not hesitate at all. With one swing of the sword, which could cut through the earth and rivers, she swung it down without hesitation, "Sword of Victory (calibur)!"

"The Star of the Creation of Heaven and Earth (Enuma Elish)."

Two sounds of different temperatures intertwined, a dazzling white light lit up, and the huge wind pressure made it almost impossible to breathe.

will lose.

Shiomi had already foreseen the outcome of the battle of Noble Phantasms.

Thirteen of the original runes, the spell of protection.

There is no room for hesitation.

Shiomi didn't know how much power she could withstand from the release of the strange treasure's true name, but if she did nothing, not only would Altria be seriously injured, but she would also be affected.

The Gold Servant was most likely planning to destroy both him and Saber in one blow.

What is coming is a hell like the one when the world was first created, where the boundary between life and death is no longer clear.

Shiomi held the gun tightly in his hand and activated the magic circuits in his body to the maximum.

A protective magic that uses the thirteenth original rune as the foundation to release all eighteen runes.

I don't know how long it lasted, maybe only a few seconds.

The clash of the two "swords" seemed to tear the entire world in half.

“——Drink ahh ...

He and the King of Knights roared.

By the time everything was settled, the cemetery behind the church had been completely destroyed, and most of the surrounding trees had been cut off at the waist. The devastated land looked as if it had been hit by a natural disaster.

Gilgamesh put away the sword of rebellion in his hand, and looked at Shiomi Tenki with arrogant approval, as well as Altria, who was caught by Shiomi and held in his arms.

She held the holy sword in one hand and coughed a few times instinctively, coughing out the blood in her throat. She relied on Shiomi's support to barely stay standing.

Leaning on the red spear in his hand, Shiomi was also covered with wounds all over his body, not much better than Saber.

One of his eyes was so blood-stained that he couldn't open it, but the other one was still staring at Gilgamesh resolutely.

"Oh—" The King of Heroes sighed, "You can even overcome death. That's commendable."

Shiomi pulled out the gun he was leaning on, held the gun in one hand, and barely stood up.

There was a roar of thunder from the sky, and Gilgamesh dusted off his shirt.

"Then as a reward, I will let you go today. Next time, I will chop off your head with my own hands as a token of my appreciation."

With an extremely arrogant laugh, Gilgamesh transformed into a spirit and disappeared.

Then, descending from the sky was the King of Conquerors, who arrived with his Noble Phantasm in hand.

Chapter 76: Regrouping

Archer, Gilgamesh retreated on his own, saying that he had "enjoyed it".

Rider, Iskandar, flew over from the Tousaka residence in Miyama Town, piloting his Noble Phantasm.

As early as after the battle with Gilgamesh began, when Shiomi and Altria retreated to the woods, they activated the magic message.

That was the magic prop Morgan made when he set out.

It only takes a little bit of magic to destroy, and both parties separated by a long distance can know that the other party is in an emergency, and then they can rush to help.

But speaking objectively, based on the fluctuations in magical power generated by the clash between the "Sword of Promised Victory" and the "Star of Creation of Heaven and Earth", Shiomi speculated that Morgan, who was sitting at home, might have also noticed it at this moment.

Looking at the familiar ox cart slowly descending, and the figures of Iskandar and Weber on the cart, Shiomi breathed a sigh of relief. As the strength in his hands loosened, Altria slipped from his arms. He hurriedly reached out to catch her again, and they both fell to the ground together.

He had already used up his remaining strength by doing that just now. Although Iskandar arrived quickly, Shiomi was already ready to use the Command Spell to call for Morgan's help.

"Hey, young man, can you hold on?" Rider asked seriously after jumping off the ox cart.

"It's okay, nothing serious." Xijian silently put away the red spear and replied.

Rider didn't hesitate, "Hey, kid. You know how to use healing magic, right?"

"Uh... that..." Weber was embarrassed. His magic skills were not good enough to be able to use healing magic skillfully.

If you cut your finger with a knife or break your skin from a fall, it's not a big problem.

But Xi Jian was already covered in wounds and looked like he would die at any moment, which was beyond his ability.

"It's okay, I can do it myself." Xi Jian raised his hand to stop him.

