On the elevated platform of Fuyuki City's great bridge, countless motes of golden light seemed to receive some unseen guidance, all streaking toward the same destination.
At the center of it all stood a gallant young girl, both hands raised high as she gripped her knightly sword. The longsword in her grasp looked as though it had been supercharged—as if someone had dumped an absurd amount of premium effects into it—radiating brilliance worthy of a fully upgraded legendary weapon.
"Rin! Use your Master authority and tell Archer to have Assassin and Rider withdraw!" Saber called out. "My Noble Phantasm is fully prepared!"
In truth, even without Saber's explicit warning, Ren Kuroda and the other two had already noticed what was happening. They had been keeping a close watch on her the entire time.
After all, that massive curry saber in her hands hadn't even been unleashed yet, and the pillar of golden light shooting into the night sky was already impossible to miss. Anyone who wasn't blind could see it clearly against the darkness.
"Sword of Promised Victory—Excalibur!"
The instant Ren, the King of Conquerors, and Archer retreated to a safe distance at top speed, Saber atop the elevated platform released the true name of her Noble Phantasm and brought the Sword of Promised Victory down in a single decisive swing.
For Ren and the others, escaping the blast zone using a Servant's physical advantages was effortless.
But for the sea monster—massive in size and sluggish in movement—it was nothing more than a gigantic target. Even if Caster wanted to flee, there was nowhere to go.
Light roared.Light surged.
Saber had swung Excalibur directly from the bridge's elevated platform—but to the torrent of light itself, that distance was meaningless.
Bathed in countless golden particles, Saber looked incomparably sacred and heroic. The golden beam unleashed by Excalibur split the sea apart in an instant, racing straight toward the monstrous entity on the water's surface.
"A full-power, A++-rank Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm… this level of output is already at the very peak of Noble Phantasms," Ren murmured. "In certain situations, even Gilgamesh's Ea wouldn't be much more destructive than this."
"With this kind of power, even a Command Spell–enhanced Caster should be completely annihilated. Looks like I won't need to—"
Watching the golden beam tear through the night, Ren couldn't help but admire just how powerful—and how dazzling—Saber truly was.
But just as he thought everything was settled, his expression changed.
The once-calm sea suddenly erupted. Massive waves surged upward, forming a towering barrier of seawater directly in front of the sea monster.
An enormous volume of water was violently drawn up, twisted and layered by the monster's writhing tentacles, stacking into barrier after barrier of churning seawater.
Blocking an A++-rank Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm like Excalibur with mere seawater was, under normal circumstances, completely unrealistic.
But this was no normal situation.
Caster was currently enhanced by Command Spells, far stronger than in the original timeline. And Saber's Noble Phantasm had always been right at the threshold—just enough to completely eliminate him.
Now, with layer upon layer of seawater weakening the blow, Excalibur's edge, though unstoppable, would inevitably lose power.
And once weakened… whether Excalibur could still completely erase Caster and the sea monster became an open question.
"To raise waves of this scale and form barriers like that—even the sea monster couldn't do it alone," Heroic Spirit Emiya said grimly. "Caster must have learned how he was defeated ten years ago and prepared in advance."
"He was waiting for Saber to use her Noble Phantasm. The moment she exhausted herself, he planned to land immediately."
Both Emiya and the King of Conquerors instantly realized how bad the situation had become.
Emiya boldly guessed that Caster had been deliberately baiting them this entire time—waiting for this exact opening.
After unleashing Excalibur, Saber was undeniably drained. Meanwhile, the three of them had retreated far away to avoid being caught in the blast.
Now, the path from the sea to the shore lay completely unobstructed.
Even if Ren and the others rushed over at maximum speed, Caster would already be slaughtering civilians on land by the time they arrived.
Caster had known from the start that causing such a massive disturbance would never go unanswered by the other Servants. Everything had been planned in advance.
His earlier displays of rage and frustration while being stalled were likely nothing more than an act.
After all, he had once been a grand admiral of an empire. He wasn't summoned as a Berserker—there was no way his intelligence had degraded.
The golden beam, weakened by layers of seawater, still struck the sea monster head-on. Golden particles rained down like luminous dust as the creature was blasted backward and swallowed by the light.
