One Against Many, the Formidable Mercenary Tao

Saber, who was about to unleash her Noble Phantasm, saw the white-haired Archer being hurled at her like a cannonball and had no choice but to abandon it.

As she sidestepped, she dragged her sword and charged toward Mercenary Tao.

Only then did the others finally realize that this was an asymmetrical battle.

Crackle!

A terrifying peal of thunder suddenly exploded. At some point, dark clouds had begun gathering overhead, lightning churning within them.

Even while being besieged by Saber and Archer, Mercenary Tao still had strength to spare as he used some new ability.

Standing in the rear, Illya frowned slightly. Vast amounts of mana were continuously being drained from her. Assassin’s performance beyond the ordinary came with an equally enormous mana cost.

If Bai Cangshu did not have Illya as his Master, the class itself would instead become a Binding Vow upon him.

The same was true for the other Heroic Spirits. Their classes restricted their abilities.

The pitch-black giant Berserker watched Illya standing behind Mercenary Tao from afar. The red glow in his eyes flickered ceaselessly, like a malfunctioning robot.

As the Heroic Spirit with the strongest close-quarters combat ability here, he was the one truly capable of fighting Bai Cangshu at close range.

Yet because of Illya’s presence, the pitch-black giant was constantly suppressing his frenzied fighting spirit.

Tap, tap, tap…

Footsteps rang out in rapid succession. Sasaki Kojirō was not particularly fast, but his steps were light. His body tilted until it was nearly parallel to the ground, as though he were flying just above it while quickly treading across the earth.

Monohoshizao suddenly swept horizontally.

Sword light flared in an instant.

Bai Cangshu turned his head and raised the index finger of his left hand.

Clang!

The sword light vanished against his left hand. He then curled his fingers into a palm and stepped forward, his left palm carrying a terrifying blast of air as it struck across several hundred meters.

Cloud Dispelling Palm: Overwhelming Force!

Boom!

The violent airwave resembled a wall. Force and air swept into white waves crashed thunderously toward Sasaki Kojirō.

Sasaki Kojirō’s gaze sharpened. Rather than dodge, he stomped down heavily the instant the wall of air reached him, his overly long katana descending from above.

A streak of silver cut through the air wall.

Rumble!

Air currents and force surged madly in every direction. A strand of force struck Sasaki Kojirō’s dark blue hair, snapping his hair tie and sending his hair scattering.

Yet he revealed a satisfied smile. As he twisted his body, Monohoshizao shifted into another sword stance. Having already reached within a dozen meters of Bai Cangshu, he twisted and slashed.

The intense sharpness had not even reached him before dragon scales began emerging across Bai Cangshu’s skin.

This was a clash between a swordsmanship grandmaster and a Martial Arts Grandmaster. At the same time, it was a battle between the true and false Assassin.

Bai Cangshu was interested as well. After striking with one palm, he unleashed a barrage of palms.

Cloud Dispelling Palm: Overturning Clouds and Raining Down!

Palm winds formed enormous Blazing White palm prints, striking toward Sasaki Kojirō one after another from afar.

Sasaki Kojirō’s breath caught. Before he could move, a purple aurora had already flashed into existence.

It was a figure moving at an astonishing speed, blasting over from roughly four thousand meters away in an instant.

Its speed surpassed that of every Heroic Spirit present.

Bai Cangshu possessed both Sensen no Sen and Mantra. In an instant, his body became illusory like a phantom.

Medusa, who had rushed over at high speed, had both eyes completely hidden beneath her blindfold. The stake connected to a silver chain in her hand stabbed into the phantom.

She was now completely certain that this Assassin not only possessed strength rivaling Berserker’s, but also speed and neural reflexes comparable to her own as Rider.

Bang!

Medusa drove both feet into the ground. Amid exploding rubble, she shed all inertia in an instant and raced in another direction.

Sasaki Kojirō’s sword stance was also interrupted by Medusa’s attack, and the hand gripping his hilt relaxed from the stance of Secret Sword: Tsubame Gaeshi.

Buzz!

Yet a figure appeared before him again. Sasaki Kojirō’s expression changed, and he was about to raise his hand for the secret sword again when a sky-full of leg shadows appeared.

Wind God Leg: Violent Storm!

