The warehouse district along the Mion River could no longer be called a “street.”
Under the insane, saturated barrage of Gate of Babylon, steel shipping containers weighing hundreds of tons were torn apart, melted, and blasted into clouds of flying shrapnel like paper.
“Boom!
Boom!
Boom!”
Gilgamesh hadn’t shifted a single step from where he stood.
The golden ripples behind him poured forth Noble Phantasms relentlessly like the barrels of a Gatling gun.
And Mordred, at the very center of the bombardment, was like a prehistoric beast that felt no pain!
“Get lost!
Get lost!
Get lost!!!”
The Berserker roared, her entire body wrapped in visible crimson lightning (Mana Burst).
Clasping the broad royal sword with both hands, she neither dodged nor veered, charging forward straight through the shelling of Noble Phantasms!
A spear Noble Phantasm grazed her shoulder, kicking up a trail of blood; a longsword Noble Phantasm slammed into her breastplate, carving out a dent.
But Mordred didn’t care in the slightest!
Her Rank A Mad Enhancement stats, coupled with her utterly delusional resentment, allowed her to carve out a bloody path through this torrential downpour of metal!
“How is this mad dog’s hide so thick?!”
Gilgamesh’s brow furrowed slightly.
Though he hadn’t taken things seriously, with the destructive force of Gate of Babylon, ordinary Heroic Spirits should have been turned into sieves long ago.
Could this woman really be tanking it through pure Mana Burst alone?
What he didn’t know was that the immense magical energy consumed every time Mordred swung her sword or tanked an explosion was not generated by her at all.
That was all Tokiomi Tohsaka’s life force!
…
At the same time, in Miyama-cho, Fuyuki City, at the Tohsaka family mansion.
In the private medical room on the second floor, Tokiomi Tohsaka lay on the bed, on his last legs.
Both of his arms were stuck with IV tubes, and on the stand beside him hung four full bags of high-purity magical energy restoration fluid.
Kirei Kotomine stood expressionlessly by the bedside like a dutiful night watchman.
Just one minute ago, Tokiomi had slowly awakened from his coma and was about to instruct his pupil on a tactic to lay low and build power.
However, in the very next second!
*BZZZ—!!*
The Magic Circuits inside Tokiomi Tohsaka suddenly shrieked in agony!
“Pfft—!”
Before Tokiomi could utter a word, he shot up from the bed, his head jerking back as he spewed a half-meter-high geyser of blood, painting the ceiling red!
“Master!” Kirei Kotomine quickly stepped forward.
“AAAHHH!”
Tokiomi convulsed violently, his eyes rolling back, the blue veins on his neck bulging so hard they seemed ready to burst through his skin.
He felt the magical energy inside him being siphoned away at an utterly unreasonable speed!
It felt as if someone had jammed a hose directly into his bone marrow and connected it to an industrial-grade pump!
The four bags of mana restoration fluid beside the bed emptied out at a rate visible to the naked eye in just a few seconds!
It was terrifying!
What on earth was that damned Knight of Rebellion doing?!
Was she taking on the entire Mage’s Association by herself, or was she tanking an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm head-on?!
Tokiomi’s consciousness was slipping.
He could clearly feel that if this “filial child” were allowed to squander his energy outside for another ten seconds, Tokiomi Tohsaka would drop dead on the spot from a complete burnout of his Magic Circuits!
The Tohsaka family elegance?
The glory of the Holy Grail?
To hell with all of it!
What good was elegance if he was dead?!
“Come…
come back…”
Trembling, Tokiomi raised his right hand.
One of the Command Seals on the back of his hand ignited instantly, bursting with a blinding crimson light.
“By my Command Seal, I order you…
Berserker…
return immediately…
to my side!”
After bellowing this humiliating line, Tokiomi Tohsaka slammed back onto the hospital bed like a gutted fish, falling once more into a deep coma.
And judging by his complexion, he wouldn’t be getting out of bed for at least ten days or two weeks.
