"Excalibur."
It was as if the heavens themselves had split apart. An eternal pillar of light descended, bright enough to erase all shadows and poised to annihilate everything beneath it.
"Day Tiger."
Li Chong's eyes flashed like lightning. His right hand compressed violently into the shape of a raging tiger as the surrounding air let out a deafening roar. The attack tore through the sky with a heaven-collapsing force.
The hurricane that formed was no longer merely wind. It became a natural disaster, mighty and unstoppable.
At the same moment, the entire sky was streaked with blazing blue light.
"Kamehameha."
Lucien's amethyst eyes burned with fury. The massive sphere of blue energy between his hands trailed a long blazing tail like an eternal meteor as it surged forward and smashed into Li Chong with overwhelming power.
"Damn it… pfft…"
Facing the combined ultimate attacks of Lucien and Artoria, Li Chong was driven backward in a straight line. Blood poured uncontrollably from his nose and mouth.
The Day Tiger rapidly shrank in size. At most, it would last another minute before being completely shattered.
"Heaven Concealing Star."
Li Chong's expression turned vicious. With his left hand, he clawed downward toward the sky.
In the next second, the entire heavens turned crimson.
A massive Mars appeared, expanding while burning with rolling flames as it descended.
At this instant, the air raid sirens once again echoed throughout Fuyuki City.
At the same time, Illya, Rin, Shirou, and Archer, along with Kirei Kotomine and Cú Chulainn within the church, and even Gilgamesh, Medea, and Medusa locked in battle, all lifted their heads toward the sky.
The atmosphere raged endlessly. This meteor was even larger than the last one.
The entire night was set ablaze in red.
"Die… all of you!"
Li Chong laughed maniacally as he resisted both Lucien and Artoria at once.
Lucien's hair whipped wildly in the violent wind. He stared up at the rapidly descending meteor and finally stopped holding back the ki surging within his body. He poured everything into the Kamehameha.
"Die, you bastard!"
Lucien stepped forward. In the next instant, the Kamehameha expanded explosively, completely crushing and shattering the Day Tiger. Li Chong let out a furious roar as blood burst from all seven orifices.
But just then, Lucien's hair stood on end.
A chilling premonition spread throughout his entire body.
"Gae Bolg."
High in the distant sky, Cú Chulainn appeared without warning. The blood-red spear in his hand was wrapped in terrifying energy, causing the surrounding air to rumble violently.
A crimson torrent erupted and swept everything in its path, cutting straight toward Lucien.
"Artoria."
Lucien had no intention of dodging. The Kamehameha in his hands continued to press forward, forcing Li Chong back relentlessly.
At the same time, a Command Seal on the back of Lucien's hand vanished.
He forcibly ordered Artoria to block it, and if she could not block it, then to use her own body to stop it.
Lucien was unwilling to give up this chance to kill or at least critically wound Li Chong.
Artoria said nothing.
She swept the blazing beam of light horizontally and slammed it directly into the crimson torrent.
Above them, the meteor continued to descend at terrifying speed. If it was not destroyed, the entirety of Fuyuki City would be erased from existence.
Everyone at the very center would face an unprecedented, absolute destruction.
Yet at this moment, Lucien and Li Chong, Artoria and Cú Chulainn, Medea, Medusa, and Gilgamesh were all locked in a deadlock.
"Haha… this is truly unexpected!"
Behind Gilgamesh, the sky was densely packed with golden vortices. Weapons of countless forms rained down like a storm of bullets upon Medea and Medusa.
For a time, neither of the two women could even draw close.
Gilgamesh lifted his gaze toward the falling meteor. A golden vortex appeared to his right, revealing a golden, gear-like key Noble Phantasm which he grasped without hesitation.
As the gears rotated, an enormous expanse of crimson crystalline light spread across the sky and then rapidly contracted.
A bizarre Noble Phantasm appeared. Its entire body was jet black, inscribed with glowing red runes. When Gilgamesh seized it, reality itself seemed to twist. The surrounding space fractured and split apart violently.
