Zzzt!
Lancer Cú Chulainn casually lifted the squirming little monster on his spear tip and examined it with a frown. "These ugly creatures clearly aren't native to Earth."
"From another world, huh..."
Its rough, wrinkled skin, short and stocky build, abnormally developed forearms and calves, and round head—wrapped in futuristic red armor—made it look like a hermit crab.
Roar—!
Before Cú Chulainn could continue pondering, nearby Sangheili warriors noticed that several squads of Unggoy (Grunts) had been skewered by this blue lancer. The next instant, a barrage of plasma fire rained down toward him.
"Hah... this stuff is useless against me."
The Grunt corpse on Cú Chulainn's spear was instantly blasted to pieces by the plasma, but the projectiles, plasma bolts, and even rockets that followed all eerily dissipated upon reaching him.
Cú Chulainn's natural ability: Protection from Arrows — Rank: B
A defense against projectile attacks. As long as the user visually tracks the attacker, they can dodge any form of ranged assault. Even when unable to see, most projectiles can still be avoided. Any thrown weapon, even Noble Phantasms, can be evaded, but wide-area explosions or weapons with direct striking reach cannot be nullified.
Bang!
A lurking Jackal sniper was slammed into a wall by an invisible blade.
"Such a power... truly befitting Ireland's half-god, half-human great hero."
With a sweeping step forward, Saber created a vortex of wind and cleaved through the surrounding enemies. Her golden sword pierced a Sangheili Major's energy shield, clearing the area in an instant. She turned and praised Cú Chulainn sincerely.
"Protection from Arrows not only deflects arrows and bolts, but even futuristic firearms. Lancer, it seems battlefields like these suit you best."
Wielding her Iris flag, Jeanne d'Arc pushed aside the rampant plasma fire and explosions with her banner, effortlessly clearing a path. She, too, praised him generously.
"Hah, this is nothing—just clearing out some small fry!"
"If Fu Hua doesn't show up, I'll treat this as a warm-up!"
With a hearty laugh, facing humanoid creatures charging at him with melee weapons, Cú Chulainn casually raised his spear and stepped forward.
Boom!
"Fu Hua?"
Ruler Jeanne d'Arc sharply caught that critical name, but before she could say more, a roar erupted and Cú Chulainn disappeared, stirring a whirlwind.
Hyahhh—!
Cú Chulainn plunged into the enemy ranks, swinging his piercing Gáe Bolg spear single-handedly. Tilting his body slightly to dodge an energy sword strike, he smashed his opponent's arms and flung him away. Breaking through the encirclement, he tapped his spear tip lightly, advancing one thrust at a time, leaving a trail of corpses behind him with terrifying efficiency.
"Ruler, these alien creatures must be under that foreign god's command... but according to the intel you provided from the Romanian Holy Grail War, weren't her forces supposed to be heavily armored human warriors?"
Still cutting down the alien army without pause, Saber questioned through voice transmission.
"It might be related to the summoned class," Ruler Jeanne d'Arc replied. "The difference between a standard Rider of the seven classes and the Beast symbolizing humanity's calamities... perhaps that's why Selene didn't summon the Astartes or the Imperial Guard."
As for why Selene's forces had so many strange-looking species—all highly intelligent and fanatically worshiping her—it wasn't hard to figure out.
She was a cosmic deity, unrestricted by Earth or any single planet. There was no reason her followers would be limited to humans.
Rumble—!
Suddenly, a tremendous explosion shook the ground, interrupting Jeanne d'Arc's thoughts.
Jeanne's reaction quickly caught Saber's attention. She turned toward the source of the sound and immediately spotted an enormous silhouette rising on the horizon.
"That is..."
Boom!
A series of deafening blasts followed as the Sangheili Imperial Army's heavy armored units landed near the battlefield. A traditional Japanese villa close to the area was instantly flattened.
It was a titanic mobile siege engine, transferred directly from the Covenant's military arsenal into the Empire's forces. Beetle-like in form, it possessed thick, pillar-like legs and a sturdy, flexible metallic body covered in focus cannons and heavy plasma weaponry.
Scarab — Type-47B Super Heavy Assault Platform.