…
The warehouse district battlefield.
Raising the royal sword high with both hands, crimson lightning compressed wildly along the blade as she prepared to deliver a heavy leaping slash to this “blonde thief”!
“Die, you bastard!!!”
Yet, just as her blade was about to fall and Gilgamesh sneered while reaching to draw Enkidu—
An absolute, undeniable chain of blood-red magical energy descended out of nowhere, binding Mordred’s body tight!
A forced recall Command Seal!
“What?!” Mordred froze in mid-air, her emerald eyes under Mad Enhancement brimming with unwillingness and rage.
Not again!
That old man in red again!
“No…
I’m not going back!
Arthur is right there!
I’m going to chop up that blonde, and then ask that bastard father…”
Mordred struggled hysterically, but the rule of the Command Seal was absolute.
Accompanied by a red distortion of space, the Berserker’s figure instantly twisted and dispersed in mid-air, leaving behind only a venomous roar echoing over the warehouse district:
“Old man in red!
Just you wait!
The very first thing I do when I get back is tear your trashy house to the ground!!”
The fight came to an abrupt halt.
Gilgamesh stared at the empty space ahead, veins throbbing on his forehead.
It felt worse than swallowing a fly!
Halfway through the fight, just as he was about to crush his opponent, the enemy Master pulled the plug and ran away?!
“Cowardly mongrel!
How dare you ruin my mood!” Gilgamesh cursed angrily, his golden ripples pulling back most reluctantly.
The entire area fell once more into an eerie silence.
Artoria stood a short distance away, slowly lowering her hand holding the invisible sword, her eyes filled with complex emotions.
Was that violent knight truly her?
Why had she become like this?
“Yo-ho-ho-ho-ho!
What a magnificent clash!”
At that moment, King of Conquerors Iskandar up in the sky could finally contain himself no longer.
Grasping the reins hard, his divine oxen pulled the ancient chariot down with rolling thunder, coming to a steady stop right between Gilgamesh and Artoria.
“I am the King of Conquerors, Iskandar!
I have been summoned into this Holy Grail War under the class of Rider!”
Standing on the chariot, the towering red-haired giant opened his arms with grand enthusiasm, completely ignoring Waver screaming in despair beside him, “You just blurted out your True Name, you idiot!”
“Though that Berserker just now has retired from the field, since so many kings and warriors have gathered here tonight, why fight to the death over a broken cup?”
The King of Conquerors laughed loudly, sweeping his gaze across Saber and Gilgamesh.
“I have a proposal!
Why not put down your weapons and join my cause?
So long as you yield the Holy Grail to me, I shall treat you as my dearest friends and share with you the joy of conquering the world!
What do you say?!”
The air fell silent once again.
Hiding on top of the gantry crane, Yoru Hayashi almost choked with laughter.
The King of Conquerors was quite the character—trying to recruit Goldie and Saber right to their faces was no different from sticking a hand straight into a hornet’s nest for honey!
Sure enough.
Artoria’s flattened ahoge shot straight up instantly, her eyes regaining their resolute steel.
“Absurd!
I am the King of Britain.
How could I ever bow my head to another?
The Holy Grail will be mine!
If you stand in my way, then you are my enemy!”
And Gilgamesh on the other side was so enraged he actually laughed.
Today, every tom, dick, and harry thought they could push his boundaries.
First a mad dog, and now a daydreaming musclehead?
“Bragging bandit.
In this world, I am the sole person worthy of being called King.
The rest are merely mongrels dressed up in robes!”
Gilgamesh crossed his arms, murderous intent flickering in his crimson eyes.
“Since you are so eager to die, I wouldn’t mind sending you on your way right now!”
“Goldie!
That’s enough already!”
Suddenly, an extremely abrupt, lazy call—complete with the sound of someone munching popcorn—drifted down from the high gantry crane.
Every Heroic Spirit and Master present turned their heads up to look.
There, dozens of meters up on the steel structure, sat Yoru Hayashi cross-legged.
