“Rumble——!!!”
Dozens of Noble Phantasms flashing with deadly cold light shot out from the golden ripples of the Gate of Babylon.
Like a heavy metal hailstorm, they rained down mercilessly on the charging Mordred.
If it were any ordinary Servant facing such an all-out bombardment of Noble Phantasms, their immediate reaction would definitely be to deploy defensive skills or dodge.
But who was Mordred?
A rebellious knight with Rank A Mad Enhancement!
The concept of “dodging” didn’t even exist in her head!
“Get out of my way!
Thief!!!”
The Berserker let out a beastly roar and plunged forward without retreating.
Gripping the broad hilt of Clarent with both hands, she whirled the greatsword into an airtight silver windmill!
“Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!”
Deafening metallic collisions exploded wildly inside the hotel lobby.
The marble floor was plowed into half-meter-deep trenches like fragile crackers.
The expensive crystal chandeliers were shredded into falling glass shards by the violent sword light, showering down on everything.
Mordred braved the sparks flying from her shoulder armor as two spear-type Noble Phantasms grazed past her.
She crushed the marble reception desk underfoot, leaped into the air using the momentum, and brought her sword down toward Gilgamesh’s head!
“You mad dog!”
Gilgamesh’s face turned livid.
It wasn’t that he feared this frantic, unrefined hacking.
He was simply furious enough to burst a vein.
As the oldest king who owned every treasure in existence, the one thing he could least tolerate in his life was someone questioning his ownership.
And now this mad dog, who couldn’t even speak properly, was calling him a “thief” with every breath!
She was practically rubbing his dignity as a king straight into a septic tank!
“Since you are so eager to seek death, this king shall fulfill your wish!”
Gilgamesh snorted in cold disdain, refusing to step back an inch.
The golden halo behind him doubled in size instantly.
Three golden shields engraved with ancient divine patterns snapped together, forcibly blocking Mordred’s immensely heavy strike.
“Crack——”
Even shields possessing the highest rank of defensive concept groaned under the Berserker’s absurd brute force.
Two terrifying masses of magical energy clashed violently in the center of the lobby.
The raging gale ripped the hotel’s revolving door out by its roots and hurled it into the street.
“Holy shit, this fight is insane.
Not even Hollywood would dare shoot special effects like this.”
At the edge of the lobby, behind a thick load-bearing pillar that was still relatively intact.
Yoru Hayashi crouched on the ground, holding a handful of sunflower seeds he had somehow swiped from the reception desk, cracking them while craning his neck to give a commentary.
Sakura crouched obediently beside Yoru Hayashi, her small hands covering her ears tightly as her large eyes blinked, watching the sky full of golden light and silver lightning.
She wasn’t scared at all, because as long as she was next to this big brother, it felt like someone would hold up the sky even if it collapsed.
Kariya Matou beside them, however, was trembling with excitement.
Peering through the gap in the pillar at the silver knight going toe-to-toe with Gilgamesh, he lowered his voice and asked, “Yoru, is that crazy knight really the Mordred summoned by Tokiomi?”
“Could it be fake?”
Yoru Hayashi spat out a seed shell and pointed at Mordred.
“Didn’t you hear the girl shouting just now?
‘The old man in red’!
In Fuyuki City, besides Tokiomi Tohsaka—that pretentious old dude who wears a wine-red suit every single day—who else fits that description?”
“Tokiomi…
She really is Tokiomi’s Servant…”
The corners of Kariya’s mouth twitched upward wildly.
It was the uncontrollable euphoria of an oppressed man finally seeing his arch-enemy suffer bad luck.
“Bro, the best part is yet to come,” Yoru Hayashi patted Kariya’s shoulder, smiling wickedly.
“You used to come from a mage family too.
You should know the characteristics of the Berserker class, right?”
Kariya froze for a moment, then recalled the Matou family’s magecraft texts.
