Yae Sakura hadn't expected such astounding defense. In the instant her brows knit, Siegfried had already ridden the rebound, springing back dozens of meters to open the distance.
Pointing Balmung slantwise at the ground, his gaze locked on Huo Yuhao. Green lightning crackled around him—he was ready to rush to Dai Huabin's aid at any moment.
Yae Sakura did not know Siegfried, nor that he bore a fatal, constant weakness as a Heroic Spirit.
If she'd known, with her speed and godlike cuts, those strikes earlier—shifted just a hair—might have hit the mark and killed him in one blow.
Siegfried gambled that she didn't know him; otherwise he wouldn't have dared to tank the slashes of someone capable of godspeed cuts.
He bet right. This was another world; few recognized him, fewer knew his weakness. Without that knowledge, ordinary attacks could not break the Armor of Fafnir.
Siegfried's swordsmanship was top-tier, his holy sword sweeping with mountain-rending force. Yet faced with Yae Sakura, he felt an impotent frustration.
She was too fluid, like willow catkins in the wind, always slipping past his heavy blade at the last instant.
Her speed and reflexes far outstripped normal limits. Each cut threaded precisely into the gaps of his power transitions.
Her kenjutsu was equally exquisite—knife-light weaving a seamless curtain. Breaking her guard would be no easy feat.
"Sorry, I can't let you pass."
Yae Sakura's form shadowed his, blocking him again. Petal-pink blade-light orbited her, a tight, impenetrable screen.
A genuine hint of apology touched her face, fox ears drooping. She didn't condone what she was doing—she didn't want to abet evil, didn't want to watch Huo Yuhao slaughter wantonly.
But she had no choice.
Tang Ya remained in the Holy Spirit Cult's control; the Command Seal etched on Tang Ya's hand was a sword over her head. If she didn't want to exit the stage, she couldn't ignore Tang Ya's safety.
More importantly, she hadn't yet seen the Holy Grail and couldn't confirm if her wish to see Kallen again could be realized.
For that sliver of hope, she had to bow, for now, to the Cult she loathed and to Huo Yuhao.
Yae Sakura had never intended to go all out.
Through her duel with Siegfried, she focused on containment. Her spirit blade danced airtight, yet she held back a margin of strength.
With speed far beyond his, she harried and disrupted, her skillful sword-work continually fouling his motions while deliberately avoiding killing moves.
She hadn't even drawn on the power of Higokumaru—another force sealed within her. Unleashed, it would empower her greatly, but she loathed to use it. It was the power that had killed Kallen.
Siegfried was keen. He saw her intent at once.
His brow tightened. His sword grew sharper, dusk-colored sword-qi cascading like a waterfall, yet he couldn't break her defensive circle.
She was too fast. He would commit to a form and she'd already be elsewhere, her blade like a bone-burrowing maggot, always pecking at his transition points.
"Stand aside!"
Siegfried's voice went low, green lightning growing wild—his anger stirred for real.
He could feel Dai Huabin's aura fading swiftly. Delay any longer, and it might be beyond saving.
Yae Sakura didn't answer, only shook her head lightly—and then her blade flashed faster.
Petal-pink arcs crashed against dusk-gold sword-qi, spinning a cyclone of energy that swept rubble into the air.
Siegfried looked at the blade-light barring his way, then at the far-off ice statue, and his eyes hardened. Time for his trump card.
He raised Balmung high. Green lightning coiled and roared along the blade like wild serpents, shrieking in his ears.
Terrifying energy pooled, visible to the naked eye. Dusk light boiled like magma, dyeing the air around him a gorgeous gold-red.
"The evil dragon shall be felled—"
His voice was deep and solemn, as if an ancient epic resounded nearby, every word brooking no denial.
"The world has reached its twilight—"
The sword's glow blazed brighter. Even the blood moon dimmed beneath it.
Space began to warp. Filigrees of arc-light snapped from the blade to the ground, kicking up bursts of dust.
"I will strike you down—"
His eyes sharpened like a hawk's, locked on Yae Sakura. Green lightning exploded around him, a vast draconic phantom coiling upward to merge with the sword's radiance.
"Balmung!!"
With his final roar, the gathered dusk sword-qi speared skyward as a pillar of light that tore the night apart.
Within it, countless blade-shadows flitted, bearing star-rending might, blazing in Mingdu's dark like a second sun.
Both bleeding soul masters and Heroic Spirits, and the inexorable anti-matter legions, turned toward that dusk pillar.
Not just for its blinding brilliance, but for the world-shaking energy within—a half-divine puissance, enough to shatter a city's defenses and turn miles to ash.
Feeling the annihilation barreling toward her, Yae Sakura's pupils tightened; her fox ears flattened hard.
She knew that if she held back any further, she could never stop this strike.
"Big sis!"
Higokumaru's voice quavered in her mind.
Yae Sakura clenched her jaw. No more hesitation.
She could not die here. Absolutely not. For the faint hope of seeing Kallen again—she had to live.
Vmmm—
Savage flame surged from within her—not ordinary red but veined with eerie violet. Where it passed, stone melted into roiling magma.
A colossal fire-fox phantom unfurled behind her, its tails swaying as a world-scorching heat wave swept out, turning matter to ash in an instant.
She raised Sakura Fubuki as well. The wild flames, as if guided, wrapped the blade and gathered into a crimson pillar at its tip.
Within that pillar, innumerable sakura petals burned—deadly beauty.
With a cool, quiet cry, she hewed the pillar down to meet Siegfried's dusk beam head-on.
KRA-BOOOM!!!
