Chapter 245
"So the Red faction really is trying to seize the Greater Grail?"
Jeanne watched the enormous spherical structure being torn from beneath the Yggdmillennia estate, shock briefly crossing her face before her expression hardened with determination.
’Just as Kiriya-kun said. If Amakusa Shirou Tokisada wants to fulfill his wish, he’ll have to alter the Greater Grail first. We have to stop him before that happens!’
With that thought, Jeanne leapt onto one of the enormous chunks of rock being pulled skyward, intending to use it as a convenient natural elevator to reach the Hanging Gardens.
The Red faction had now gone so far as to seize the Greater Grail itself.
That constituted an unmistakably serious violation of the Holy Grail War’s rules, which meant that Jeanne, as Ruler, finally had legitimate grounds to intervene directly.
She was not the only one who reached that conclusion.
Chiron, Vlad III, and Caster of Black all made the same choice.
The moment the Greater Grail fell into the enemy’s grasp, their individual battles against the other Servants ceased to matter.
The prize itself was being stolen right before their eyes, and there was no telling whether the Red faction might immediately attempt to use it.
Their highest priority had therefore become reclaiming the Greater Grail.
Without needing to coordinate, the three Servants disengaged from their respective battlefields and converged on the area beneath the ascending fortress.
"Where is Kiriya-dono?" Chiron asked.
"Achilles dragged him into some kind of isolated bounded field."
Jeanne shook her head helplessly.
"It may take him some time to get out."
"There is no need for further discussion."
Vlad III’s firm voice cut through the uncertainty.
"Even if only we remain, the Greater Grail must be reclaimed."
His gaze rose toward the Hanging Gardens.
"For the sake of the wishes that brought us all to this war."
Unfortunately, the Kiriya everyone was thinking about had no attention to spare for the beam that had struck Berserker or the sacrifice Frankenstein had just made.
He had already been dragged into a completely isolated miniature world.
[Diatrekhon Aster Lonkhe.]
That was the Noble Phantasm Achilles had specifically prepared for Kiriya.
The spear had originally been presented to Achilles by Chiron as a wedding gift to his parents, and it had been fashioned from the same material as Chiron’s own bow and arrows.
Its true ability was not simply that of a weapon.
It could create an isolated domain specifically intended for a duel between heroes, an act of magecraft powerful enough to rival a Reality Marble.
In simpler terms—
It was a spear made for single combat.
Once activated, it completely severed the enclosed battlefield from ordinary time and space, forming an arena that would not disappear until one of the two combatants had been defeated.
Blessings from gods, luck, and other external or accidental factors were excluded from the duel as much as possible, leaving both sides to determine victory through their own strength.
Achilles had once used this very Noble Phantasm during his legendary battle against Hector.
"Master of Black."
Achilles looked toward Kiriya with an amused smile.
"You can use some kind of spatial displacement or instantaneous movement, right?"
He gestured toward the isolated world around them.
"Unfortunately for you, this place is completely sealed."
"Unless you defeat me, this world isn’t opening."
"Hm."
Kiriya closed his eyes for a moment and attempted to sense the Flying Thunder God marks he had left outside.
Nothing.
"You’re right."
He opened his eyes again.
"I can’t sense any of my Flying Thunder God marks outside this place."
Then he looked toward the legendary Greek hero with a faintly amused expression.
"Wow. You really went through a lot of trouble just for me."
"Hahaha! Of course I did!"
Achilles grinned, but there was something distinctly beastlike and bloodthirsty behind it.
"I’ve been waiting a long time to avenge Big Sis."
He raised his spear.
"So give me a proper fight, Master of Black."
"I can tell you’re capable of it."
Achilles had crossed countless battlefields in life and honed his martial ability to an extraordinary level.
Naturally, his perception of an opponent’s presence and fighting spirit had become exceptionally sharp as well.
He could feel it clearly from Kiriya.
That dense, refined fighting spirit had not been trained in a training hall.
It belonged to someone who had survived countless real battles and life-or-death struggles.
Kiriya’s basic physical ability seemed somewhat inferior to Achilles’s own, but Karna had already mentioned that the young man possessed techniques capable of dramatically strengthening his body.
In other words, despite his youthful appearance, Kiriya was genuinely qualified to stand on the same battlefield as Achilles.
"Show me everything you have, Master of Black."
Achilles’s expression became solemn.
"If you don’t, you won’t get another chance."
"You’re sure?"
Kiriya smiled.
"Because if I actually go all out, you might be the one who never gets another chance."
"Hahaha!"
Achilles’s eyes sharpened like those of a hunting eagle.
"You really do know how to talk."
His grin widened.
"But beating you at your strongest is the only way avenging Big Sis will mean anything!"
"In that case..."
Kiriya slowly exhaled.
"As you wish."
He drove his sword into the ground beside him.
Then both hands clenched into fists as he began releasing the power restrained within his body.
