IBHJ 1226

"I wonder how the others are doing right now..."

Thinking about Nerissa made it hard for the witch to swallow her food. The Empire had attacked Avalon, and Nerissa had managed to teleport them to safety, but she'd been left behind to face the enemies alone.

"Avalon is Utopia, and Utopia can't be destroyed," Shirou said, setting down his bread. "If you're still worried, we can try to contact Avalon once we get back to Tír na nÓg."

"I never said I was going to Tír na nÓg with you," she shot back.

"Where else are you going to go?" he asked plainly.

The witch made an annoyed sound and channeled all her grief into her appetite, taking an aggressive bite of her bread.

"Go easy on that," he warned. "The stuff I can project isn't actually edible."

His projection was incredibly versatile, but there was a catch—the objects he created were made of ethereal elements. The human body simply couldn't convert them into amino acids, glucose, or any other substances needed for survival.

After they finished eating, he set up several defensive formations using Primordial Runes and rolled up his bedding. He was about to turn in when he noticed the witch still writing intently in her journal. He couldn't help but shake his head—she compiled their daily experiences every night, and he was pretty used to it by now.

"You should get some sleep," he said before lying down and closing his eyes.

Just as his mind was starting to drift off, a thunderous "BOOM" tore through the sky, jolting him awake. He immediately threw off his blanket and sat up.

The witch stopped writing and glanced nervously toward the darkness outside. "What was that?"

"Let's check it out," he suggested.

They both dropped what they were doing and made their way to the entrance of their shelter. Outside was pitch-black, but they could smell a strong odor of gasoline coming from somewhere ahead. Looking up at the night sky, they spotted what looked like a meteor trailing smoke as it plummeted into the distance.

He squinted into the darkness. "Wait, that's not a meteor, it's a fighter jet!"

He could make out its completely black shape, looking a lot like an F-22.

Suddenly, a flicker of light appeared on the dark ground not far away. A beam shot upward into the sky, cutting through the night and slicing across the fighter jet like a massive sword of light connecting earth and sky.

The jet exploded with a deafening boom, bursting into flames before plummeting to the ground like a fiery comet. When it hit, the impact sent a violent tremor through the earth beneath them.

"Let’s go," he called out. "We need to check it out!" He and the witch exchanged a quick glance before sprinting toward the crash site.

When they arrived, all that remained of the aircraft was a burning heap of twisted metal. The jet that had soared through the skies just moments ago was now reduced to a pile of blackened, smoldering wreckage—looking no different from the steel ruins that surrounded it.

He cautiously approached the wreckage and peered inside. There was no sign of any remains or blood—clearly this was an unmanned aircraft.

"It's one of the Foreign Enemies!" the witch suddenly said.

"Foreign Enemies?" he looked up in surprise. The term immediately triggered his memory of those robot-like things similar to Galahad that he'd destroyed back in Camlann. "You mean those things from across the sea?"

She nodded gravely.

Shirou frowned as he examined the wreckage more closely. "I've been wondering about this since Camlann... what exactly are these Foreign Enemies anyway?"

It had been bothering him for a while now. This was supposed to be Pan-Human History, with Britain only being unusual because it had been synchronized by the Emperor. So what was the deal with these entities from across the sea—the ones Guinevere and the Empire called Foreign Enemies?

"I don't know," the witch said, shaking her head. "These Foreign Enemies appeared after the Empire synchronized with Pan-Human History. They've been attacking the Empire constantly, and the weird thing is they can't be completely killed or eliminated—almost like they have their own version of immortality." She frowned thoughtfully. "According to Morgan, the Empire built that huge Barrier and set up all those heavy defenses in Londinium specifically to keep these Foreign Enemies out."

She paused for a moment before adding with confusion, "But they shouldn't be able to get into Empire territory at all..."

"I think you've got it backward," he replied. "It's not that they entered the Empire—we've entered their territory. Now we know where that teleportation took us. This place is probably outside of Britain, and the home base of these mechanical beings."

"So what do we do now?" she asked.

Shirou crossed his arms, considering their options. These mechs were enemies of the Empire, sure, but that didn't clarify where they stood in the bigger picture. Were they potential allies or just another threat?

If they turned out to be friendly, that would solve a lot of problems. But if they were hostile... well, that would make the future of Pan-Human History even harder to predict than it already was.

"Let’s go. Let's find out where that light was coming from," he said, already moving.

The witch nodded and fell in step beside him.

They raced toward the source of the beam, covering ground at incredible speed. Even though they were both mortal now, they still retained their superhuman abilities with magical energy and Noble Phantasms. The scenery blurred past them like rapidly shifting shadows.

As they got closer, they heard the unmistakable sounds of combat—heavy footsteps and the clanging of metal.

"Thud, thud, thud!"

Shirou and the witch exchanged a quick glance, realizing they'd reached their destination. Shirou immediately cast three layers of [Presence Concealment C] on both of them, and they crouched behind a pile of twisted steel to observe what was happening.

In the darkness ahead, they could make out dense formations of what looked like steel mechs alongside Tiger tanks and armored vehicles. The battlefield was in chaos.

"Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!"

Machine guns mounted on the battle vehicles sprayed bullets wildly in all directions. The Tiger tanks fired shell after shell, while the steel mechs unleashed continuous blasts from their photon energy cannons.

A storm of bullets and shells poured down, with countless attacks all concentrated on a single spot. It looked like they were trying to completely obliterate that particular piece of land!

Suddenly, they heard a sharp "zing" sound—like a sword being drawn from its sheath. A brilliant beam of light shot up from the area under attack. It swept through the air in a half-moon arc, slicing through everything in its path—steel mechs, Tiger tanks, and armored vehicles alike—cutting them all clean in half and turning the battlefield into a massive junkyard of twisted metal.

But even that devastating counterattack wasn't enough to stop the mechanical army. More steel forces began pouring in from all directions. The sky rumbled as fighters and bombers roared overhead, releasing a barrage of bombs onto the exact spot where the light had appeared.

The ground shook violently from the terrifying carpet bombing, and thick smoke quickly covered the entire area.