Ruler had indeed completely blocked Berserker's attack. However, that was only within the scope of protecting herself from the calamity befalling her, and at best, it only managed to protect her immediate surroundings as well. Berserker's attack boasted a range wide enough to engulf the entire battlefield in a single strike, and just because Ruler blocked it didn't mean the effects on others were nonexistent.
The slash of light had not only scorched the battlefield but also reached the Fortress of Millennia.
The "Black" faction's stronghold, whose defenses were nearly impossible to breach by magecraft and were said to even withstand Servant Noble Phantasms, had been driven to the point of half-destruction by a single strike.
"Tch..." Perhaps his head had been struck by falling rubble, as blood was visible on Caules's forehead.
For Caules, who had never experienced an earthquake, this was the first time he had felt a tremor as if heaven and earth had overturned, and he honestly didn't fully understand what had happened.
But even so, he was forcibly made to recognize the fact that the Fortress of Millennia had been exposed to some powerful attack and had collapsed.
And the reason he could tell this was because Caules was outside the Fortress of Millennia.
The final strike of "Red" Berserker had shattered the fortress, grazing the workshop where Caules was holed up. If things had remained as they were, Caules would have been caught in it and died, but the fact that his own Berserker was by his side saved his life. The moment she sensed danger, Berserker grabbed Caules and escaped outside the fortress. Thanks to that, Caules only suffered scratches, and Berserker remained unharmed.
"Berserker, are you okay?"
"Viiii..." The Berserker standing next to him nodded. It seemed she wasn't injured either.
Caules pressed a handkerchief to his forehead while using healing magecraft to treat his wound. As he did so, he surveyed the devastation of the Fortress of Millennia.
The fortress's outer walls, which should have been impregnable, had been blown away, literally severed.
In Caules's memory, there were no workshops other than his own in the section that had collapsed.
"Anyway, let's meet up with my sister. We can't rely on the fortress's defenses anymore." Muttering this, Caules led Berserker back into the fortress. With the walls collapsed, getting inside was easy. Managing to climb over the rubble-blocked paths, Caules returned inside the fortress.
At this moment, Caules had forgotten that this was a Great Holy Grail War.
True, the combat had taken on the appearance of one-on-one fights between Servants. But that was merely how things had turned out; battles were also being fought outside of Servant combat. The attrition between the meaningless foot soldiers: the Dragon Tooth Warriors, Golems, and Homunculi.
Now, a Dragon Tooth Warrior that had escaped the calamity of "Red" Berserker was closing in on Caules's back. Just one. But it was sufficient combat power to finish off Caules, a third-rate magus.
"Vv, Naaaaaaaaaough!" Once again, it was his own Servant who saved Caules's life.
She leaped at the insolent being approaching her Master's back and smashed it to pieces with wild swings of her mace, her Noble Phantasm. In the process, Berserker pushed Caules further inside the fortress.
"Whoa!" Without fully grasping the situation, Caules rolled on the ground, and only upon getting up did he realize he had been about to be attacked by a Dragon Tooth Warrior.
"Sorry, Berserker. You saved me."
"Vvv..." As if telling him to be careful, Berserker put her hands on her hips and made a gesture that seemed angry.
It was just as Caules breathed a sigh of relief that an explosive sound reached his ears. A sound like something exploding echoed from deep within the fortress.
"Don't tell me..." The worst-case scenario flashed through Caules's mind.
Caules had just been attacked by a Dragon Tooth Warrior. That was because this foot soldier had infiltrated the Fortress of Millennia, which meant that an entrance large enough for even such a foot soldier to enter had been created. The bounded fields surrounding the area had also been blown away, and there were now no physical obstacles preventing intrusion.
"Berserker, let's go!" Feeling a chilling fear as if an icy wind had blown into his bones, Caules started running.
Dragon Tooth Warriors were foot soldiers, but that was from a Servant's perspective. Magi were still human. There was no guarantee they would absolutely not fall to a Dragon Tooth Warrior. Except for Caules, all the other Masters' Servants were deployed. The Masters were now as vulnerable as if naked.
For this Great Holy Grail War, from a strategic standpoint, the "Black" Masters were operating their Servants separately from their respective workshops.
This was the result of considering risk dispersion.
If enemies infiltrated the fortress, the Masters risked being wiped out if gathered in one place. In that regard, dispersing the Masters significantly reduced the possibility of immediate total annihilation.
However, this was a strategy assuming that the invading enemies were few in number, and it clearly relied on the defensive power of the Fortress of Millennia.
If multiple enemies were allowed to infiltrate, this strategy transformed into an extremely fragile one where all Masters had to deal with the situation individually while their lives were targeted almost simultaneously.