“Berserker…
In exchange for immense raw stats, they lose their sanity…
and at the same time, consume their Master’s magical energy at a horrifying rate!”
“Bingo!”
Yoru Hayashi snapped his fingers, his eyes full of schadenfreude.
“That girl right now is like a leaking V8 engine.
Care to guess if Tokiomi’s delicate frame can handle that kind of punishment?”
Kariya pictured Tokiomi Tohsaka in his basement right now, drained of all his mana and foaming at the mouth.
A wave of pure satisfaction washed over him, feeling like a gulp of ice-cold soda in the dead of summer.
“Hit him!
Beat him to death!” Kariya couldn’t help muttering encouragement to Mordred from behind the pillar.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Diarmuid, Lancer of the First Impression, was carrying the unconscious Kayneth on his shoulder and protecting Sola-Ui.
Taking advantage of the chaos while Gilgamesh and Mordred were deadlocked, he crept along the wall toward the back door.
He glanced at the apocalyptic magical duel in the center of the lobby, his back drenched in cold sweat.
*What terrifying monsters…
The waters of this Holy Grail War are deep beyond imagination.* Lancer gritted his teeth and quickened his pace.
Sola-Ui followed closely behind Lancer, her gaze never leaving his face for a second.
As for the survival of her fiancé Kayneth, she seemed to have completely forgotten about it.
Back in the center of the battlefield.
“Thief!
Give it back!
Give back what the red old man wants!!”
Mordred’s state of madness seemed to deepen further.
Crimson lightning began to burst from the gaps in her silver heavy armor.
That violent magical energy actually forced cracks into Gilgamesh’s golden shields.
“You foul-mouthed bitch!
This king will chop you into mincemeat and feed you to the pigs!”
Gilgamesh was thoroughly enraged.
He, the noble King of Heroes, was actually suppressed by a madwoman for three whole minutes?
If word of this reached the Throne of Heroes, where would he hide his face?!
The void behind him suddenly flickered with a deep, dark golden light.
A uniquely crafted chain slithered out like a viper baring its fangs.
Enkidu!
An Anti-Purge Noble Phantasm!
Although Mordred possessed no Divinity, the sheer strength of this chain was definitely not something an ordinary Heroic Spirit could break free from.
“Die!” shouted the King of Heroes.
However, just as Gilgamesh was about to bind Mordred into a pretzel with Enkidu and impale her with a thousand swords—
A sudden change occurred!
On the broadsword Mordred held high, the crimson lightning capable of cleaving buildings suddenly sputtered out like a power-cut lightbulb with a *sizzle*.
“What?!” A brief moment of clarity and extreme bewilderment flashed through Mordred’s emerald eyes, which were otherwise consumed by madness.
The supply of magical energy inside her had been cut off!
…
Cut back to Fuyuki City, Miyama-cho, the Tohsaka residence.
“AAAAAHHHHH——!!!”
Tokiomi Tohsaka collapsed onto the concrete floor of his underground workshop like a blob of mud.
His iconic wine-red suit was completely soaked through with sweat.
Clutching his chest tightly with both hands, his face was as pale as paper.
Veins bulged on his forehead, and white foam spilled continuously from his mouth.
“Stop…
Stop it…
My Magic Circuits…
are going to snap…”
Tokiomi felt as if his body were a 500ml water bottle hooked up to a high-pressure pump that was violently draining him dry.
Terrifying!
What on earth was that damned rebellious knight doing out there?!
Was she carpet-bombing the city with Noble Phantasms?!
A mere five minutes of combat had drained ten years of Tokiomi’s accumulated mana reserves!
If she kept squandering it so mindlessly, in less than ten seconds, Tokiomi Tohsaka would die on the spot from severe Magic Circuit overload!
“No…
I cannot die here…
The glory of the Tohsaka family…”
Driven by the instinct to survive, Tokiomi summoned every last drop of his strength to raise his trembling right hand.
