Extra Chapter: Gudaguda Avengers of Honnō-ji.
A pseudo-space. Or, more accurately, another dimension. Loki, using the Grail with the Tesseract embedded in it, snapped his fingers and pulled Ritsuka and his companions into this interdimensional purgatory.
"Welcome to my arena. And your opponent will be myself."
Loki broke into an anticipatory grin and spread his arms wide, welcoming the uninvited guests.
"And for this, you dragged us into some hole? "Welcome to the arena," seriously? Where are the spectators? Without an audience, this isn't an arena, it's a storage room," Deadpool grumbled.
In response to his whining, Loki, as if he had been waiting for this, snapped his fingers again, not letting go of the Grail.
"Nobu-u! Nobu-bu-bu!"
"Dep-dep!"
As if on cue, Nobus and Little Pools rained down on Ritsuka's companions. Thousands, no, tens of thousands of these creatures, an innumerable mass, filled the space, forming a tight ring around Loki and Ritsuka's team.
"Ladies, gentlemen, and other cuties!" Loki proclaimed.
"No-o-obu!"
"De-e-epu!"
At Loki's cry, the crowd of Nobus and Little Pools erupted in a furious roar, like Roman citizens in the Colosseum before a bloody slaughter. The din was so great that the endless chirping and shouting made their ears ring and their heads spin.
"I, Loki, the true king of Asgard, shall personally punish these mortals who dared to reject my mercy!"
Under thunderous ovations and shouts, Loki was finally filled with triumph.
"Don't worry about it. He's a god, but a pretty lousy one, a weakling. He's got brains, but not much strength. Well, if you compare him to normal Asgardians…" Deadpool was cautious, but he knew this guy relied on cunning, not fists. No matter how strong Loki was by human standards, he was now facing four Servants with comparable power.
"The numerical advantage is still on our side."
"Haha! Are you sure?" Loki grinned again and held the Grail forward. The blue glow of the Tesseract enveloped the artifact, and the magical energy, amplified many times over, surged into the god's body.
"Watch out! He's absorbing the Grail's power!" Mash cried out. Feeling the distorted, unnatural power flowing into Loki, she raised her shield. Oda Nobunaga and Sakura Saber instantly raised their weapons, aiming at the enemy.
"I, Loki Odinson! Son of Odin! Prince of Asgard and rightful heir of Jotunheim! God of Mischief and the great king of divine Asgard, I command! Grail, fulfill my wish!"
The next moment, the Grail literally merged into Loki's body.
"Oh, I don't like this premonition…" Deadpool muttered.
And his fears were justified. The Nobus and Little Pools surrounding them, as if drawn by a powerful magnet, began to flock to Loki. They clung to him, merging into a single mass resembling viscous clay, until they formed a colossal column.
"Senpai, that's…" Mash exhaled.
"The Pillar of the Demon God."
Tens of thousands of creatures, fused and twisted together, formed a monstrous, distorted pillar. Loki's green eyes, spinning wildly in all directions, chaotically appeared all over its surface.
"But something's not right here. It looks like a Pillar, but…" Mash and Ritsuka, already experienced in fighting such creatures, sensed something was off. Unlike the usual fleshy columns, this one seemed like a haphazard pile of hastily molded Little Pools and Nobus, who were still writhing within the collective body.
"Don't be surprised yet! By absorbing the Grail, I have become the Grail myself! With this infinite power, I shall cast you into the abyss of eternal suffering!"
Loki's green eyes glared furiously at the squad.
Deadpool, staring dumbfounded at this ridiculous monster, suddenly felt a vibration in his back pocket and pulled out his smartphone.
"Huh? What's this?"
A notification popped up on the screen, clearly ill-timed:
[Special mission! Destroy Loki's Pillar of the Demon God in Honnō-ji!]
[Loki's Pillar, combining the Tesseract and the Grail, surpasses ordinary incarnations. Deplete its colossal health, defeat Loki, and reclaim Honnō-ji castle.]
[ HP: 1,000,000,000 / 1,000,000,000 ]
[ Time remaining: 12 hours ]
"You've got to be kidding me," Deadpool gritted out. Ritsuka, wondering where he got a phone and what was happening, peeked at the screen and quickly scanned the text.
"This… are they serious?"
"What is it, Senpai?" Mash, Nobunaga, and Sakura Saber also leaned over the gadget. Seeing the numbers, they froze with expressions of utter bewilderment, their gazes shifting to Loki's Pillar.
"So, the four of us have to take down this ugly monstrosity with a billion health in twelve hours?!" Nobunaga exploded first. Half a day was a considerable amount of time, but depleting a billion health points in that time seemed impossible.
"No chance. Absolutely none. This is… this needs a full-blown raid…" Ritsuka could hardly believe his eyes. The system was clearly designed for the combined efforts of many Masters and Servants, but here they were, alone. It seemed Loki had deliberately dragged them into this space, knowing the rules of the game.
"We're trapped, Senpai. From here… we'll never get out," Mash, usually optimistic, slumped her shoulders, her voice trembling with helplessness. Loki, realizing they wouldn't succeed in twelve hours even if they tried their best, laughed triumphantly, not even bothering to attack first.
"It doesn't matter who strikes first – the outcome is predetermined. Enjoy your last hours in agony. Hahaha!"
Nobunaga, fueled by rage and helplessness, fell to her knees, striking the ground with her fist. She had known defeat in her life, but never found herself in a situation where she could do absolutely nothing. Even in the flames of Honnō-ji, she had mocked Akechi until the last moment.
"To not be able to wash away this shame with blood… What humiliation!"
"We're trapped here forever. Either we become food for this monster, or we'll have to crawl to him and beg…" Sakura Saber, having lost hope of salvation, dropped her sword from her weakened hands.