In response to his words, the runes on his body lit up, and the external injuries began to heal slowly at a rate visible to the naked eye. Weber estimated that in about one or two minutes, all the internal and external injuries on Shiomi's body would be healed.

However, this kind of self-activated healing magic is not as efficient as the seals passed down from generation to generation in a magician's family.

"What? If you had a trump card, you should have told me earlier. I've been worrying for nothing." As the situation was no longer critical, Weber also complained with his arms crossed.

Looking at Waver who was reminded by Rider patting his head, Shiomi just smiled silently.

"I'm fine, but Saber's side is not so optimistic." Shiomi said again.

"No... I'm fine." Altria's eyes were dim. Although she tried to be calm and polite, her voice was still a little weak. "Thanks to your magic."

Although she was the main force in the fight against the Noble Phantasm just now, her injuries would have been more serious if Shiomi had not noticed it in advance and urgently deployed defensive techniques to reduce the damage of Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasm as much as possible.

"Now is not the time to say these things to show off." Xi Jian sighed, "For the time being, I will use Rune to heal you. Although your spirit core is not damaged, you can't transform into a spirit body to recover yourself. We can only go back and talk about it later."

"Thank you very much." Altria smiled bitterly, then closed her eyes and accepted the magical treatment, not wasting her energy talking anymore.

Seeing that both of them were gradually fine, Rider and Waver finally breathed a sigh of relief.

As soon as they received the emergency contact, they hurriedly drove their Noble Phantasms from the Tōsaka Mansion, thinking that they would have a fierce battle with Gilgamesh.

"But it's really strange that Gilgamesh actually ran away by himself." Iskandar didn't think that the other party was deliberately avoiding a fight. "I thought I would use my Noble Phantasm to fight him."

"Who knows? Archer always does what he wants and looks down on his enemies." Shiomi expressed his opinion, "Maybe he thinks this is boring, so he wants to wait until we are in good condition and attack together, then kill us all in one fell swoop."

Weber curled his lips, "I don't know if this is considered underestimating the enemy or what..."

"Compared to that kind of thing, our investigation here has yielded nothing. We only know that the church's supervisor, Kotomine Risei, was killed." Shiomi took advantage of the treatment to exchange information with the two. "From the situation at the scene, it is likely that he was attacked from behind by someone he trusted while he was completely defenseless."

But no one expected that Kotomine Kirei would actually do such a thing as patricide. Shiomi also understood that if Kotomine Kirei was not stopped, the situation would only deteriorate significantly once the contaminated Holy Grail fell into the hands of that man.

"It's similar here. We haven't found the man named Tōsaka Tokiomi." Rider said, stroking his beard.

Waver leaned against the ox cart. "But the barrier of the Tohsaka family is basically not functioning. The person responsible for maintaining it must have been taken away. We searched all the rooms of the Tohsaka family, and finally found a small pool of blood in the study."

"Judging from the size of the bloodstains, it's definitely not a fatal injury." Rider said, "After all, if someone wanted to kill someone, they wouldn't clean up right away. The bleeding should have stopped immediately after the success."

For servants who are used to seeing blood, it is not difficult to infer whether the victim died on the spot.

"Then Tōsaka Tokiomi should still be alive." Shiomi recalled what Kirei had said last night in the Einzbern Castle, "Kotomine Kirei took away the core of the Lesser Holy Grail of Einzbern because as long as he had the core, it didn't matter what the container was like..."

Waver's expression changed. "Are you saying that Tōsaka Tokiomi was considered the core of the Holy Grail's advent?"

"I'm afraid so."

Shiomi nodded.

The treatment was gradually coming to an end, he had basically recovered, and Altria's condition had also stabilized.

"On the way back, we'll have to squeeze on Rider's ox cart," said Shiomi.

"No problem." Artoria was not greedy for enjoyment and naturally understood the current situation.

The King of Conquerors patted the throne of the oxcart with pride and said, "Although this thing is a bit crowded, if it flies in the sky, it will be more powerful than modern transportation vehicles."

Xi Jian smiled silently and tried to pick up Artoria. Artoria hurriedly tried to break free, "I can walk by myself. Besides, it's not right for a king to walk while being carried by others."