On the back of his hand, one of the three bright red Command Seals representing absolute authority burned away in an instant.
“By my Command Seal…
Berserker…
retreat…”
Squeezing those few words through his gritted teeth, Tokiomi’s eyes rolled back, and he passed out cold on the icy floor.
…
The lobby of the Hyatt Hotel.
Mordred’s body stiffened abruptly as the absolute binding force of the Command Seal forcibly took control of her body.
The crimson glow of Mad Enhancement temporarily faded from her eyes.
“Damn it!
Damn that old man in red!
Recalling me with a Command Seal at a time like this!”
Mordred was angry enough to spit blood.
She was just getting into it, on the verge of smashing that blond guy’s face in, only for her Master to pull the plug on her!
“You mad dog, trying to run?!” How could Gilgamesh grant her wish?
Enkidu instantly transformed into several golden beams shooting toward Mordred’s limbs.
“Don’t look down on me!”
Mordred gritted her teeth.
Though her magical energy was cut off, relying on her Rank A Strength, she kicked hard against a collapsing stone pillar.
Using the recoil, she glided past the edges of Enkidu.
*Crash!*
She smashed directly through the landscape glass on the second floor of the hotel, her figure disappearing into the deep night of Fuyuki City in an instant, leaving only a furious roar echoing in the night wind:
“Blond thief!
Wash your neck and wait!
Next time we meet, I’ll tear your head off!”
The battle came to an abrupt halt.
The entire first-floor lobby of the Hyatt Hotel could no longer be described merely as a “mess.”
It looked like a warzone in Iraq that had been run over three times by heavy armored divisions.
Three load-bearing pillars were snapped, the marble desk was pulverized into powder, the precious chandeliers were torn out by their roots, and leaking pipes and flashing electric sparks were everywhere.
Gilgamesh stood in the middle of the ruins, the golden halos behind him slowly fading away.
His handsome face bore no trace of joy from victory; instead, it was frighteningly dark.
To let a mad dog escape right under his nose?!
And before running away, that mad dog actually dared call him a “blond thief”?!
*Crunch.* A piece of rubble under Gilgamesh’s foot was crushed into powder by his weight.
“Old Gold, calm down, calm down.
The monk can run, but the temple stays put.
Her Master is Tokiomi Tohsaka.
We can just go raid Tokiomi’s doghouse another day.”
Yoru Hayashi dusted off his clothes and ambled out from behind the pillar.
Looking at the tragic, ruined surroundings, he couldn’t help taking a sharp breath.
“Holy shit, that’s some impressive destructive power.”
Stepping over the glass-covered floor, Yoru Hayashi strolled to where the hotel reception used to be.
At this moment, the reception girl was crouching alongside the hotel manager under the only solid wood desk still intact, trembling violently.
The two were clinging to each other, scared half out of their minds.
Yoru Hayashi leaned down and knocked on the desk three times with his knuckles.
“Ahem, well…
Boss.
Your hotel’s security system isn’t very good, is it?
Why do you let just any punk girl in?
The ceiling is leaking air now.”
The hotel manager poked out half of his balding head, looking at the t-shirt-wearing menace before him with tears brimming in his eyes.
*Big brother, is that a punk girl?!
That’s a human demolition machine!
And isn’t the blond thug who fought her the guy you brought in?!*
“What…
what do you want…” The manager was on the verge of tears.
“Look here,” Yoru Hayashi spread his hands earnestly.
“I paid in full last night for a week in the top-floor presidential suite.
Now your first-floor load-bearing wall is about to collapse, making this a force-majeure hazardous building.
For the personal safety of my little cousin, I demand a refund.”
Yoru Hayashi paused, flashing an extremely polite and benevolent smile.
“The unused room fee, plus compensation for mental distress.
Please give me a full refund in cash or transfer.
I’m in a hurry to switch to another hotel.”
Hotel Manager: “…”