Just like other titan-class machines, it was heavily armored with multiple energy shield layers, once used by the Covenant for assaulting heavily fortified structures and artillery positions.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The earth trembled beneath the hammer-like steps of more massive war machines emerging from a rippling purple-red portal.
"Open fire freely! Prioritize taking her down!"
Under the loud orders of a Sangheili commander, the first Scarab stopped. With a heavy rumble, stabilizers shot into the ground, armor panels snapped open, and the massive barrels of its focus cannon and heavy plasma gun lifted menacingly.
Vmmm—!
High in the air, Ishtar pressed off an invisible air wall with her bare feet, rebounding onto the ornate heavenly bow, Maanna.
Spinning through the air with a dazzling series of 720-degree rotations and 360-degree spirals, she elegantly dodged the rising torrent of firepower, releasing golden arrows from Maanna at the alien army flooding the ground below.
She looked brilliant—an awe-inspiring sight that could force even skeptics to praise her as the goddess of war and harvest.
Yet, inwardly, Ishtar was miserable.
Although she appeared to have complete aerial supremacy, she was barely hanging on.
One or two shots were nothing—Ishtar could dodge them without thinking. But against this endless barrage, if she paused for even a second, she would be riddled with hundreds, even thousands of hits!
She was at her limit...
Ishtar had lost count of how many aliens she had destroyed: ugly creatures with four-parted jaws, short grunting dwarves, and sniping wolf-headed beings...
But no matter how many she killed, their numbers didn't decrease—if anything, they seemed to grow!
Now cooling down, Ishtar hesitated. Should she really unleash her Noble Phantasm just to deal with these grunts? It wasn't impossible, but the cost was massive.
Every time she impulsively considered releasing her city-destroying Noble Phantasm, the part of her that was Rin Tohsaka furiously restrained her.
Yet without using powerful magic bombardments, even with her divine core, high anti-magic resistance, and the ample magical energy supplied by Fuyuki's leyline, Chaldea, and Gilgamesh, Ishtar was starting to struggle.
At that moment—
"What the hell is that?!"
As the commotion on the ground grew louder, and Ishtar saw the row upon row of giant beast-like weapons lining up their cannons at her, she couldn't help but scream.
Vmmm Vmmm Vmmm—!
In an instant, dazzling plasma blasts in purple, blue, and red surged upward, interwoven with the fire of large-caliber kinetic shells and the searing beams of laser focus cannons.
It was a symphony and dance of death, born from the primal biological urge to kill.
"Ugh, damn it, damn it, damn it! You forced me! Manifest, Shining Great Crown—!"
Rumble rumble—!
Amid the air-shattering roar, a chain of massive, brilliant fireballs burst into the sky, becoming a second sun above the earth!
Below, in the luxury villa district at the blast center, the roadside trees, lawns, and parks were incinerated within seconds by the soaring temperatures and plasma sparks, setting off towering walls of fire.
And that was just the aftershock.
Plasma bombs landed across the land, causing mushroom clouds to bloom one after another across Fuyuki.
At this point, there was no need for concealment anymore. The Magus Association's attempts to suppress rumors had already been reduced to a joke in the eyes of Fuyuki's citizens.
With each successive explosion and sky-piercing flame, with aliens rampaging through the streets and massive alien mechs emerging from "wormholes" in broad daylight—
—The people of Fuyuki were utterly dumbfounded. Their faces were frozen in expressions of worldview-shattering disbelief.
Some broke down crying, some ran in panic, some knelt to pray and scream about the end of the world... chaos everywhere.
They didn't know why the aliens ignored them and instead converged elsewhere, but survival instincts drove them to flee without hesitation.
The entire order of Fuyuki City collapsed almost instantly.
"Lady Durandal, it seems the clearing operation will soon be complete. You may act freely now," Rita said softly from the rooftop of Fuyuki's New City Tower, retracting her gaze and addressing the golden-haired knight beside her.
"Then, let's move. Her Majesty is ready as well. This time, we fight freely—for victory."
Durandal herself wasn't sure if the strategy of deliberately revealing themselves to give civilians time to evacuate had been effective—but she had chosen to do it anyway.
...
Boom!
