The instant he thrust out the spear in his hands, Cú Chulainn had already thought through many possibilities.
For instance, Zuke might narrowly avoid vital points by relying on an absurdly high luck value, or his spear might hit Zuke's heart area but fail to penetrate, and so on.
But the one scenario he absolutely hadn't anticipated occurred—his spear traced a blood-red arc of light through the night sky, then...
Struck straight into a tree beside them!
"What!?"
Cú Chulainn's face showed a shocked expression—it wasn't until his "Spear of Piercing Deaththorn" struck the tree trunk that he realized his attack direction had somehow been deflected.
Cú Chulainn wasn't someone who couldn't accept making mistakes. In fact, who hasn't made a few mistakes in their lifetime? But this mistake's direction was a bit too outrageous.
Logically speaking, after releasing his Noble Phantasm, his spear couldn't possibly miss. Even if the opponent's luck value was high enough to slightly shift the hit location, it couldn't possibly deflect several meters, right?
This could no longer be explained by a mistake. Zuke must have done something to make his "guaranteed hit" spear forcibly deflect dozens of degrees and strike the tree!
"It seems even abilities involving 'causality' have differences in strength."
Zuke, meanwhile, seemed to have anticipated this scene long ago. He slowly turned his head to look at the tree behind him—Cú Chulainn's spear was stuck in it.
What Cú Chulainn couldn't see was that behind Zuke, the form of "Black Bird: Requiem" was slowly floating there.
That's right. Just as Cú Chulainn released his Noble Phantasm, Zuke used "Black Bird: Requiem's" ability to fix the result of "Cú Chulainn's spear will strike the large tree."
This was why Zuke gave Cú Chulainn a chance to attack.
Because he wanted to use this opportunity to test whether his "Black Bird: Requiem" could still be used normally when encountering abilities that similarly involved "causality."
Now it seemed there was no problem. Zuke had used "Black Bird: Requiem" to forcibly modify the "result" of "Spear of Piercing Deaththorn," changing its "pierce the heart" ability to "pierce the large tree."
It didn't even consume much of Zuke's "qi," enough to show just how vast the gulf was between Cú Chulainn's strength and Zuke's.
The reason for testing this was mainly because many abilities in "Touhou Project" also involved rules.
Although in that series, these seemingly rule-based abilities weren't particularly strong, Zuke still needed to consider some preventative measures.
If "Black Bird: Requiem's" ability could overwrite other rule-based abilities, then Zuke didn't need to worry about those abilities in "Touhou Project" that looked very intimidating.
At least with Zuke's ability level being what it was, the youkai and deities in "Touhou Project" found it difficult to even leave Earth—Zuke naturally had no need for concern.
After testing that "Black Bird: Requiem's" ability could function normally, Zuke was quite satisfied. Cú Chulainn's final use had concluded.
"It's over, Cú Chulainn. In the end, you helped me test something very important—as a reward, I'll let you die painlessly."
Zuke turned to look at Cú Chulainn—at this moment, Cú Chulainn had already pulled out the spear stuck in the tree and once again assumed a ready combat stance facing him.
However, Zuke wouldn't give him any more chances this time, because Zuke's objective had been achieved.
"It's not over yet!"
Cú Chulainn naturally wouldn't surrender without resistance. He thrust out his spear again—after all, as the Child of Light of Ireland, as a hero from mythology, even knowing it was impossible, he still had to try once.
"Gáe Bolg!"
The blood-red light flashed again, shooting straight toward Zuke's heart. This time, Zuke didn't use "Black Bird: Requiem" to alter causality.
But there were far too many ways to break "Spear of Piercing Deaththorn."
"Black Bird: King Crimson!"
Zuke chuckled softly. In his field of vision, the "future" had already been seen—in the next 0.1 seconds, his heart area would be struck by that red light from Cú Chulainn's hands.
However, Spear of Piercing Deaththorn couldn't penetrate his body, so it would only pierce his clothes. The residual force would even completely shatter his garments.
Zuke didn't want to go retrieve the Lesser Grail bare-chested later, so he mercilessly used "Black Bird: King Crimson" to erase the 0.01 seconds when the red light struck him.
By erasing the time of "the moment of being struck," he could forcibly modify the result of being struck—this was one of King Crimson's methods of use in the original work.
Diavolo used this technique to avoid Aerosmith's shots, letting the bullets pass through his body.
In the next instant, time returned to reality. Cú Chulainn was shocked to discover that although his "Spear of Piercing Deaththorn" had successfully struck Zuke's chest, it seemed to pass right through Zuke's body.
It was as if the frame where "Spear of Piercing Deaththorn" struck Zuke had been extracted, creating such a bizarre effect.
But this time, Zuke didn't say much more. Instead, he directly raised his hand, using "qi" to instantly grasp Cú Chulainn's body.
Cú Chulainn only felt his body stiffen, becoming unable to move—he tried struggling a couple of times, but unsurprisingly, with his strength, escaping Zuke's "qi" was impossible.
"Don't worry, it'll be over in an instant."
Zuke looked at Cú Chulainn's ugly expression, chuckled softly, then forcefully clenched his hand.
BOOM!
Cú Chulainn's body instantly exploded into countless fragments, detonating like explosives in the courtyard.
If someone who had watched Dragon Ball were here, they would probably sigh, "Exactly the same death as Krillin."
However, Cú Chulainn wasn't Krillin after all, and there was no Kakarot who could turn into a Super Saiyan here—so very quickly, the courtyard fell into silence.
"As you can see, Lancer is already dead."
Zuke gently released his hand, turning to look at Bazett, who was still frozen not far behind him—she seemed to not have fully processed what happened.
Although Bazett possessed a Mystic Code capable of instantly killing Servants, she was ultimately just a magus, far inferior to Servants in reaction speed and other aspects.
The battle between Zuke and Cú Chulainn ended almost in an instant, so it wasn't until Zuke spoke that Bazett finally realized what had happened.
She showed a bitter smile, looking helplessly at Zuke:
"I didn't expect it to end so quickly... This puts me in a difficult position explaining things to the Clock Tower."
That's right—Bazett represented the Mages Association in participating in this war. In the original work, she was killed by Kirei Kotomine before the Holy Grail War even began, so naturally she didn't need to consider reporting back.
But now Bazett was alive and well, so she naturally had to consider how to report back to the Clock Tower.
"You don't need to worry about that."
Hearing Bazett's words, Zuke raised an eyebrow.
"The Mages Association won't make things difficult for you."
After all, losing to the Mages Association's behind-the-scenes master—who would make things difficult for Bazett?
To be continued…