Chapter 218
BOOM!
The instant Kiriya opened the Sixth Gate, violent energy erupted from his body and threw the surrounding atmosphere into chaos.
A tremendous gale swept across the highway, tearing at everything nearby.
Karna stared at the young man standing directly before him, green energy blazing around his body like fire.
More importantly, he felt the terrifying force now pressing against his spear.
For the first time, his expression became genuinely serious.
"This power... it isn’t magical energy."
His eyes narrowed.
"You’re not a Servant either. What exactly are you?"
Kiriya grinned.
"The guy who’s going to beat you."
Bang!
He twisted his sword upward with explosive force, knocking Karna’s spear off-line and opening his guard.
Kiriya immediately spun and drove a brutal roundhouse kick into Karna’s abdomen.
Whoosh!
The Hero of Charity was launched like a cannonball. His golden-armored body tore through the ground, carving a massive trench across the earth.
"I’m not finished!"
Kiriya laughed and charged after him.
His sword transformed into a storm of flashing steel, every strike aimed to tear Karna apart.
"What...?"
Jeanne stared with wide eyes, unable to hide her disbelief.
A human was overpowering a Heroic Spirit in close combat.
In the modern era, as Mystery continued to decline, magi had fallen far below the standards of ancient practitioners.
No matter how skilled they were, the physical abilities of ordinary human magi could not compare with those of Servants.
Trying to fight one head-on was normally suicide.
Yet Kiriya had just shattered that rule.
If Jeanne tried to quantify his current physical abilities using Servant Parameters, his Strength and Agility would probably both reach Rank A.
For a human body, that was almost inconceivable.
Then there were those crimson eyes.
’Mystic Eyes?’
Jeanne’s confusion only deepened.
’Who is he?’
...
With the Sixth Gate enhancing his physical abilities and the Sharingan giving him extraordinary perception, Kiriya continuously read Karna’s movements before they fully developed.
He intercepted attacks, exploited openings, and repeatedly landed clean sword strikes across the Hero of Charity’s body.
Against almost any other opponent, the fight should already have ended.
But—
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Every time Kiriya’s sword struck Karna, it produced only the ringing sound of metal.
Karna himself remained unharmed.
Every attack had been stopped by the golden armor fused with his body.
Kavacha and Kundala.
The divine armor granted to Karna by the sun god Surya was not merely equipment. It had become one with his flesh, radiating the brilliance of the sun itself.
Its defensive ability was absurd.
Physical attacks, magecraft, curses, and nearly every other form of hostile interference were reduced to only a fraction of their original effectiveness.
Combined with the armor’s near-indestructible nature, it gave Karna one of the greatest defenses among all Servants in the Holy Grail War.
Kiriya’s swordsmanship was sharp enough.
His strength was certainly high enough.
But after having the effectiveness of every strike reduced so severely, he simply could not break through the golden armor.
’Servant Noble Phantasms really are shamelessly broken.’
The longer Kiriya fought, the more irritated he became.
Eventually, he decided to stop testing it with ordinary attacks.
"Afterglow!"
The instant Karna was forced briefly off-balance, Kiriya raised his sword and brought it down with all his strength.
A brilliant slash tore through the night.
Whoosh!
It descended like a meteor and struck Karna directly, driving the Hero of Charity into the earth.
BOOOOOOM!
The slash continued pressing downward, splitting the ground beneath him.
A ravine several meters deep tore across the landscape and extended beyond the limits of sight.
...
"What the hell is that man?"
Far in the distance, inside a parked vehicle, a fat middle-aged man in a white military-style uniform stared at the flashes lighting up the horizon.
His entire body trembled.
Gordes Musik Yggdmillennia.
A member of the Yggdmillennia clan and the Master of Saber of Black.
He had been patrolling Yggdmillennia territory around Trifas and searching for intruders when he sensed the enormous energy fluctuations nearby.
Curiosity had brought him here.
What he found nearly destroyed his understanding of the world.
Some unknown young man was fighting Karna—
And apparently winning.
As a magus, Gordes could clearly tell that Kiriya emitted no magical energy whatsoever.
By every standard familiar to him, that should have made Kiriya an "ordinary human."
Yet this ordinary human was physically suppressing a Servant.
Had the world gone insane?
"Saber."
Gordes turned toward the tall silver-haired man beside him.
"Can you defeat those two?"
The man was Siegfried.
Hero of the Nibelungenlied.
The legendary dragon slayer who wielded the holy sword Balmung and had bathed in the blood of the evil dragon Fafnir, gaining a body nearly impossible to wound.
In this Holy Grail War, Gordes had summoned him as Saber of Black.
Siegfried considered the question seriously before shaking his head.
"Both of them are exceptionally powerful."
His expression was grave.
"If I were permitted to release my Noble Phantasm at full strength... I might have a chance."
"That’s all you can say?"
Gordes’s face twisted in anger.
"What use are you if you can’t even handle something this simple?!"
From childhood, Gordes had been raised as a supposed prodigy upon whom his family placed enormous expectations.
He had constantly been reminded that his bloodline descended from distinguished nobility and that it was his duty to restore the glory of his ancestors.
The intended lesson was simple enough:
Your ancestors were remarkable, so do not disgrace their legacy. Work hard and become worthy of them.
Somewhere along the way, however, Gordes had interpreted it very differently.
His conclusion had essentially become:
’My ancestors were exceptional, therefore I’m exceptional, and everyone else should recognize that without requiring me to prove anything.’
His pride far exceeded his actual ability.
Someone with a Servant as powerful as Siegfried should at least have treated him with basic respect.
Instead, Gordes routinely ordered him to shut up or berated him like a servant in the most literal sense.
A more temperamental Heroic Spirit might already have begun considering how best to murder his own Master.
Siegfried, however, was far too decent for that.
He merely fell silent.
"Damn it."
Gordes cursed under his breath.
After hesitating for a long moment, he finally reported what he had discovered to Darnic at the castle.
...
High atop Yggdmillennia Castle, a tall middle-aged man in a dark high-collared coat stood with his hands behind his back.
His regal presence was unmistakable.
He stared toward the brilliant arc of light cutting across the distant night sky.
"Such tremendous power..."
His eyes narrowed.
"Is that Gordes’s Saber?"
Footsteps approached from behind.
A tall young nobleman wearing a perfectly tailored tailcoat walked onto the terrace and bowed respectfully.
"My king, we have confirmed the situation."
"The combatants are Lancer of Red and... a human who does not appear to be a magus."
"What?"
The middle-aged man abruptly turned.
"Are you certain, Darnic?"
"Completely."
Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia lowered his head even further.
"The human appears to possess some extraordinary method that allows him to oppose a Servant with his physical body alone."
"Hahahaha!"
The man burst into hearty laughter.
"Excellent!"
His eyes gleamed with interest.
"Have Gordes invite him here. And make sure he shows the proper courtesy."
Darnic hesitated.
"My king, we know nothing of this man’s objective."
"That will cease to be a mystery once he arrives."
Seeing that Darnic was still uneasy, the middle-aged man smiled confidently.
"Relax."
"Whatever ambitions that man may possess, he will accomplish nothing against me."
His presence seemed to expand with those words, carrying the unmistakable pride of a sovereign standing upon his own land.
"After all—"
"I am Vlad III."
"The rightful king of Romania!"