A heavy plasma shot struck a three-story villa about a hundred steps from the Tohsaka estate. In an instant, the building was wiped out, erased as if by an invisible giant hand.
Under the heavy fire, the alien ground forces' advance was temporarily halted.
Ruler Jeanne d'Arc stood firm as the ground beneath her feet quaked violently, her Iris flag whipping fiercely in the blast winds. A brilliant golden barrier shielded her from the heavy plasma bombardment.
The air was thick with the acrid stench of burned atmosphere.
Even Cú Chulainn's usually cocky smirk was gone.
If it were just a horde of enemies, no matter how many, he wouldn't flinch.
But these plasma blasts—attacks rivaling Noble Phantasm releases—were a different story.
His Protection from Arrows didn't defend against shockwave impacts. A few concentrated plasma strikes, and even with Battle Continuation and resilience skills, he'd likely be overwhelmed.
"This kind of quantity, combined with heavy weapons not inferior to Noble Phantasms... Hey, isn't this cheating?"
As Lancer Cú Chulainn spoke, a sudden chill crept up his spine. Trusting his instincts, he shifted his movement and rolled aside.
Bang—!
"Heh, spinning, charging blue lancer! We meet again! This time it's my turn!"
Cú Chulainn turned toward the voice. Where he had been standing, the ground had caved into a deep crater, spiderweb cracks radiating outward.
At the center, an enormous heavy sword with red and gold patterns was embedded in the ground. Standing on the sword's hilt, with gray-white gradient hair flowing in the wind and draped in black-red tattered feathers, was a figure laughing wildly.
"What kind of stupid nickname is that? Listen up! I'm Cú Chulainn! And you... the sister of Fu Hua who beat up that golden idiot. Where's your sister..."
"Tch, your attitude really ticks me off! What, not satisfied that this immortal has come to fight you herself?"
Clearing the smoke with a wave, Senti looked up with extreme arrogance. Though full of attitude, she did not deny being Fu Hua's sister.
"As for the Fu Hua you keep blabbering about, she's busy and doesn't have time for you."
As soon as she finished speaking, a fierce cry rang out from the sky:
"Ki Impact—!"
The once-dim sky flared ablaze. It was as if a sea of fire rose into the heavens, with a dazzling comet tracing a fleeting, brilliant streak through the center.
Vmmm—!
"See? Fu Hua's busy. You're mine!" Senti declared, summoning a weapon with a wave.
Whoosh!
A crimson gold-patterned lance danced into her hand, its tip pointed directly at Cú Chulainn. Senti crouched slightly, her face twisted in a crazed smile.
"Come... Hmm?!"
Broken Phantasm!
A terrifying torrent of magical energy spiraled out from the crumbling ruins behind Cú Chulainn, roaring toward Senti.
"Interesting!" Senti sneered. "Red-haired brat, even if you want to die, wait your turn!"
Rather than retreat, she cracked her knuckles and hefted her lance, smashing it forward.
Clang!
A booming metallic clang echoed as her weapon clashed against the spiraling sword energy.
Whoosh—Boom!
Gale-force winds howled as the explosive force warped and twisted the very air.
Creak creak creak—under the blast from the Broken Phantasm, the already battered building, Rin Tohsaka's property, finally met its end and collapsed into rubble.
"Shirou!"
"I'm fine, Saber."
Moments later, the debris exploded outward, revealing a hidden workshop protected by several defensive Noble Phantasms.
Amidst the wreckage, Saber glimpsed the still-functioning complex spirit summoning array beneath the collapsed house.
Above it, streams of gentle golden light gathered, forming humanoid figures.
Among them was a young man clad in green with a bow and arrows; a knight in dazzling armor wielding a greatsword; a handsome youth in golden armor carrying a golden spear; and a pink-braided girl in ornate garb...
"Oh? So your so-called backup is a crowd? Fine, this immortal will just send you packing one by one! Let's count... one, two... five... seven, eight... Tch tch tch, not bad, quite a lot."
"Wait, what do we have here?"
Senti suddenly clutched her stomach and burst into laughter.
"Hahaha! Look who it is—our old pal, the runaway mongrel—Golden Boy!"
"Brat!"
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