IBHJ 1146

The Imperial Armor might not be able to handle the Ten Rings, but against Beast attacks and Noble Phantasms? It could analyze and counter them perfectly!

Soon I won't even need Lucius and the others—I can take them all down myself! That's what Ector thought.

But then.

"BOOM—"

The beam cut through the Imperial Armor's protection like it wasn't even there, burning straight through Ector's heart.

His eyes went wide. "How—how is this possible...!"

This couldn't be happening!

The Imperial Armor—the Imperial Armor was invincible!

How could...

A sword whistled through the air, slicing through his Imperial Armor like paper and sinking into his stomach.

Ector stared down in shock at the blade stuck in his body.

It was nothing special—just an ordinary sword.

But—

But how had it cut through the invincible Imperial Armor?

He lifted his head and looked around until he saw Shirou lowering his hand. There was no doubt—that was one of his projected swords.

"How could—" Before he could finish, Shirou raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

Light and shadow went wild as countless swords appeared from nowhere, forming a honeycomb pattern in the air before raining down on Ector like a swarm of angry dragons.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh—"

Blood sprayed everywhere.

Bones snapped one after another as the swords turned Ector into a human pincushion.

With a dull thud, he hit the ground.

He wasn't dead.

Being immortal, his soul and consciousness stayed intact. But he'd never been more confused.

The Imperial Armor...

The invincible Imperial Armor...

How had it become as weak as paper?

"Looks like it worked perfectly," Shirou nodded, pleased with the results. "This proves the [Primordial Fairy Arts] can break right through the Imperial Armor's defenses."

"You stole my kill!" Goetia shot him an annoyed look.

Shirou just smiled back. "There are plenty more where he came from."

Looking at Ector's sword-riddled body, Xuanzang shook her head with pity. "Did you really need to torture him like this? How brutal, Amitabha."

Shirou let out a weary sigh. "Well, you need solid data to be sure about these things."

The truth was, this ambush on Ector had really been a test run. They needed to confirm if the [Primordial Fairy Arts] could actually break through the Imperial Armor, and they were just being careful. With the empire still having that nasty Crown universal sealing tool, they had to make sure nothing went wrong while they ran their little experiment.

"You just wanted payback, didn't you? How petty!" Mordred sneered.

Well, she wasn't entirely wrong. Back when Ector had snuck up and slapped the Crown on him, Shirou hadn't taken it too personally—but now that he had the chance to get even, he wasn't about to hold back.

He said, "Now we know the Imperial Armor can't stop the [Primordial Fairy Arts]. Without their armor, these Apostles are just regular Heroic Spirits—nothing we can't handle. Time to start the hunt."

Kama and Abigail nodded in agreement. After all, what were Apostles without their Imperial Armor? Just Heroic Spirits. And what could mere Heroic Spirits do against them, against the Council? Even Grand Servants were nothing compared to Beasts, to the Council.

"Still, there's that Specialized Combat Forces..." For once, Goetia showed rare hesitation.

He was a Beast, proud and arrogant to his core, the type who looked down on Grand Servants. Even the Grand Caster who created him was nothing special in his eyes—

—Or at least, that's how he used to think before being beaten down by society.

Thanks to Shirou's instigation, he had died once already. When he had been born during the Fifth Holy Grail War, he was ground into the dirt by the Chairman. After joining the Council, he was again ground into the dirt by Ritsuka as she put him in his place.

And just recently, the Emperor had also taught him a harsh lesson; even the Chairman who had beaten him into the dirt was being strung up and educated by the Emperor. So Goetia had finally learned how to be... well, more human.

At the very least, he'd learned some humility.

Facing Agravain's army of nine hundred and ninety-four Divine Heroic Spirits, all his confidence disappeared.

Sure, a Beast was strong enough to laugh off an army of regular Heroic Spirits, but an army of Divine Heroic Spirits? That was a whole different story.

Shirou said, "Ambrosius told me their army's waiting at the Inner Sea's entrance. They're not attacking Tír na nÓg directly yet. These four Apostles must be the advance team, here to secure the channel entrance. If we don't take them down before they lock the coordinates, then we'll be in serious trouble."

An army of nine hundred and ninety-four Divine Heroic Spirits was enough to make even Goetia nervous, but Shirou wasn’t fazed at all.

Then again, why would he be? After facing down things like the UOs, Manaka, and the Lord of Salvation... everything else probably seemed like child's play to him.

After all, strength wasn't something you were born with—it was something you built through experience.

Shirou laid out the battle plan. Three Apostles were still running loose in Tír na nÓg: Aife, Morgan, and Lucius.

All three were untouchable with their Imperial Armor, but once the [Primordial Fairy Arts] shattered those defenses, who knew how strong they really were?

Based on what he knew about them from Pan-Human History, he split up the targets: Goetia would take Lucius, Kama would handle Morgan, and he'd team up with Merlin against Aife. Abigail would be their transportation and backup.

She would transport everyone to their positions, then back up Goetia their strongest fighter against Lucius. After that, she and Goetia would help Kama take down Morgan, building up their advantage step by step.

Shirou had considered having Abigail just drop them all on each Apostle one after another, but they couldn't be sure what other tricks the Apostles were hiding.

If the enemy could tear open gates to reality from anywhere and lock down dimensional channels for their army of nearly a thousand Divine Spirits to pour through, they'd all be done for. Better to play it safe, keep them all busy, then pick them off one by one.

"What about me?" Mordred's hand shot up.

Shirou pointed at Ector's sword-riddled body. "Stay here with Xuanzang. Every time he heals up, kill him again."

Just like Bedivere had said—no one could really kill an Apostle, only break their invincible Imperial Armor. These immortal, unchanging Apostles couldn't be killed, sealed, or locked up. Their only weakness was raw power. As long as someone was stronger, they could just keep killing them over and over, trapping them between life and death.

That could be considered sealing a Holy Apostle, in a way.

The downside was keeping someone on guard duty, someone strong enough to keep killing them whenever they revived. Trading one fighter to keep one of theirs down—a necessary sacrifice.

"This is so boring!" Mordred complained. "I want to go fight Apostles too!"

He gave her a sidelong glance. "And which one could you actually beat?"

"..."

One sentence left her completely speechless.

Immortality was her worst enemy.

Back at the South American connection point, immortal heroes like Brynhildr and Arash had shown her just how outmatched she was. And these Apostles were just as strong as high-level Heroic Spirits.

Abigail stepped on a small rock, matching Mordred's height, and patted her head with fake sympathy. "Be a good girl and listen to daddy."

"Get lost!" Mordred snapped, even more annoyed than before.

Seeing Mordred's frustration, Abigail smiled like she'd just scored a victory.

Maybe it was too soon to say, but she really enjoyed getting under Mordred's skin.

That made them friends, right? After all, she'd heard friends liked to tease each other.