If a Master died, even the greatest hero couldn't avoid disappearance. They had to protect the Masters' lives at all costs. Down the hallway he ran was his sister Fiore's room.
Just as Fiore's workshop came into view, its door was blown off.
The shattered door turned into wood splinters, hitting the opposite wall and falling.
"Sis!" Frantically, Caules rushed into Fiore's room.
What greeted Caules's eyes was Fiore's ravaged private room. The bed was in disarray, the painting hanging on the wall was torn, and the window was broken.
And on the floor lay what appeared to be the shattered remains of a Dragon Tooth Warrior.
"Oh, Caules. Thank goodness you're safe." Fiore was in the process of suspending a Dragon Tooth Warrior by its head, grabbed by a giant metal arm attached to her back, while crushing another with a different arm.
The Connection Reinforcement-type Mystic Code: Bronze-Link Manipulator.
A powerful mystic code born from Fiore's unique adjustments, said to allow even a third-rate magus to take down a first-rate one. Its reaction speed could even respond to bullets, and it could fire light projectiles at distant enemies—an excellent device.
The reason Fiore, with her disabled legs, had survived magical battles until now was because this mystic code acted as her limbs, crushing enemies for her.
After crushing the Dragon Tooth Warrior's head with her fearsome metal arm, Fiore walked over to Caules.
"Caules. What about the other Masters?"
"Not sure. I came straight to this room. What about Archer?"
"He seems fine. Anyway, now that enemy foot soldiers have infiltrated the fortress, this place is no longer safe. We need to move."
"Yeah, but we need to check on the other Masters too. And the Servants."
At Caules's words, Fiore nodded.
They couldn't advance their thinking to tactical stages like taking the offensive or focusing on defense without clarifying how much combat power remained and whether the "Black" faction still retained the capacity to fight properly.
Caules and Fiore left the wrecked room and headed for the King's Hall where Darnic was. Currently, that was the most sturdily constructed area, and from what Caules saw from outside, the section containing the King's Hall had not been touched by the destruction.
"According to telepathy from Archer, the enemy Servants have also withdrawn for some reason. Perhaps it's a reset." The massive explosion that caused extraordinary destruction was sufficient to blur the lines of the stalemated battles everywhere. Because it was a mass of power without directionality, its destruction bared its fangs indiscriminately to friend and foe.
It seemed no Servants had fallen from that, but the battle situation was thrown into great confusion, forcing them to return to a bird's-eye view to sort out the situation.
Especially for the "Black" faction, whose fortress was destroyed, reorganizing was an urgent task. Including confirming the chain of command, they wanted to meet with each Master at least once.
"Tch...!" Blocking their path were Dragon Tooth Warriors.
A horde of skeletons堵塞 (blocked) the hallway.
"Berserker, I'm counting on you!"
"Wiiiiii!" Letting out a roar, Berserker charged. Having become a mass of violence, Berserker swung her mace with ferocious momentum, pulverizing the skeleton soldiers.
Though a weak Servant, she was not one to fall behind mere Dragon Tooth Warriors.
Just after Berserker swung her mace and scattered the enemy vanguard, an arrow was fired, slipping through the shattered skeletons. The intent was probably to take out the Master behind Berserker even if they couldn't defeat Berserker herself.
But that was naive. The reaction speed of Fiore's Bronze-Link Manipulator even surpassed bullets. A mere arrow would, of course, just be deflected. If it were just Fiore, she could probably fight her way out alone.
But Caules, Berserker's Master, was different. He had no convenient mystic code like Fiore's and couldn't use powerful defensive magecraft. Inevitably, Fiore and Berserker had to protect Caules. Volley fire with arrows in a narrow hallway with no place to hide was a threat to Fiore and the others, who could only focus on defense. Moreover, Fiore's mystic code wasn't suited for area defense, making it weak against suppressing fire. Unable to find an opening to counterattack, she gritted her teeth.
Then, red-hot arrows rained down.
The exploding magical energy instantly shattered the enemy archers to dust.
"That was too reckless, Master."
"The same to you, Archer." Fiore smiled at Archer, who had rushed to their aid.
Archer's body was covered in wounds, showing just how fierce his battle with "Red" Rider had been. His cheek was deeply cut, and both hands were covered in blood.
"I'll heal you right away, Archer."
"That would be appreciated. Ah, that's right. The other Servants also seem to have returned to their respective Masters. Fortunately, it seems not a single one has been lost yet."
The elimination of "Red" Berserker could be considered going according to plan. Archer hadn't been aware of "Red" Berserker's actions, but he thought his movements had been convenient for the "Black" faction, aside from his final self-destruction.
Hearing Archer's report, Fiore nodded.
Their allies were safe.
That report alone filled Fiore's heart with relief. She rallied herself, reminding herself that this didn't mean the "Red" faction had withdrawn.