Bang bang bang bang…

A dense barrage of impacts rang out. Sasaki Kojirō held his katana horizontally as his body was blasted away in an instant. By the time he hit the ground, he had already lost all signs of life.

Heroic Spirit Emiya watched the Servant, covered in wounds yet impossible to tell where the fatal blow had landed, slowly vanish.

He frowned.

"Be careful. He might have some kind of special ability!"

Saber once again stood in front of Bai Cangshu, Excalibur swinging continuously, while Mercenary Tao vanished and reappeared like a phantom.

"It was an instant-death attack."

A woman’s voice rang out. Purple hair fluttered in the wind as Rider Medusa, bolstered by her Master’s mana, displayed intense confidence.

Even under the effects of Self-Sealing: Dark Temple, she had still keenly sensed several dense traces of death within those Downpour-like kicks.

That swordsman Servant had been directly erased by that aura of death, without any chance to resist.

You have absorbed a new soul: Heroic Spirit Sasaki Kojirō

As she spoke, the purple blindfold over Medusa’s face vanished. A faint purple radiance began to bloom across her body. Bai Cangshu was familiar with that appearance—it was the state of a Servant strengthened by a Command Spell.

He raised his eyes and saw that several kilometers away, the girl named Sakura Matou had risen to her feet. Standing atop a towering mass of shattered earth, her long dress danced in the wind, while a strange smile appeared on her face.

"Ha… so that’s how it is. You’ve received completion too…"

Bai Cangshu nearly instantly guessed how things had unfolded. A purple aurora flashed, and with a full mana supply, the strongest Servant here had changed.

Compared to Berserker, who had been contaminated by Black Mud and lacked both reason and a sustained mana supply, as well as Saber, who had always been short on mana—

Medusa, possessing the essence of a deity, had become the strongest in practical terms.

Medusa moved like lightning, kicking through Mercenary Tao’s phantom once more. She stepped in midair on the chain behind the stake she had fired, as though freezing in place before Bai Cangshu.

Those Petrification Demonic Eyes, Cybele, which had been terrifying even in the Age of Mythology, opened in an instant.

But Mercenary Tao seemed to have foreseen it and had already shut his eyes.

Buzz!

As though using Teleportation, Medusa’s top-tier Petrification Demonic Eyes easily caught Mercenary Tao stepping through the air dozens of times in an instant. The next moment, he emerged from the wind.

Terrifying force accompanied the howl of the air as a black fist smashed toward her head.

Medusa instantly lowered herself, her flexible body nearly flattening against the ground. Amid the sound of air exploding above her head, she took one step and appeared behind Mercenary Tao.

The Nameless Dagger in her hand suddenly stabbed backward toward his temple.

Clang!

A pale finger appeared beside her head at that very moment and steadily caught the strike.

Whoosh!

Medusa became a streak of purple light. Failing to land her blow, she instantly retreated several hundred meters.

She was now certain that this Mercenary Tao was truly troublesome. He actually possessed highly skilled blind-fighting techniques, using them to evade her Mystic Eyes.

"I am the bone of my sword."

"Steel is my body, and fire is my blood."

Chanting sounded beside Bai Cangshu’s ear. He turned and, sure enough, saw Heroic Spirit Emiya extending one hand toward him.

In the distance, Souichirou Kuzuki had both arms hanging behind him as he charged toward Illya like an arrow. Medea floated above Souichirou Kuzuki, gripping a strangely shaped dagger.

Further away, a black-haired man lay prone in the shadow of a raised mound. Through his scope, the crosshairs were once more trained on the terrifying Mercenary Tao.

Bai Cangshu sensed that everyone had finally begun taking this war seriously, and he was overjoyed.

No conspiracy, no sentiment—nothing but a complete head-on slaughter. This was the Holy Grail War he wanted.

Bai Cangshu ignored Heroic Spirit Emiya, who was unfolding Unlimited Blade Works, and raised the index finger of his right hand.

In an instant, the rolling thunderclouds in the sky seemed to descend to the ground. That terrifying sense of oppression made everyone uncomfortable.

Thunder Arrow of Destiny!

Perhaps because Bai Cangshu had only just become a true "Savior" in this world, saving it and earning Gaia and Alaya’s trust—

This Thunder Arrow of Destiny was incomparably terrifying.

