For Early/Extra Chapters : patreon.com/scoldeyjodxd
Already 30+ Chapters Updated + Daily Updates
The one who had burst onto the battlefield with the white horse — that had been A-bro.
Achilles had originally expected to end in the labyrinth. With Asterius's elimination, the labyrinth's hold released, and the chariot had returned to him at Ryudou Temple's ruins. But Lancer Artoria had understood what Saber wanted before anyone else did. It was like a final message between the same person separated by different choices — and so, before her Spirit Core gave out entirely, she had summoned East Stallion and entrusted it to her Master with instructions.
A-bro had delivered them.
After jumping from the white horse and watching Artoria mount, he looked at the arena — the mountain-trench that used to be a mountain — and stood beside Maverick in silence.
The horse had understood. Its reaction to Artoria's presence was a clear snort, high and excited, a sound that said yes, this is right.
"Thank you, another me. Let us fight side by side again, East Stallion."
The answering whinny was not the sound of an animal responding to a rider. It was agreement.
And as Artoria took the initiative — as the balance shifted from reactive to active — the fight changed.
[Chat]: oh my god
[Chat]: they're both at full speed
[Watching]: I can't see clearly. they're moving too fast to track with the camera.
[Wanting_More]: this is how it should be. this is what the Holy Grail War was built for.
[Reading_Comments]: someone actually broke their keyboard watching this stream and spent money on a new one. is that the right call?
[Answering]: yes. but go to the secondhand market.
[Feeling_It]: Arthur of Britain versus Achilles of Greece. this is theoretically impossible. this is the kind of matchup that existed only in arguments and daydreams. and it's happening in real time.
[Can't_Sleep_Anyway]: if it weren't the middle of the night I would be howling at the sky right now
[Response]: the middle of the night is precisely when you howl at the sky
[Consequence]: upstairs is right but I already got beaten by my mom so I cannot confirm
[Viewer_Count]: 10 million
[Again]: 10 million viewers. in the middle of the night.
[For_This]: for this. only for this.
East Stallion was not a divine horse. It was not immortal or blessed or carrying divine bloodline. The two horses pulling Achilles's chariot — Xanthus and Balius — were the gift of Poseidon himself, immortal warhorses that existed on a different level of reality than anything natural. For East Stallion to keep pace with them was something the records would not have predicted.
But the horse knew what it was carrying.
It knew it was carrying a King. Something that had pulled a sword from a stone at fifteen years old and carried an entire kingdom's weight from that moment until Camlann. A presence that East Stallion would run itself apart to keep beneath the sky a moment longer.
And so it did.
The distance between them closed and opened and closed again. Spear and sword clashing and separating, the sounds coming irregularly, the rhythm of two fighters who kept finding new problems to pose each other. Artoria's invisible wind shifted forms — attack, defense, assault — never letting Achilles settle into one read of her. Achilles's speed pressed her constantly toward the edge of what her instinct could track.
Neither of them was whole. Both of them were completely present.
Achilles felt it first — the small crumbling. His right pinky finger began to dissolve like foam at the edges, the immortality that had already been broken at the heel working its way outward as time ran out. The strength in his hand diminished by a fraction.
That fraction was enough.
Artoria's sword found the line between his spear and his grip and pressed. He was nearly off the chariot.
Three lights blazed on his Master's hand simultaneously.
"By Command Seal, I command — don't lose, Achilles! By Command Seal, I command again — you must achieve victory! And with the final Seal — you absolutely must accompany me to obtain the Holy Grail!"
Three Seals. All of them.
The mana hit his broken body like a tide coming back in.
Achilles laughed — a full, unguarded laugh, the laugh of someone who has been given something they didn't expect and finds it genuinely funny. This impossible Master.
He shoved Artoria back with everything, drove the chariot skyward, and took the height advantage.
Below, Artoria watched him ascend. East Stallion had given everything it had. She could feel it — the trembling in the horse's legs, the labored breath, the edge of what a famous steed could do when asked to be something greater than itself.
Thank you, she thought at it.
East Stallion cried once — clear, exhausted, proud — and became particles.
The arena was quiet for a moment.
One Command Seal remained on Maverick's hand.
He looked at it.
Then at Artoria, standing alone in the dust, sword raised toward Achilles building speed above her.
"By this Command Seal, I command — be filled with magical energy, Artoria."
[Chat]: MAVERICK
[Chat]: MAVERICK USED HIS LAST SEAL
[Watching]: he's been barely fighting all match and saving his Seals for exactly this
[Correcting]: he used one for the Noble Phantasm in the labyrinth and one to teleport Artoria onto the Berserker's Master. this was the last one.
[Feeling_It]: both Masters burned everything. three Seals each. for their Servants.
Artoria felt the surge. Her sword, invisible, blazed.
Above her: Achilles pulled the reins, coaxing the immortal horses to speeds they hadn't reached yet. The Noble Phantasm charge built — the sound preceding the image, then both at once.
"Come on, stand in my way! My chariot will crush you mercilessly like the stars — Xanthus! Balius! Pedasus! Let's go! Our lives will be as brilliant as shooting stars!"
"The Immortal Chariot of Raging Wind and Waves!!!"
Below, Artoria stepped forward.
"Gathered here is the breath of the stars. Shining here is the current of life. This radiance is the hope of the stars — the proof of life illuminating the earth."
"Witness it—"
"EXCALIBUR!!!"
The two Noble Phantasms met in the air above the arena.
The light took a long time to clear.
When it did: one player was still standing.
The other was sitting on the ground in the ruins, next to a Servant who had become golden particles, watching them drift.
[Chat]: ...
[Chat]: ...
[Everyone]: who won
The system notification appeared:
[Holy Grail War concluded. Winner: "Maverick." Holy Grail obtained.]
[Chat]: MAVERICK
[Chat]: MAVERICK WON
[Disbelief]: the man who died six times. the man who didn't know what asexual reproduction meant. the man who asked if someone was a girl during a tactical briefing.
[Accurate]: that man.
[Spicy_Strip_Bet]: my spicy strips. GONE. ALL TEN PACKS.
[Maverick_Fan]: I TOLD YOU. I TOLD ALL OF YOU.
[Rider's_Master_Reacting]: Achilles's Master put her face in her hands and then started laughing. she's laughing.
[Achilles_Reacting]: Achilles is watching Artoria with the expression of someone who genuinely enjoyed every second of that and has no regrets.
[Something_True]: there's nothing better than this. there is genuinely nothing better in a game than the weak overcoming the strong.
[Viewer_Count]: 10 million viewers witnessed it.
[Close_Of_Day]: it's almost 5 AM. nobody slept. nobody was going to sleep anyway.
The Holy Grail appeared above the ruins of Ryudou Temple, its golden light filling the trench that used to be a mountain, and descended slowly toward the hands of a streamer who had started the night with four hundred thousand viewers and ended it with ten million.
Maverick reached up.
He caught it.
"Artoria," he said. "We won."
Artoria said nothing. She simply looked at him with the expression she'd been building since Camlann — the one that had never found somewhere to put down its weight.
It put it down here.
"Yes," she said. "We did."
Show Some Supports By Giving Powerstones
Next BONUS CHAPTER at 700 powerstones