The blast shook all of Mingdu. Radiance like a newborn sun banished the dark in a heartbeat, laying bare the ravaged city—fallen walls and flowing blood alike exposed in its glare.
A nuclear-like shockwave rippled out in rings from the collision point.
Skyscrapers toppled like toy blocks. Earth bucked, ejecting meters of topsoil. Even clouds in the sky tore apart.
Around them, the anti-matter troops were tossed like chaff.
Twin pillars of light wrestled at Mingdu's heart, ripping a gash in the heavens. Space itself flickered and warped.
This duel of peak Heroic Spirits became the eye of the battlefield's storm, pushing an already-chaotic Mingdu to the brink of greater ruin.
"That's Siegfried's aura."
A crimson spear darted like a viper, nailing a trampler through the head; its black energy core burst into scattered motes.
Cú Chulainn stood atop the twitching carcass, his blue bodysuit catching the firelight with a steely sheen.
He eyed the kilometers-distant energy field, twirling the scarlet spear, a spark of battle-lust flashing. "If he's forced to use his ultimate Noble Phantasm, his opponent's no slouch."
"Looks like something went wrong on Dai Huabin's side."
Xu Sanshi braced behind his heavy Black Tortoise Shield, its face humming under a Voidranger: Eliminators's energy cannon.
Back-to-back with Bei Bei inside a half-collapsed building, they stood amid seats blasted to splinters.
Bei Bei, in Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon possession, ripped an Voidranger: Tramplers's chest with dragon claws, then glanced toward the burst of power. "Do we help?"
Jing Yuan, Bei Bei's Servant, was tied up by Hoolay. Their group had been scattered in the chaos.
Fortunately, Han Ruoruo's Servant, Aglaea, was resourceful. The romantic demigod had woven a gold-threaded info-web across the city so nearby allies could locate each other and regroup fast.
When Xu Sanshi reached Bei Bei with his Servant, the dragon heir was beset by three Voidranger: Tramplerss and in dire straits.
"Help?"
Xu Sanshi snorted, his shield bucking an onrushing Voidranger: Tramplers away.
"That guy always had his nose in the air. If he's out of luck now, serves him right."
He didn't pause, though. The shield's edge, keen with umbral light, cleaved an Voidranger: Tramplers in two.
Bei Bei crushed a sneaking Voidranger: Tramplers with a backhand. Complicated feelings flickered across his dragon-scaled face. "He's still from Shrek, regardless."
He disliked Dai Huabin, and he knew the man had hired killers after Huo Yuhao. But he was a Shrek student, their teammate this time. To watch him die sat wrong.
"Grudges are one thing. With enemies at the gates, we don't smash our own walls."
Xu Sanshi curled his lip, but didn't argue.
Runes lit on the Black Tortoise Shield, forming a dark bulwark that held back the incoming voidrangers. "Fine. For the Academy's sake. But I'm not throwing my life away."
…
Elsewhere, Xiao Xiao hid behind Qingque, staring wide-eyed at the sky-piercing pillar. Her face had gone pale.
Jiang Nannan's Soft Bone Rabbit martial soul was already up, ready for anything.
Their group of four had only managed to regroup thanks to Songque's Shadow Authority—the seemingly unreliable girl had summoned the shadows of other Servants and carved a bloody path through.
"Sister Nannan, should we go help?" Xiao Xiao asked in a small voice.
She'd never liked Dai Huabin. She'd seen the indignities Huo Yuhao suffered at the Academy. But classmates were classmates; doing nothing left a knot in her chest.
Jiang Nannan shook her head. "We'd just get in the way."
She read the situation clearly. If Siegfried was forced to use his Noble Phantasm, the foe over there was terrifying.
Their team had only Qingque and Songque as Servants—far weaker in battle than Siegfried. Rushing over would make them burdens needing protection.
Xiao Xiao nodded, quietly relieved.
She didn't want to go either, but felt bad thinking so.
"Good thing you weren't planning to!"
Songque patted her own considerable chest with exaggerated relief, her blonde hair swishing.
"That blast was like popping a mini sun. Going there is just delivering takeout—us! I don't want to turn into ash!"
Even as a memory clone, she feared death just the same. The nuclear-like shockwave had left her ears ringing streets away.
Qingque subtly tucked away the abacus chips at her fingertips. She'd just cast a divination: advance spells doom, hold brings fortune. Seeing the others inclined to stay, she finally relaxed.
Guided by her augury, she had led Xiao Xiao through the anti-matter gauntlet, sidestepping tramplers at the worst junctures. She wouldn't go against the sign now.
"Huh. It's you."
A mildly surprised voice sounded at the mouth of the alley. Xiao Xiao jumped, clutching Qingque's arm. Jiang Nannan tensed.
They turned to see a tall figure standing on a broken wall nearby.
Lu Jingming wore a black windcoat, hem fluttering in the night breeze. He looked at them with a calm air, as if admiring scenery rather than standing in a blood-soaked warzone.
"Lu Jingming?"
Xiao Xiao's eyes widened in surprise.
She remembered the boy who had dominated the Soul Master Tournament—not only his overwhelming strength, but the maturity beyond his years. Too dazzling to forget.
Joy flashed in Jiang Nannan's eyes; her taut frame eased.
Strictly speaking, she was Ningguang's person, and Ningguang was Lu Jingming's. By that reckoning, she and Lu Jingming were on the same side.
In danger-choked Mingdu, meeting a powerful ally was a godsend.
Lu Jingming hopped down lightly from the wall, landing before Jiang Nannan, Qingque, and the others.