"Sixth Gate, the Gate of View—open!"
"Seventh Gate, the Gate of Wonder—open!"
Two internal limiters shattered open in succession.
BOOM!
Kiriya’s aura erupted like a volcano.
An enormous quantity of chakra surged through his body like raging rivers, driving his physical strength, speed, and reactions to a level that bordered on the absurd.
The sheer pressure blasted outward in a violent storm.
Achilles raised both arms against the incoming gale and narrowed his eyes.
Then, as he saw Kiriya standing within the roaring blue aura, absolute delight spread across his face.
"Hahahahaha!"
"That’s it!"
"That’s exactly what I wanted!"
"This kind of power is the only thing worthy of the stage I went to all this trouble to prepare—"
BOOM!
He never finished the sentence.
Kiriya disappeared from where he stood.
By the time Achilles registered his movement, Kiriya was already directly in front of him.
A fist drove brutally into Achilles’s abdomen.
"GUAH—!"
Achilles’s eyes bulged.
His entire body was launched backward, and a spray of blood left his mouth while he was still airborne.
’That speed...’
Shock flashed through Achilles’s mind.
’And that strength!’
Yet his body reacted immediately despite his surprise, rapidly adjusting his posture in midair.
Unfortunately—
Kiriya’s next attack had already arrived.
Bang!
Another fist crashed into the side of Achilles’s face.
The force twisted his neck at a grotesque angle and sent him spinning away.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
For the next dozen seconds, Achilles barely touched the ground.
Kiriya appeared around him again and again with overwhelming speed, striking him from one direction after another until the legendary hero was practically being battered through the air like a ball.
Finally, Kiriya seized Achilles by the ankle.
He planted his feet, twisted his waist, and began swinging the great Greek hero around like an enormous windmill.
Once.
Twice.
Three times—
Then he released him.
BOOOOOOM!
Achilles shot away like a meteor and crashed into the ground with such force that the entire arena trembled.
"Cough! Cough, cough—!"
A violent coughing fit shook him.
Achilles staggered back to his feet, blood staining his lips, and stared toward Kiriya with unmistakable astonishment.
"You..."
His eyes narrowed.
"You can actually hurt me?"
Kiriya naturally understood why that surprised him.
After all, Achilles was famous throughout mythology for his invulnerable body.
After his death, that legend itself had been sublimated into a Noble Phantasm that continued to protect him.
[Andreias Amarantos: Amaranth of the Brave.]
According to legend, every part of Achilles’s body except his heel had received the blessing of immortality from his mother, the goddess Thetis.
That blessing allowed him to nullify ordinary attacks altogether.
Naturally, even an ability as powerful as that was not truly absolute.
There were two primary methods by which an enemy could overcome Achilles’s immortality.
The first was obvious—
Strike his famous weakness, the Achilles heel, and the protection would collapse.
The second method was to attack him with power possessing a sufficiently high level of Divinity.
And that was precisely where Achilles’s confusion came from.
Kiriya was clearly a modern human.
Where could someone like him possibly have obtained Divinity?
Kiriya, of course, had no intention of explaining.
After all, the blood flowing through his body contained the divine blood of the goddess Hestia.
Back when that divine blood had first entered his body, it had reconciled the violently conflicting Senju and Uchiha powers within him while mysteriously awakening even more of his latent potential.
More importantly, the fragments of divine authority and Divinity contained within that blood had never disappeared.
Instead, they had settled deep inside his body and, with each successive Level Up, gradually merged with every cell he possessed.
And that was without mentioning the fact that he spent practically every day riding—
Cough.
Engaging in all kinds of extremely close physical training with a goddess.
By the standards of the Nasuverse, the Divinity buffs stacked on Kiriya could practically be described as excessive.
Naturally, Achilles’s Noble Phantasm could no longer simply declare Kiriya’s attacks invalid.
"I see."
Achilles wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
"So you’ve had your own share of unusual opportunities."
He did not press the matter any further.
A broad grin slowly returned to his face.
"I was actually worried that fighting you while protected by this Noble Phantasm might be unfair."
"If you couldn’t hurt me at all, it would’ve ruined half the fun."
He rolled his shoulders.
"Looks like I was worrying for nothing."
As he spoke, his wounds were already recovering at a visible rate.
Even if Andreias Amarantos could no longer completely nullify Kiriya’s attacks, it still provided Achilles with exceptional durability and regenerative ability.
"Come on."
Achilles lowered his stance.
"This time, I’m going all out."
The next moment—
His figure became a streak of light.
[Dromeus Cometes.]
The Noble Phantasm transformed Achilles’s movement into something resembling lightning carried upon a gale, raising his speed to an almost unimaginable degree.
It was the crystallization of the legend that Achilles possessed the fastest feet of any hero in human history.
Kiriya had just shown him speed remarkable enough to overwhelm even Achilles for a time.
So now—
Achilles was finally bringing out one of the greatest trump cards in his arsenal!