Over the past ten years, Summoning Magecraft had been Naoki's most trusted Magecraft, the foundation of his entire strength.
"I didn't expect you to replicate it like this."
Demons, monsters, demi-humans, demon gods… such creatures now filled Naoki's entire field of vision, occupying most of Fuyuki City's sky and land. Everywhere he looked, everything had transformed into spirits entirely different from before.
Floating among the countless mutant spirit creatures, Solomon looked down at the few people below.
"After all, I've seen you use it multiple times. No matter how foolish I am, I should've grasped the basics by now."
Solomon casually uttered words that could make every Magus in the world feel ashamed, causing Naoki's blood pressure to spike.
After all, this was Magecraft he had painstakingly studied for years, and now Solomon had learned it just by watching a few times… Talk about humiliating!
"Of course, though it's called Summoning Magecraft, what I've summoned is quite different from yours. It's not truly summoning spirits from the Sea of Stars but terminal devices derived from the demon gods I command."
"After all, every demon god is a spiritual entity, falling within the scope of Summoning Magecraft's application. With slight modifications to the Summoning Magecraft technique, achieving this isn't difficult."
What now spread across the sky wasn't so much mutant spirit creatures as demon spirits.
Solomon raised both hands. "Of course, you don't need to worry. These aren't meant to fight me. With your abilities, defeating these terminal devices is easy enough. Though numerous, they can only delay you slightly."
"But for the others, it's hard to say—go."
"AAAAAAAAAA—!!"
All the demon spirits let out a piercing wail in unison, then transformed into a black wave that engulfed everything, like a collapsing sky instantly enveloping the space where Naoki and the others stood!
The pitch-black tsunami even obliterated the entire Fuyuki Bridge in an instant!
*RUMBLE!*
A deafening roar filled the air. The area around the Mion River was swiftly and imperceptibly submerged by countless black demon spirits.
Landing on a building's rooftop, Artoria hurriedly looked toward their previous position. "Master! Damn, separated like this…"
"Chasing after them isn't realistic. At least in this situation, they won't let us through."
Morgan, landing beside Artoria, spoke as demon spirits began surrounding them one by one, swiftly encircling the two like fish in a barrel.
Gripping Excalibur, Artoria stared at the countless demon spirits around her with a serious expression.
"Be careful, Lia. Though they're merely clones of the Seventy-Two Demon God Pillars, if a few combine, even you could get bogged down in close combat. Avoid getting dragged into a prolonged fight—use all your strength to break through."
Morgan spoke while tapping her staff on the ground, and Artoria immediately felt a warm current flow through her body.
"I've given you Reinforcement Magecraft. Fight with all you've got, King Arthur."
"Thank you, Sister. I'll return to Master's side as quickly as possible."
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Piercing several demon spirit bodies with a single spear thrust, Scáthach, on another side, gazed at the faint remnants of Fuyuki Bridge.
"Deliberately separating us? Wanting a one-on-one with the Fairy Magus, King of Magecraft."
Scáthach was slightly dissatisfied. Since the Holy Grail War began, she hadn't fought seriously. She'd thought Solomon would give her a chance to go all out, but instead, he wanted to exclude her. If her opponents were demon gods, fine, but using mere terminal devices to fight her…
*SWISH!* *SWISH!* *SWISH!*
Dozens of glowing red magical spears suddenly rained from the sky, piercing and obliterating most of the demon spirits surrounding Scáthach!
Anger.
She hadn't felt this in a long time.
"Fine, I'll use you to pass the time. This pent-up anger—I'll unleash it fully on the Fairy Magus later."
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In the middle of the Mion River, atop the ruins of Fuyuki Bridge.
Helping Rei up from the river, Naoki looked around. "Separated… The demon spirits aren't attacking me at all."
"They're likely just meant to separate you from the others, Master. Even for Solomon, a Servant's Spirit Origin scale isn't enough to face multiple top-tier Servants at once. I should thank you for protecting me, Master."
In the demon spirit onslaught, Naoki could only shield Rei, who was closest to him.
"You okay?"
"No serious damage. Your protection was excellent. Besides, I'm not a living being—any damage can be repaired with Mana. More importantly—look up."
"Yeah, I know."
Naoki looked skyward.
Slowly descending onto the river's surface, standing atop the flowing water, Solomon gazed at Naoki and Rei. "One got through? You still managed to protect someone in that situation."
"Unfortunately, my reach is too short to protect everyone." Naoki said with a smile. "But even so, it's only a matter of time before they return. I'd say no more than ten minutes."
"I think so too, but whether your fight with me will last longer than ten minutes remains to be seen—perhaps you'll be defeated before then."
"Bold words."
Smiling, Naoki removed the cover from his Mystic Eyes, while light particles gathered in his hand, and the Holy Star Sword materialized instantly.
Simultaneously, light particles emanated from Rei's body. Armor reminiscent of a sci-fi movie gradually enveloped her slender frame. A large cannon barrel extended from her right arm, and several discs floated beside her.
—Rei · Combat Mode.
"Who gets defeated? No harm in settling that after a real fight, right?"
"Come on, King Solomon!"