Medea and Medusa both felt overwhelming danger at once. They retreated instantly and stared at Gilgamesh with extreme caution.
"You all have the right to die by this sword of mine."
"Ea, release."
"Enuma Elish."
The gears rotated as the sword separated into three spinning sections.
The entire world turned blood-red.
Endless lightning spread through the sky. The very heavens began to crack and collapse as the power of both creation and destruction tore reality apart.
The earth split open into bottomless abysses. An eternal torrent surged upward from the depths and crashed into the falling meteor. The colossal star of destruction was wiped away almost effortlessly, disintegrating into dust before the naked eye.
After erasing the meteor by force, Gilgamesh raised the Sword of Rupture high and pressed it downward like a god passing judgment.
Medea, Medusa, Cú Chulainn, Artoria, and even Lucien all changed expressions in shock.
This man intended to erase everyone present.
"Damn it."
Even Li Chong felt terror for the first time, as he too was within the attack range.
Dimensional layers collapsed in waves. Infinite destructive power swallowed the battlefield.
Extreme light engulfed the world.
A mushroom cloud rose into the sky.
The annular shockwave tore across the land like a moving landslide, erasing everything in its path. Even distant areas of Fuyuki City were affected. Numerous towering buildings collapsed and shattered under the overwhelming force.
When the light finally faded, the cemetery that had once been at the center of battle was completely gone. In its place remained only an immense crater.
Gilgamesh stood proudly at the edge, his cold eyes filled with absolute disdain for the world below.
"As expected of Gilgamesh."
From the distant ruins, Lucien walked forward calmly, as if nothing had happened.
He even brushed the dust from his shoulder.
"How is that possible?"
For the first time, Gilgamesh was genuinely shaken.
How could Lucien be completely unharmed?
Under the Sword of Rupture, even a god could not endure such destruction.
"You made things very troublesome for me," Lucien said calmly. "It was not easy becoming Medea and Medusa's Master. I did not even get the chance to cherish them, and they were killed by you just like that."
He looked at the two Command Seals that had vanished from the back of his hand. A trace of melancholy and regret crossed his face.
At that critical moment, he had used his Command Seals to forcibly draw Medea and Medusa in front of himself through spatial transfer, turning them and Artoria into three layers of living defense.
That was why Lucien stood here unscathed.
He could not afford to be critically injured. In this battle, weakness meant death.
So he sacrificed Medea and Medusa without hesitation.
Originally, after this operation, he had planned to enjoy a little time with time.
Now, that opportunity was gone forever.
"Cough… cough…"
Not far away, Artoria pushed aside heavy rubble and forced herself up on one knee, gripping her sword as she coughed up blood continuously.
At the very last instant, she had seen Lucien use his Command Seal to pull Medea and Medusa in front of him, while she herself became the final shield.
Both Medea and Medusa were dead.
She, too, was gravely injured.
Cú Chulainn had vanished at the last moment, clearly summoned away by Kirei Kotomine using a Command Seal.
Li Chong's fate was unknown.
Which meant that among everyone present, only Lucien remained completely unharmed.
Gilgamesh's face was cold and arrogant. More golden vortices began to form behind him as he prepared to strike again.
A kukri appeared in Lucien's hand. At the same time, Artoria struggled to her feet.
The battlefield was on the brink of erupting once more.
Then, suddenly, Gilgamesh tilted his head, as if hearing a voice whispering into his ear.
The golden vortices behind him vanished instantly.
He took one deep look at Lucien and Artoria, then disappeared without another word.
Lucien frowned slightly.
He closed his eyes and released his perception across the battlefield. Only Artoria's ki responded.
There was no trace of Li Chong, nor any of the others.
Li Chong might have perished.
Or he might have escaped.
Lucien searched every corner of the ruined land, attempting to find Li Chong's corpse.
In the end, he found nothing.
____
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