Lightning roamed through the clouds like enormous dragons before suddenly descending from the sky along Bai Cangshu’s finger.

Crackle!

The sky first darkened, then abruptly became blindingly bright as light devoured everything.

A scream rang out. Medusa’s expression changed, and when she turned around, she saw that the towering rock mass where Sakura Matou had been standing had become drifting smoke.

Whether it was the enormous rock formation stretching nearly ten thousand meters, Sakura Matou herself, or Rin Tohsaka, whom Archer had specifically brought there, all of them had vanished.

"You… you bastard…"

Shirou Emiya’s eyes were vacant at first, then his face twisted in an instant. He climbed up from the ground and charged toward Bai Cangshu.

But Medusa was faster. A purple aurora passed Bai Cangshu’s side in an instant, and her dagger was already pressed against his neck.

This time, she was certain that he had not closed his eyes. Terrifying mana flowed through her Petrification Demonic Eyes and instantly took effect upon him.

Buzz!

Bai Cangshu’s entire body shook. The activity of the cells in his limbs immediately vanished. Not only their activity—even his life force was draining away.

The smile at the corners of his mouth grew greedier. His white long hair danced behind him as he closed his eyes and began trying to understand the nature of those Mystic Eyes.

But when he opened them again, the world had vanished, leaving only Heroic Spirit Emiya’s final chant.

"So as I pray, Unlimited Blade Works."

Enormous gears rolled across the horizon. Flames were everywhere, and countless weapons were embedded in the ground.

"Unlimited Blade Works…"

Bai Cangshu raised his head. Several streaks of light exploded, but rather than retreat, he advanced and rapidly closed in on Heroic Spirit Emiya.

Broken Phantasm!

Rumble!

The terrifying power of firing and detonating replicated Noble Phantasms as disposable weapons completely blasted apart the air before Bai Cangshu, interrupting his forward momentum with the force of the shock wave.

As the smoke dispersed, a figure rushed forward at high speed. A black Claymore was held in both hands, dragged along as the figure charged before swinging down with savage force.

At that moment, behind Heroic Spirit Emiya, the phantom of a muscular and powerfully built man seemed to emerge.

This is… Guts’s technique?!

Heroic Spirit Emiya saw himself clashing with Heracles using Black Sword: Dragon Slayer. He had now replicated this sword and obtained the martial techniques and physical strength of its original owner…

"Ha… I never thought an Ally of Justice could pull off a technique like this…"

Heroic Spirit Emiya could not be bothered to waste words on Mercenary Tao. He had already steeled himself, and now felt his physical strength vastly increase.

Though he had not expected the sword’s owner to be someone other than Mercenary Tao, its original owner was just as powerful!

He swung his sword, and a black shockwave burst from the blade, instantly tearing the air apart.

The enormous sword light crossed nearly a thousand meters in an instant, completely cleaving open the ground.

This was swordsmanship from the One Piece World. Bai Cangshu thus confirmed that after becoming a Reincarnator, Guts had indeed received some enhancements.

A flash of light suddenly appeared in Bai Cangshu’s hand, and a black Claymore emerged—it was the true body of Black Sword: Dragon Slayer.

He seized the sword and violently smashed it toward Heroic Spirit Emiya.

There was no swordsmanship to speak of, but the force behind it was terrifying.

Clang!

The two swords collided, and a Blazing White shockwave erupted between them. Bai Cangshu realized that Heroic Spirit Emiya now possessed force no weaker than his own.

Heroic Spirit Emiya realized it as well. He used Projection Magecraft to replicate another Noble Phantasm and hurled it directly at Mercenary Tao from close range.

Boom!

Flames exploded, but a man covered entirely in black Haki directly smashed through the smoke and appeared before Heroic Spirit Emiya with brute force.

Heroic Spirit Emiya gripped his sword again and was about to strike, but his gaze met the other man’s first.

Within those purple eyes, a terrifying power seemed to enter his body in an instant.

"This is…"

Heroic Spirit Emiya instantly felt his body stiffen, his limbs beginning to petrify. The next moment, a black greatsword swept across with explosive force.

Pfft!

You have defeated Servant Shirou Emiya. Main Mission: Flower of Evil progress updated.

You have absorbed a new Heroic Spirit.

You have been affected by the special Lesser Grail and gained the ability to sense the Greater Grail.