It was precisely then that a massive vortex of magical energy descended from the aerial fortress.
"Red" Assassin looked down from her Noble Phantasm, the 'Hanging Gardens of Babylon,' at the devastation spread out below.
The scorched plains. The countless corpses and shattered golem rubble that had been scattered about were now gone, replaced only by a vast expanse of blackened ground. Beyond it lay the collapsed enemy stronghold, the Fortress of Millennia.
"I thought we'd need to use Lancer's Noble Phantasm to break that castle, but this saved us the trouble." A smile graced Assassin's elegant face.
"Well done, heroes. It seems you didn't settle things with your respective opponents, but no matter, endure it for a little while. You'll rematch soon enough."
"Red" Berserker's self-destruction resulted in a massive explosion that engulfed almost the entire battlefield. As a result, the various Servants engaged in one-on-one battles in different locations found their fights interrupted, and the "Red" faction retreated to the Hanging Gardens.
"Red" Archer asked Assassin,
"That's fine, but what do you plan to do by approaching the fortress? You're not thinking of killing the enemy Masters directly, are you?"
"Obviously not. I merely intend to retrieve the Greater Grail."
Only Shirou and "Red" Caster present understood the true meaning of Assassin's words.
Even "Red" Lancer tilted his head slightly.
"Well, just watch." The Hanging Gardens passed over the battlefield as if it owned the place and took position directly above the Fortress of Millennia.
A castle floating in the sky should be a figment of imagination, found only in fairy tales. What would the people of Trifas think if they saw a massive structure large enough to cover the moon floating in the sky?
And even more so, what about the "Black" faction, now pinned down by such a thing?
One could almost picture them panicking.
"Now, behold! This is the profundity of magecraft!" Assassin spread both arms and released her spell formula.
Boom! A wind gusted upwards. A tornado formed and stretched towards the collapsed fortress.
"You're really going to steal it?" At "Red" Rider's words, Assassin nodded and cried out.
"Of course! This garden was built for that very purpose from the start! Now, show me the mystery that rivals the secrets of the Age of Gods! Reveal that glorious, hideous form!"
The tornado raised by Assassin swept away the rubble, scraped the ground, and finally exposed the naked Holy Grail.
"So that is the Holy Grail," Archer marveled.
"Hahahahaha, that is magnificent! Truly a masterpiece! Even I, who is no magus, can sense this overwhelming magical energy! It's so beautiful it's terrifying!" Caster revealed his joy.
Even the taciturn Lancer was wide-eyed. Such a masterpiece was rare even in the Age of Gods. Indeed, it was truly worthy of being called a wish-granting device.
The souls of the six Servants who fell in the Holy Grail War sixty years ago, and the high-purity magical energy accumulated over sixty years. While these were likely depleted by the irregular summoning this time, it still possessed magical energy that was even awe-inspiring. The magical energy alone present now could probably grant most wishes.
"Tch, it's completely fused with the leyline. All of you, I must focus my power on the Grail for a while. I leave clearing the path to you. Do not forget that if we fail here, everything will vanish like foam."
"We know that without you telling us. You're the one who must not fail."
"I know what I gotta do. Stop ordering me around every little thing!"
It would still take some time for the Holy Grail to be fully absorbed into the Hanging Gardens. During that time, the "Black" faction would desperately try to reclaim the Grail. This meant the roles of attacker and defender had reversed from when the "Red" faction was devising plans to assault the Fortress of Millennia.
Although it was the Hanging Gardens, it had come quite close to the Fortress of Millennia to seize the Grail. At this distance, a Servant's leg strength was sufficient to invade.
"I will kill Saber." Unusually, Lancer declared this himself, perhaps to prevent anyone from taking the enemy he had set his sights on.
That was also a natural outcome. Lancer recognized Saber as a worthy rival. If there was a chance to fight, he would undoubtedly seek to settle things with him first.
And Rider and Archer also had opponents they needed to settle with.
Clearly, the "Red" faction now held the advantage. But that didn't mean they could let their guard down. The forces they could count on here were only four, including Assassin. Saber was acting alone, Berserker was eliminated, and Caster was out of the question. On the other hand, for the "Black" faction, Rider and Berserker had withdrawn from the front lines, their status unknown. Assassin hadn't shown herself. That meant they were even in numbers. But the troublesome one was the Servant Ruler. It was entirely conceivable that Servant alone could change the course of the battle. Moreover, if Shirou and Assassin's true intentions were discovered, conflict would be unavoidable.
Therefore, even if they held the advantage, they couldn't let their guard down.
Whether they could withstand the "Black" faction's attacks until the "Red" faction secured the Grail was the deciding factor.
Everyone present, and the "Black" Servants who would attack and the Masters watching over them, all correctly understood that this was a battle against time.