One hand held a popcorn bucket, while the other held a megaphone he had picked up from who-knows-where, shouting down at them.
“It’s the middle of the night, why aren’t you sleeping instead of gossiping with people down there?
Stop trying to trade contacts and hurry home!
Sakura’s waiting for us to have late-night snacks!
Any later and the oden stall at the corner will close!”
Silence.
A dead, heavy silence.
The King of Conquerors scratched his head and glanced at Gilgamesh.
“Is that…
your Master?
Quite a character.”
Artoria and Irisviel were completely baffled.
That terrifying, leather-clad, golden-haired king had a Master who looked like a punk from the streets?
And that tone—how did it sound so much like a father telling his son to stop pulling all-nighters at an internet cafe and come home for dinner?
Gilgamesh’s face darkened like the bottom of a charred pot.
All the embarrassing moments in his entire life combined couldn’t match what he had suffered in the past two days with Yoru Hayashi!
“That damned villain…” Gilgamesh gritted his teeth, desperately wanting to turn his weapons around and blast that gantry crane into flat ground.
But Yoru Hayashi was craftier than a fox; the moment he finished talking, he grabbed Kariya Matou and slid down the steel frame, nimbler than a monkey.
Gilgamesh snorted coldly and ultimately refrained from taking action.
He cast a glance at Saber, who was eager for battle, and Rider, who wore a hearty grin, losing all interest in continuing.
“Consider yourselves lucky, mongrels.
Though my Master is a vulgar brute, I am indeed in no mood to waste further time on fakes like you.”
Gilgamesh dissolved into a scatter of golden dust, leaving behind one last, immensely arrogant declaration before vanishing:
“Clean your necks and wait.
Next time we meet, I shall purge every last one of you.”
With Gilgamesh’s departure, the warehouse district, which had been on a razor’s edge, finally returned to peace.
The various factions hidden in the shadows retreated one after another.
This chaotic free-for-all involving five Heroic Spirits ultimately drew to a hasty close with Tokiomi Tohsaka coughing up blood after suffering total mana bankruptcy, while Yoru Hayashi watched the show and ate popcorn up on a crane.
…
Half an hour later, at the villa in Miyama-cho.
Yoru Hayashi tossed the freshly bought oden onto the coffee table and turned to look at Gilgamesh, who sat on the sofa with a scowl on his face.
“Goldie, wipe that scowl off your face.
Wasn’t tonight’s show pretty good?” Yoru Hayashi took a bite of a fishball.
“Good?” Gilgamesh sneered.
“A bunch of tedious lunatics.
Especially that little girl calling herself King Arthur—that pathetic display of bearing the weight of everything makes me sick.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Yoru Hayashi leaned back on the sofa with a mischievous grin.
“Honestly, her summoned ‘beloved daughter’ is way more fun than she is.”
In his view, after tonight’s stunt, Mordred would absolutely no longer obey Tokiomi’s control.
That hot-tempered delinquent girl was bound to turn all of Fuyuki City upside down next!
*System, open my status panel,* Yoru Hayashi muttered in his mind.
—- [Status Panel] —-
[Name: Yoru Hayashi]
[Titles: Fuyuki Pure Love God of War / Cyber Street Loiterer / Spoiler Dog Bane / Pesticide]
[Level: First-Rate Mage / Melee Monster Comparable to Father Mapo]
[Magic Circuits: 60]
[Current Skills]:
1.
Reinforcement Magic (Mastery) 2.
Martial Arts Mastery (Rank C) 3.
Bajiquan (Rank B) 4.
Battle Continuation (Rank C) 5.
Mind’s Eye (True) (Rank B) 6.
Master of Positioning (Passive): Area-of-Effect (AOE) dodge rate temporarily increased by 20%.
[Resistance List: Pain (Extremely High), Fire (Extremely High), Insect Poison (High), Lightning (High), Noble Phantasm Piercing (+10%)]
[Current Deaths/Resurrections: 19]