"So, this is the end…" Ritsuka whispered. Solomon's words in London flashed in his mind. It seemed he was referring to this.
"Come on, resist. If you are truly human…"
But he wasn't going to give up. There had to be a way out. Denying reality, Ritsuka strode forward with a determined look until he was right in front of Loki's demonic pillar.
"Senpai?"
Mash, seeing him walk towards danger, quickly got to her feet.
"I won't give up," Ritsuka said firmly.
"No, you'll have to give up."
"I said I won't give up!"
Ritsuka declared his unwavering will to himself and to Loki's demonic pillar, which merely mocked him with a sneer.
"Senpai…"
Mash, overcoming the despair that engulfed her, also straightened up. That's right. It was too early to give up. Even if it was impossible to deplete ten billion health points in twelve hours – she didn't want to just sit and wait for death.
Ritsuka took Mash's hand, and together they stood before the enemy. It seemed their hearts beat in unison, and a strange, inexplicable aura spread around them.
"Oh-oh-oy, wait. Time out! Time! Stop! Whoa! Chotto matte!"
Right before the determined heroes, Deadpool cut in with a face as if everything happening was some kind of mistake.
"If you die selflessly in battle now, what will that make me? I'm not enjoying any of this, of course, but since I've been appointed your nanny, I won't let you die as long as I'm alive!"
Deadpool, recalling everything they had been through, tried to stop their reckless impulse.
"But if we do nothing…"
" "But if we do nothing! Loki-chan! He won't look at me!" "
Ritsuka and Mash stared dumbfounded as Deadpool suddenly started shaking his backside and acting flirtatious. The atmosphere shifted so abruptly that they simply didn't have time to figure out how to react to this farce.
"What I mean is," Wade continued, "this story isn't that serious. It's a comedy, folks, pure comedy!"
Mash, deciding he completely misunderstood the gravity of the moment, interrupted his stream of nonsense: "Mister Pool! We need to defeat this demonic pillar in twelve hours. We don't have time for your jokes and antics. We'll do everything we can to crush Loki. So, please, don't interfere."
Deadpool stared at her, dumbfounded. He was genuinely impressed by how this timid and kind girl suddenly showed a steely resolve, and even clapped his hands.
"Bravo! Mash, you've really grown in my eyes. But don't worry. I have a trump card up my sleeve."
The heroes exchanged bewildered glances. Indeed, while they were drowning in despair, Deadpool had been busy fiddling with his smartphone, completely ignoring what was happening.
"You have a way?!" Ritsuka asked hopefully, his eyes wide.
Deadpool nodded confidently.
"Behold and tremble! I'll show you how it's done in one fell swoop. Wait a second…"
With a smug look, he pulled out his phone and began tapping rapidly on the screen.
"Okay, let's see… Settings… Service Region… Korea… Launching FGO… Done! Well, Loki, hold on, you're about to learn what it means to be in deep trouble!"
With a triumphant smirk, he tapped the screen.
Only a soft click of a button was heard, and… nothing happened.
"Ha. Hahaha! Hahahaha! You thought you could defeat me, the one with ten billion lives, with a simple button press in twelve hours? A pathetic sight. Truly pathe…"
At that moment, Loki's demonic pillar froze. He felt something ominous emanating from the depths of another space, and his green eye darted towards it in alarm.
"Senpai! I feel something! Something huge…" Mash exclaimed.
"What do you mean? What exactly?"
Ritsuka felt nothing, but Mash, being a Demi-Servant, as well as Oda Nobunaga and Sakura Saber, felt it clearly. Soon, a dim but powerful light began to break through the rift in space.
"Have you heard of the Counter Force? Well, that thing that protects humanity. The collective unconscious that gave birth to Emiya and other guys in tights…"
Hearing Deadpool's words, Loki glared at him furiously, suspecting he had planned something.
"What have you done?!"
"You see, in a country called Korea, there's its own, third Counter Force. I just borrowed it for a minute."
The next moment, a colossal pillar of light, more like a devastating laser beam, tore through space and struck Loki's demonic pillar.
"This…! Impossible! How… I…!"
The blinding light literally shattered Loki's subspace into pieces. The demonic pillar, composed of Little Pool and Nobbu, simply evaporated under the beam, and the Holy Grail flew out of the god's powerless body.
"Uhyo-o-o! Grail acquired! Da-ze!"
Deadpool immediately extended his hand to Ritsuka and the others to pull them out of the collapsing dimension.
"Mister Pool! What about Loki?!" Mash cried out, noticing the god lying alone amidst the wreckage of reality.
But Deadpool merely waved his hand, indicating he could be forgotten.
The Tesseract, embedded in the Grail, flashed with blue light, enveloping Ritsuka's group, and they disappeared. Loki was left alone, falling into the endless abyss of the collapsing world until he dissolved without a trace.
"We won! Well, the finale was predictable."
Upon returning to their world, Ritsuka and the others cheered joyfully. They watched as the creations of the Grail's power disappeared, and the worlds of Nobunaga, Sakura Saber, and Spider-Man returned to their normal states.
"Listen, Wade. What was that light?"
"Huh?"
As the world was restoring itself, Ritsuka couldn't resist asking about the mysterious force that had instantly erased Loki.
Deadpool crossed his arms, rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and finally said:
"In Korean FGO, it's called… the 'Guro Beam'."
Ritsuka never understood what it meant, but decided that since the beam had saved their lives, it was fine.
"…"
"…"
"…"
Another Counter Force – the Guro Beam.
A mysterious power, said to exist only in Korea.
It activates whenever the Korean server of Fate/Grand Order is in danger or when players lack firepower.