Yet not a single person watching showed even a hint of joy.
Because they could all still sense it.
The sea monster's presence hadn't vanished. And no notification of Caster's elimination had come from the Holy Grail.
The answer was obvious.
Excalibur had severely injured Caster and the sea monster—but it hadn't finished them off.
And for a creature capable of ultra-high-speed regeneration, injury meant almost nothing.
Though constant regeneration drained its magical energy, once it reached land, the abundance of living beings would not only restore it—but make it even stronger.
As expected, when the golden light finally faded into the night, the sea erupted once more.
Amid furious roars, the sea monster's tattered, perforated body reemerged at the surface.
Under Caster's control, it didn't hesitate for even a moment—immediately turning and swimming straight toward the shoreline, completely ignoring Ren and the others.
As it moved, they could clearly see the wounds inflicted by Excalibur rapidly knitting themselves back together. It wouldn't take long at all for the monster to fully recover.
"Saber," the King of Conquerors asked, glancing toward the elevated platform, "can you use your Noble Phantasm one more time?"
He had already sacrificed his Gordius Wheel. Letting Caster succeed like this would be far too bitter.
"I'm afraid not," Saber replied calmly. "My magical energy is insufficient. Even if I could manage it, I'd need time to prepare—and we don't have that luxury now."
That single strike of Excalibur had once again drained an enormous amount of her mana, knocking her down from the throne of the All-A King.
This wasn't because Saber herself was weak.
It was because Avalon, the scabbard supplying her mana—no matter how extraordinary—was still only a Noble Phantasm.
The energy Ren had replenished earlier was like a power bank: once used, it was gone.
And worse still, its capacity wasn't particularly large. It simply couldn't support Saber's unrestricted expenditure.
Hearing this, the King of Conquerors' expression grew heavy. He had been prepared to stake everything—using his Reality Marble to stall the monster again—if Saber could fire off one more curry beam.
"No need to go that far," Ren said quietly. "You've done more than enough, Saber. Caster was angered because of me in the first place. This should have been my responsibility from the start."
He had wanted to preserve his strength as much as possible. Whether it was Gilgamesh or Heracles, Ren knew neither would be easy opponents.
But holding back any longer would be an insult to everyone who had fought so desperately.
As his words fell, the restraints Medea had placed on his magical energy shattered completely.
A vast, overwhelming torrent of mana exploded outward.
The air itself seemed to solidify.The ground trembled faintly beneath their feet.
Solidified purple magical energy spread through the night—not particularly eye-catching from afar, but for those standing close to Ren, the pressure was suffocating.
If even Servants like Saber felt it, then Rin Tohsaka and Waver Velvet had it far worse.
Standing near such an immense mana source, both Masters felt as though an invisible hand was squeezing their throats.
Could a single person's magical energy truly reach this level?
Could even a mage who had touched the Root possess power this vast?
And most importantly—
This monstrous mana was coming from an Assassin.
An Assassin, a class usually known for agility and concealment rather than raw power.
By parameters alone, Assassin should have been the weakest of the seven classes.
Yet the Assassin before them—Ren Kuroda—was an anomaly among anomalies.
"Hey, hey… with power like this, you were acting all tense and desperate earlier?" the King of Conquerors couldn't help but complain. "With that kind of mana, dealing with Caster and the sea monster shouldn't be hard at all."
"And yet you kept Saber as your trump card?"
Only now, at close range, did he truly grasp how absurd Ren's power was.
The sea monster was enormous, and its mana was far from weak—but compared to Ren, it wasn't even on the same level.
"No," Ren replied calmly. "I genuinely placed my hopes on Saber. It's a bit embarrassing to admit."
"My mana is vast, but my strengths lie in personal combat. I lack a decisive, overwhelmingly destructive technique. Relying solely on my martial skill, completely erasing a creature like that in a single strike… isn't easy."
Ren understood this better than anyone.
Even at full output in his normal state, completely annihilating the sea monster in one blow was no simple task.
If it didn't possess regeneration, he could have killed it effortlessly.
But to erase it entirely—with his current level of yokai power alone—was still not quite enough.
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