"Ah, I see. I understand the situation now." Before Shirou raised the Hanging Gardens, Lord El-Melloi II, who was at the Clock Tower, also received information about Alaric from Kairi Shishigou.
Regarding this individual who had appeared a year ago, Lord El-Melloi II didn't have much to say. Alaric had previously attempted to participate in this war as a Master representing the Clock Tower, but for some unknown reason, his application was rejected after being reviewed by the Summoning Department.
That said, this outcome didn't impact the personal relationship between Lord El-Melloi II and Alaric.
For some reason, Lord El-Melloi II got along with Alaric surprisingly well, as if they were old friends from their student days.
"You can handle this as you see fit."
Lord El-Melloi II didn't interfere too much in matters related to Alaric, even though Alaric had joined the Holy Grail War as a third party.
It was an undeniable fact that Alaric had successfully summoned a Servant—a god-level one at that.
Even if the Clock Tower wanted to intervene, they seemingly lacked the power to do so. Thus, the matter was left to Kairi Shishigou and Mordred to handle as they saw fit.
This arrangement caused some ripples when the Hanging Gardens were raised, but the decision remained unchanged.
However, after losing contact with the Red Masters and Shirou, the Clock Tower began to grow uneasy.
The imposing Hanging Gardens were undoubtedly a fortress constructed by the Red faction's Servants. So, what was the meaning behind Shirou and the others refusing to respond?
Upon urgently contacting Kairi Shishigou and sharing the information and requests with him, Shishigou, accompanied by Mordred, drove a Chevrolet Corvette straight to the battlefield, waiting for the right moment to act.
What happened afterward unfolded far too quickly.
Achilles, the fastest Heroic Spirit, launched a ferocious assault on Alaric, never dropping below supersonic speed for even a moment. This made what seemed like a long battle to the observers pass by in a very short time.
Even Astolfo, whose phantom steed had been slain by Alaric, had only just landed. Without his mount, Astolfo, in Mordred's view, was nothing more than a second-rate Rider—perhaps even less than a second-rate Servant.
Paying little attention to Astolfo, Mordred, after consulting with Kairi Shishigou, decided to join the fray between Alaric and Achilles.
As the disruptor, she would throw their battle into chaos!
Amid the falling rubble, the two figures—dislodged from their supersonic states—were caught by gravity, their forms beginning to descend amidst the rain of shattered stone.
Yet this didn't hinder Alaric or Achilles in the slightest. Achilles, halting his attacks for the moment, raised an eyebrow as he observed the dark radiance surging around Alaric.
Although Achilles could sense that Alaric's magical energy was as pure and immense as divine essence—comparable to his C-rank Divinity—he felt that there was something more to it, something peculiar.
An even stranger sensation.
Ignoring Achilles, Alaric's gaze fell on Mordred, who stood on the ground below.
The plains within a hundred-meter radius had been obliterated by his previous strike, reduced to countless fragments of rubble that flowed upward, leaving behind a desolate crater.
The girl known as Mordred, the rebellious knight, leaped across several dozen meters to arrive at the center of the battlefield.
No words were exchanged, yet Alaric immediately understood Mordred's intentions and the actions she was about to take.
Crackle.
The surging radiance around him gathered and condensed most of the debris, burning it into magical energy. This energy was then extracted into something called the memory of the planet, transforming into power, causing the scale of the radiance to expand continuously.
It was the true form of something about to be born—
Buzz.
The moment Lye vanished from his original spot, the ground where he had stood erupted with visible ripples. The endless rubble within the dark radiance was incinerated entirely, leaving only an infinite expanse of night. The ripples that spread were likely atmospheric disturbances, a wave of white air streams dozens of meters wide, surging like tides, compressing the remaining particles in the atmosphere and producing a sharp, piercing sound.
'!'
Though far slower than Achilles—or even Alaric—Mordred immediately sensed the warning of her instincts. As a clone of King Arthur, Mordred also possessed an exceptionally high level of instinct.
Following her body's intuition, Mordred raised her sword and held it in front of her.
Almost as soon as the motion was completed, the radiance arrived before her.
Barely able to discern the figure, what truly reflected in Mordred's eyes was a fist wrapped in radiant light, blazing like a meteor.
The clenched fist was surrounded by brilliant trails of dark radiance as if it were a spectacle that could only exist at the world's end. And having grown up in Britain, Mordred recognized this sight all too well.
Not only that but as Mordred gazed into the radiance, she seemed to hear the roar of a dragon. The trembling in her bloodline transcended the boundary of life and death.
For the first time in this new life, Mordred felt the presence of the Red Dragon.
Even Artoria Pendragon, a non-human entity born with the Red Dragon's bloodline, never considered herself to be the same as a dragon.
Alaric, you—
The astonishment in her heart was known to no one, and Mordred herself had no intention of sharing this emotion with others. Besides, she likely wouldn't even have time to ponder this mystery.
In the first instant her thoughts turned, the fist wrapped in radiance reached her.
Without altering its trajectory, it struck directly and squarely upon the sword Mordred had raised.
What followed was an overwhelming force, like a tsunami.
Mordred, whose strength reached B+, felt an unstoppable force pressing against her sword, crushing down on her. Even as she mustered all her strength to resist, her sword was still driven back against her chest, forcing her entire body to be flung backward!
Boom!
The wind from the punch tore through the ground on both sides, leaving behind trenches stretching dozens of meters.
An dominant strike—one that even Mordred couldn't withstand.
After forcing Mordred back with one blow, Alaric immediately turned his gaze toward the distance, where a girl in a white dress was sprinting toward him.
The girl named Frankenstein glared at him with murderous intent, as if ready to strike him down on the spot.
Furthermore, due to the battle between Alaric and Achilles, the attention of the entire battlefield had been drawn to them, fully exposing Alaric's third-party status to both the Black and Red factions.
Although the Red faction only had Achilles and Mordred left on the ground battlefield, the Black faction still had most of its members present. Despite some of their Servants being forced to retreat due to Lye's overwhelming destruction of the Yggdmillennia castle, the remaining Servants still represented a formidable force.
But none of this was within Alaric's immediate concern. What he cared about was the homunculus boy who had arrived because of Astolfo.