Catastrophe was imminent.
When a massive block of seawater soared skyward—blatantly defying the laws of physics—and came crashing down on the sunken highway, unleashing a rampaging flood, a single thought echoed through everyone's mind:
"Is this place about to be destroyed?"
Chu Tianjiao, trembling, stayed low to the ground. He watched the immense mass of seawater slam into the lowlands. The high ground they occupied, spanning about ten kilometers, had risen with the tremors and was temporarily safe.
But who could say for sure whether another chunk of seawater might come crashing down on them next?
"The space is collapsing! If this continues, the entire dimensional structure will disintegrate!"
Melusine's serious voice finally clued the confused crowd into what was happening. As a pure-blooded dragon bearing the title of "Grand," her insight was exceptional.
"This kind of thing can actually happen?!"
Zero and Chu Tianjiao had only read about the Nibelungen in books. Now, on their very first trip inside one, they were witnessing its collapse—and worse yet, they had to figure out how to survive it!
"Can you sense the source of all this?" asked Emiya and Nono almost simultaneously. As expected of Servants, their senses were sharp enough to detect anomalies instantly.
Emiya had a hunch: the masked figure from the aquarium was finally about to show his true form.
"In the deep sea!" Melusine answered without hesitation. She was certain the enemy's lair had to be at the source of all water—at the ocean's deepest point.
Then she ignored Zero and Chu Tianjiao, turning her gaze toward the red-haired duo.
"Master. Emiya. What are your orders?"
"Stop him!"
"Find an exit!"
After a few seconds of silence, Emiya and Nono both spoke—offering completely different solutions.
"?" Nono crossed her arms and firmly voiced her disagreement. "Why fight him now? If he's flipping the table, we don't have to play along. We should just get out!"
"Didn't I find the entrance last time by myself? Let's just find a way out again. If we escape, that sea-bottom freak can die along with this collapsing space!"
But Emiya had a different concern. "Are you sure we can still find a way out in this space-warped chaos? Last time we got lucky—he wasn't guarding the entrance. If he's trying to blow this place up with us in it, he must've thought of that."
"By confronting him directly and forcing him to stop, we might stabilize the space again. That would help us find the exit too… What do you all think?"
Chu Tianjiao suddenly felt everyone's eyes on him—Emiya, Nono, Melusine—and he trembled, shocked that he was being consulted at all.
"I… I think… why don't we split into two teams?"
"…Zero, what do you think?" Nono didn't respond directly, turning to her companion.
"..." Zero opened her mouth as if to speak but said nothing. She wasn't good at resolving disputes. Instead, she pointed toward the horizon. "Over there. I think… another ocean is moving toward us."
"Hm?" Emiya turned and saw fractured ocean surfaces of varying heights. All of it was the result of space tearing apart.
Some parts of the sea now rose like giant blue cubes—if even one of those toppled over, it would cause a flood so massive it could collapse the fragile ground beneath them and obliterate everything in its path.
Invisible cracks in space continued to worsen.
One particularly large cube of seawater was now slowly advancing toward their high ground.
"You've gotta be kidding…"
The sea cube looked to be hundreds—possibly a thousand—meters tall. Even just looking up at it was terrifying. In the real world, a hundred-meter wave would already be catastrophic.
But in this shattered Nibelungen, gravitational potential meant nothing. The sea rose and fell in impossible ways—like a surreal, logic-defying nightmare.
If that massive cube toppled… even this high ground might not survive.
Suddenly, from beneath the water cube came the high-pitched song of a whale. An ancient chant echoed out, and then the water cube began freezing—turning into an even larger and denser block of ice.
"Stop it, Melusine! Nono, take the others and find a way out. The enemy has come to us—we need to eliminate the threat. Let's run both plans at the same time!"
Emiya recognized the song—it was the White Whale. He raised his black bow and aimed toward the source.
In a flash, everyone fell into their roles and got to work.
BOOM!
A burst of heat and light—part of the advancing ice cube was blown apart by a shot from Broken Phantasm, but the freezing continued.
Emiya caught a glimpse of the White Whale fleeing in panic, its tail thrashing. He hadn't even confirmed the target, just took a guess—and the whale gave itself away.
"Next shot."
Whoosh!
Emiya readjusted, predicting the whale's path. He fired again, unleashing several Broken Phantasms.
This time, the whale couldn't escape. Explosions tore it apart beneath the ice, blood and flesh scattering. Still recovering from its last injury, the White Whale died without a chance.
"Haa…" Emiya exhaled, lowering his bow. But his face remained tense.
The water cube above had become a thousand-meter-tall iceberg. If they didn't deal with it, no one would escape alive.
"I'm counting on you, Melusine!"
"Then… watch closely—this is my transformation!"
Melusine looked tiny compared to the towering iceberg. But with a gentle breath, her noble Black King blood surged.
Though she was a Servant, her form blossomed like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon.
"This is the true form of the original dragon—breath of flame, wings of iron!"
Her black scales tightened and grew more menacing along her limbs. The sword in her hand elongated into a terrifying, spear-like weapon. Mana erupted from her, spewing heat.
At the same time, dark wings unfurled from her back—huge, jet-black and cross-shaped. Her figure became strange yet hauntingly beautiful.
"Spin—then shred!"
Melusine took on a half-human, half-dragon form and became a dazzling whirl of blades, charging directly at the iceberg.
Anyone who didn't know her strength would think it a suicide run.
But she wasn't weak. Her massive blade, longer than a lance, slashed with overwhelming force. Streams of mana twirled like laser beams.
The ice cracked under her assault—shattered by the slicing storm, breaking down into white rubble as it fell.
Emiya raised the Dragon Severing Platform scabbard to block falling shards. When he lowered it, most of the iceberg had been destroyed. The rest slumped feebly near the edge of the cliff—the deathtrap now a fading nightmare.
Thud.
Melusine landed, still in dragon form. She approached awkwardly, no longer using her usual third-person tone.
"I look a little scary like this, don't I? I… can't revert just yet. Dragonkind is my essence—I'm not compatible with human form."
"No, you look cool!" Emiya patted her sharp claw.
"Cool?"
"I mean, your armor and weapons are made from your scales, right? We're about to go underwater to deal with the enemy behind all this. We'll need waterproof and pressure-resistant gear."
Melusine stared at him, confused—until Emiya made a shocking request that left her speechless.
"…Can you make another set of that gear—for me?"
"...!" W-What a bold idea!
——
"Synchronization… start."
Now clad in jet-black scaled armor, Emiya felt mana naturally enhance his body.
The armor, made from Melusine's refined outer skin, had excellent sealing, bioplasticity, and flexibility. It even preserved the dragon's underwater breathing structures, boosting all resistances while fitting him perfectly.
He channeled mana through it—the flow was smooth, responsive. Her scales were top-tier magical material. As expected of a dragon's hide.
With the Dragon Severing Platform on his back, Emiya leapt forward like a blade, cutting through the sea as he and Melusine dove deeper.
"That armor's just a one-off," she said beside him. "It'll break and disintegrate after battle…"
But her voice trembled slightly.
A human didn't reject her dragon form. He even wrapped his whole body in her skin?
It almost felt like… he was devouring her whole.
(End of Chapter)
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