IBHJ 1159

That woman was what you'd call "petty" with a side of "vindictive."

If he didn't play along now, she'd definitely make him pay later, and keep making his life a living hell until the day he died.

Getting chased across parallel worlds by Heaven's Corpse, ORT, Mercury, Saturn, and Arcueid all at once? No thanks.

For the sake of a peaceful future, Zelretch figured he'd better play nice and drop the lone wolf act.

Moreover, with First Magic showing a sign of manifesting, he couldn't just sit around doing nothing.

"Hm?" Scathach's brow furrowed.

"What's wrong?" Skadi asked.

"I’ve a weird feeling... it feels like someone else went through that gate just like I did... probably nothing." Scathach shook her head, then flashed that sweet smile again. "Come on, let's go help Shirou!"

"Right!" Skadi nodded with a smile.

Sure.

Her world might be long gone. They might have stripped away her name and her very existence.

But...

The one person she cared about most was still here!

Shirou—

Just wait, we're on our way!

…

Galahad raised his fist high, the raw energy around it distorting space itself.

He then swung at Mordred who had tried to strike from below, but she was faster—diving deep into the ground to escape his attack.

BOOM!

As the ground trembled beneath them, a gleaming white lance shot in from the side, aiming straight for Galahad's throat.

SCREEECH!

The spear sent sparks flying as it scraped along Galahad's armor until it caught at his neck.

So hard!

Even with the holy lance still pressed against his throat, Galahad's computational mind had already worked out every possible escape route Shirou could take. Then quickly, he launched a punch that would seal them all off at once.

Danger!

Shirou's instincts kicked in as he quickly pulled from his arsenal of skills copied through Heroic Mortal. Knowledge flowed into his muscles, ancient combat arts surfacing in his mind.

—[Kalaripayattu C] x3!

He layered the defensive art three times over—a technique he'd copied from the Enlightened One. The skills stacked and merged, enhancing his body's natural abilities.

In an instant, his senses sharpened. His feet shifted back with perfect control, his core twisted, and he bent at an angle, letting Galahad's punch slice through empty air.

A flicker of surprise crossed Galahad's face, Shirou's movements had surpassed even his calculated predictions.

In that split second, Shirou sprang upward like a coiled spring releasing. His body rose as he brought the Holy Lance crashing down onto Galahad's chest plate with all his gathered force. The impact sent sparks dancing through the air.

Just as Galahad prepared to strike back, Shirou's eyes glinted. Two massive weapons, Ig-Alima, materialized around them—one above, one below—before closing in on Galahad like giant scissors. The blades swept inward with crushing force, trying to slice him in a pincer.

"CRACK—!"

The greatswords didn't even scratch Galahad. Instead, they split down the middle from the impact, fracturing from edge to hilt before shattering to pieces. The broken fragments hadn't even finished falling when Shirou made his move.

He had known the copied Ig-Alima wouldn't hurt Galahad. The moment the blades made contact, he kicked off the ground and leaped back.

Right now, he wasn't using Eternal King's record, this was his real, human body. The kind that could catch a cold, pull a muscle, and break all too easily.

He knew better than to get hit. If those fists had turned Goetia's body to pulp, one clean hit would send him straight to the Throne of Heroes.

Shirou's quick retreat didn't deter Galahad.

In his human form, Shirou's strength was barely above average, just at breakthrough level. Yet somehow, Galahad's calculations rated him as an even bigger threat than Goetia with all ten rings.

Galahad charged at him, moving so fast his body blurred like a ghostly shadow, practically flickering through space.

"Abby—!"

Kama anxiously glanced at Abigail who understood immediately. She quickly opened a gate to teleport Galahad away.

But the moment her gate formed in front of him—BOOM—Galahad smashed right through it, his body shattering the dimensional doorway like glass. The broken pieces of space-time scattered around him as he continued his charge without slowing.

Abigail clenched her jaw.

She'd figured it out by now. The Empire had ways to counter her gates, like the Crown of Thorns. And Galahad, built with Tethys’ secret arts, could even make her gates solid, turning them into objects he could simply break apart.

As Abigail's gate crumbled, Kama unleashed her attack on Galahad without a second thought.

Beside her, Merlin's magical artillery blazed with secret arts, his staff painting lines of light through the air. Ambrosius called upon her authority as the guardian of Tír na nÓg, her voice commanding the elements as wind, rain, and lightning bent to her will.

"BOOM!"

"BOOM!"

The air erupted with glowing arrows and swirling energy, raining down on Galahad like a storm as he chased after Shirou.

But Galahad's defenses were impenetrable, his black armor drinking in every attack.

The barrage of spells and conceptual attacks bounced off his armor like raindrops, failing to even slow his pursuit.

As Galahad closed the gap, Kama's voice rang out in desperation. "Brother—!"

Shirou kept his eyes locked on Galahad, knowing in his gut that his opponent had already analyzed how [Kalaripayattu] worked.

The technique would be useless now. So without hesitation he stripped away all three layers of [Kalaripayattu] and replaced them with [Instinct C].

And immediately, a chill of death gripped his heart. He saw it now, Galahad had come to kill him. How ironic that this Apostle saw him, a mere human, as more dangerous than a Beast.

"That's enough—!"

Mordred's voice erupted from below, raw with rage and desperation. She burst from the earth, swinging her sword at Galahad's legs, trying to drag him into the ground.

But Galahad's power was overwhelming. Instead of being pulled down, he plowed forward, dragging Mordred with him as he barreled toward Shirou.

Mordred might as well have been invisible. Galahad's mind had locked onto one target—Shirou. Until he sent him to the Throne of Heroes, nothing else mattered. Just like when he'd hunted Goetia with single-minded focus and ignored everything else.

After all, what did he have to fear? Nothing in this world could hurt him.

Such was the judgment of his computational logic.

But then—

"WHOOSH!"

The air split with a deafening roar as darkness swept across the clear sky.

"What's going on?"

Ambrosius looked up and froze. A crimson meteor streaked across the sky, trailing fire and destruction in its wake.

The blazing projectile like a comet's tail plummeted straight toward Galahad, cutting through air and space with unstoppable force.

Time stood still as they collided. In that frozen moment, crimson energy and black lightning danced and multiplied endlessly, the two forces clashing and feeding off each other until reality itself seemed to crack apart.

The unstoppable Galahad was slammed into the ground by this earth-shattering blow from above.

Now!

Mordred lunged for Galahad's legs, trying to pull him into the earth. But even then, his reaction was too quick, she only managed to sink half his body below ground.

All of this happened in a flash.

The crimson meteor had slammed Galahad down, but it hadn't pierced his armor. Instead, it glanced off and landed nearby.

Only then did they see what it truly was.

A spear.

A blood-red spear.

"That's..."

Merlin's eyes went wide with recognition.