Damn it, who's the expert striking now?
A shot from over ten kilometers away—completely outside Shirou's sensing range. His first reaction was, did another high-spec Archer join the battle?
But Shirou had no time to think about who this uninvited Archer was.
The arrow flew from tens of kilometers away, like divine thunder that pierced heaven and earth. The sonic boom made his eardrums tremble. In front of Shirou, one of the dragon's massive heads exploded, bursting into blood and bone. The headless body stumbled and crashed to the ground.
A perfect chance. Erii!
"Now!"
Shirou shouted. The girl immediately responded.
Erii's crimson hakama flared in the scorching wind. Her katana flashed twice, crescent arcs of moonlight cutting down like judgment itself.
Her domain of Withering spread with the hot wind and swirling dust, surging like a tide and engulfing the dragon. It severed its thick limbs with precision, blackened its scales, shattered its bones, and withered its flesh—fighting once more against the beast's regeneration.
Shirou did not just stand aside. Raising his last two swords, he summoned Kurikara's Mountain-Splitting Blade. Storm winds howled, and the Fudō Myōō manifested in all its solemn wrath, wielding two massive swords in furious twin strikes.
The blades tore into the dragon's body, slicing open chest and abdomen. Its massive torso was split into four sections, spilling out torn organs and the vast spinal ganglia.
There, clinging like a parasite near the lumbar spine, was a massive abnormal structure—like a Servant's "core."
"As I thought, that's it!"
Without hesitation, Shirou unleashed the final strike. The Myōō avatar collapsed into a colossal white sword. It shook the atmosphere and came crashing down in judgment. A flood of blinding light roared, annihilating the dragon's core completely.
The torrent did not end there—it kept pouring forward. Far beyond the dragon's body, it tore a rift into the ancient city wall, exposing a weak point in the god-era fortress.
The dragon finally dead, Shirou let his swords fall, panting heavily.
Sweat dripped from his muscled arms, sizzling as it hit the scorched ground. His circuits had been driven to their limit, magical energy surging wildly, his heart pounding like a raging core furnace.
Erii came running over. She lifted the edge of her miko robe, revealing her pale arm and the thin undergarment beneath. Blinking softly, she offered it like a handkerchief.
Shirou chuckled, about to say no need, but Erii didn't listen. She tore off a piece of the moon-white fabric and handed it to him.
"..." Shirou stared blankly, then instinctively accepted it. The fabric bore the jagged tear marks, still damp with her sweat, carrying the faint fragrance of her body and soap.
Not exactly a towel. More like something a pervert would treasure.
After all, the undergarment of a shrine maiden's outfit was essentially underwear.
And she wasn't finished. She stood on tiptoe, wiping the soot from his cheek with her sleeve. The loose collar of her robe shifted, revealing her collarbone and the soft curve of her chest.
"H-Hey… wait! I can do it myself—"
His fingers burned holding the cloth. He didn't understand her intent. Yes, Erii had stripped in public before without care, but that habit had lessened after much correction. As for giving away underwear to make a man happy? Impossible.
Yet she pulled out her notebook, showing him:
"In anime they say, 'So-called men, as long as you give them this kind of thing, they'll be happy.'"
Then she flipped a page.
"Since the battle, you've looked unhappy. I wanted to make you smile."
The wind flipped the notebook further. Shirou caught glimpses of her cramped notes:
"Boyfriend Power Study from Tokimeki Memorial (?), Feeding Methods from Spice and Wolf, Bonds of Friendship from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni..."
What the hell kind of mixed bag of anime trivia is this?! Watching shows all day, secretly studying all this nonsense!
"…Fine, you win."
Shirou wanted to sigh. Erii's odd knowledge often gave him headaches, but she was clearly trying to find balance. She still learned anime "lessons," but was applying them in ways less troublesome.
And just now… well, he couldn't bring himself to stop her.
Weird as it was, was he the one whose "affection points" were being raised?
"Hey—!"
A distant voice cut the moment. Chiyome waved, with Masao clinging nervously beside her. He wasn't staying back out of courtesy, but because the battlefield was still scorching hot.
Shirou sheathed his swords.
"Let's go. We'll circle around to the breach in the wall and regroup there."
——
"Incredible… this really was built by humans? It's massive! It feels ancient, yet untouched by time..."
The bronze ramparts gleamed like mercury under dim sky. Masao gaped at the sight, thinking no Seven Wonders of the World could compare.
Through the breach Shirou had carved, the city revealed itself: grand buildings towering skyward, too large for humans, built for gods and their glory.
"Who knows? In the age of gods, advanced civilizations existed. Building this back then wasn't impossible."
Shirou answered casually. Masao, ignorant in such matters, only nodded.
"What are you watching for, Shirou-san?" she asked.
"Oh. When we fought earlier, someone fired an arrow to help us."
"An arrow?"
"Yeah. Without that distraction, the dragon might've recovered and returned. Whoever it was, they helped us. I thought they'd show up."
He suspected another Master-Servant pair. Unless they didn't care to escape this mirror world.
"Oh, then they must be good people?"
"Not necessarily." Shirou's words made Masao flinch. "They're likely another Master and Servant. If they're unreasonable, they could turn enemy."
"…!" Masao's face paled.
Shirou asked Chiyome, "You can sense Servants, right?"
"Yes. I already released snakes for scouting. They should be returning now."
She crouched. From her shadow, red-black snakes slithered out. Her eyes widened. "Two are coming! Very fast—just running on foot!"
"I see them too!" Shirou focused his vision with reinforcement, spotting the blur racing toward them.
The wind roared.
A giant man, bronze-skinned and powerfully built, charged like a cannonball, cracks splintering beneath each step. He carried someone on his back, leaving only afterimages behind.
Shirou gripped his sword. From the features alone, he recognized him—Herakles. Likely summoned as Archer, given his skill with the bow earlier.
The ultimate hero, fit for nearly any class but Caster. If summoned as one of the Three Knights, his heroic, knightly side shone through.
They needn't fear trickery from him—but the Master was another matter.
The giant stopped, gouging twin trenches into the earth. He didn't attack.
"Archer," he said simply. "My Master is still unconscious. I joined the action on my own."
The beast pelt binding his body—surely the Nemean Lion's hide—held a man tied to his back.
"Your Master?"
Shirou saw the man: disheveled hair, stubbled face, battle suit in tatters. He was clearly unconscious, snoring deeply.
"What happened? Did he faint? Is he sick?"
"Fainted. Ran too much, exhaustion."
Shirou twitched. "You mean… your Master kept running until he passed out?"
"Yes."
Herakles answered honestly. Shirou could only imagine: the Servant sprinting at insane speed, the Master collapsing trying to keep up… What kind of Spartan training was this?!
After some cautious discussion, both sides agreed: escape this place first, put aside hostility.
Herakles, calm and upright, was indeed easy to work with. He could have been a modern superhero, a Time magazine "Person of the Year." Not the mute brute from Stay Night.
Exploring the city together, Herakles, still carrying his Master, warned:
"In the age of gods, architects could weave traps into cities, turning them into mazes no man could leave. We must be careful not to lose our way."
"Oh, I know a famous labyrinth story!" Masao blurted, coincidentally about Greece.
"Daedalus, the genius builder, made the labyrinth for King Minos to imprison the Minotaur. Later, the hero Theseus entered and slew the beast."
Herakles fell silent. "Yes, Daedalus was a genius."
He knew Daedalus. One of his Twelve Labors was to subdue the Cretan Bull, back when Daedalus served Minos.
Who could have known? That bull later birthed the Minotaur, the very beast locked away in Daedalus' maze.
(End of Chapter)
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