Artoria Pendragon was defeated.
Although he had prepared himself mentally to some extent, when Kiritsugu Emiya saw the young girl's figure dissolving away, he was still stunned.
From the moment Artoria communicated that "the opponent is more injured than I am, there's a chance to take him down" until now... how much time had passed?
One minute?
Forty seconds?
Or perhaps... not even half a minute?
In less than thirty seconds, the incomparably tyrannical King of Knights had her head smashed and her neck snapped by the opponent, leading to her defeat.
And judging by the fact that she failed to bring back the Holy Sword of the Stars, she had likely even forgotten the warrior's subconscious instinct to "hold onto one's weapon" in those final moments.
The girl's final outcome was a defeat following severe injury. Was her reckless advance the only cause of all this?
No, that wasn't it.
The fact that the man was injured was undoubtedly bait he had thrown out.
It was just that this bait was too tempting, causing Artoria to overlook the inherent danger.
Coupled with the fact that the man was able to deceive Artoria, who possessed the crisis-sensing skill "Instinct"...
Moreover, from the very beginning of the battle, that man might have already been preparing for this final burst of power.
He engaged Saber in close-quarters combat right from the start, likely to seal off her Noble Phantasm, which required time to fully unleash.
At the same time, while sealing Saber's Noble Phantasm through close combat, he intentionally revealed a certain degree of vulnerability, creating the illusion for Saber that "this guy isn't invincible."
He might have even voluntarily chosen to be hit by Saber to make her underestimate him.
Judging by the exchange of damage, Saber did indeed come out ahead in that specific trade. But the problem was... battles are never decided solely by damage at a specific stage.
That strike heavily injured the man, but it also made Saber careless. Considering the man also landed a hit on Saber, in terms of overall gains, he was the one who profited massively.
Furthermore, the rising dust and the burst of light prevented Kiritsugu's familiars from seeing the situation clearly, leaving him unable to provide tactical support in time... Was this also part of that guy's calculation?
The moment he thought of this, Kiritsugu felt a chill run through his body.
That man's fighting style resembled a pain-immune mad beast. But now that Kiritsugu analyzed the intelligence after the fact, he realized he had been terribly mistaken.
That man looked like a hunted beast, but in the actual exchange, he had already planned everything.
In this battle, he even chose to take damage equivalent to a severe injury just to trade for a single opportunity—he wasn't some hunted beast; he was an incomparably calm hunter.
The King of Knights, like a majestic lion, was defeated because of the bait the opponent scattered.
Additionally, with Caster escaping from Rider's trap on the other side, the outcome of this Holy Grail War... seemed to have reached its conclusion.
................
On the battlefield, Aaron watched Excalibur fall to the ground and immediately tossed it into his storage space.
Moments ago, after breaking away from the Army of the King Reality Marble, the Herrscher of Thunder had arrived near the battlefield to observe his fight with Artoria.
Although the Herrscher of Thunder hadn't seen the entire battle, the high-and-mighty Queen of Thunder wouldn't care about such trivial details.
She didn't seize the opportunity to attack Aaron purely because the arrogant Miss Herrscher couldn't set aside her pride.
In her view, if she wanted to wash away the humiliation of her previous defeat, she had to slay this man in a one-on-one duel.
And now, that eyesore of a golden-haired brat had been dealt with by Aaron.
So naturally—she had no need to wait any longer.
Using the speed boost from Magnetic Field Rotation, the Herrscher of Thunder arrived near Aaron in an instant.
She didn't ambush Aaron, who had just finished a fierce battle. Instead, she stopped her advance directly after getting close to him.
"What's wrong? Not attacking?"
[Spirit Command: Guts, Activate!]
After using Guts to repair his injuries and replenish his internal energy, Aaron stared indifferently at the imperious Herrscher of Thunder and spoke with utter detachment.
"You didn't return the body to her. I assume it wasn't just to chat with me here?"
"Heh... still so calm. It seems that in your eyes, you think you can easily defeat me even if you're in bad shape?"
As the power within the Herrscher Core surged continuously, a difficult-to-ignore lightning began to appear around the Herrscher of Thunder.
This lightning decomposed the mask on the girl's face, revealing the cold, arrogant expression beneath.
"It seems I'm truly being looked down upon."
"What are you saying? I'm super scared right now, okay?"
While stretching his muscles, Aaron took out a piece of mana pastry that accelerated mental energy recovery and tossed it into his mouth. Chewing on the snack, he spoke lazily to the Herrscher of Thunder.
"Winning last time was pure luck. I'm not arrogant enough to think I can truly defeat an Apostle of the Honkai God one-on-one."
"How about, for the sake of us being grasshoppers on the same rope—we call a temporary truce?"
"Hah?"
Hearing Aaron's words, the Herrscher of Thunder suddenly frowned slightly.
"What do you mean?"
She actually sensed a hint of helplessness in Aaron's tone.
This man is telling me he wants a truce right now, and he's serious?
"Literal meaning. Fighting now does us no good. How about saving this fight for later?"
"You... Human, I'm angry!"
The Herrscher of Thunder, who had been anticipating revenge for a long time, saw that Aaron truly didn't want to fight. The lightning around her suddenly became even more terrifying.
"You're not trying to say let bygones be bygones and we should just get along, are you?"
"I thought that even though you're a repulsive maggot, you would at least fight me fair and square. But I really didn't expect..."
"—That you're just a boring coward like that other guy!"
Ah, so it turned out like this... did it?
Looking at the furious Herrscher of Thunder, Aaron maintained the slightly helpless expression on his face, but internally, he began to calculate how to solve the problem before him.
If he had to say, part of his previous statement was indeed serious.
He really didn't want to fight the Herrscher of Thunder here.
Not because he was afraid of her, but because certain conditions had arisen after the Herrscher of Thunder took over Raiden Mei's body.
After Raiden Mei was turned into a Servant for this mission, she had a hidden Noble Phantasm she couldn't use.
But after the Herrscher of Thunder seized control of her body, that Noble Phantasm was unlocked.
Noble Phantasm: [Awaken, Queen of Azure Thunder]. Rank: EX Anti-Unit.
According to the Servant stats and Noble Phantasm abilities Aaron could see, the Herrscher of Thunder's Servant stats hadn't changed a bit, but with the Noble Phantasm unlocked, the pressure she radiated was clearly much stronger than last time.
This EX-ranked Anti-Unit Noble Phantasm didn't just include the basic attribute of [All Authorities of the Herrscher of Thunder]; it also came with a few traits.
After using this Noble Phantasm, the Herrscher of Thunder would gain the traits: 'One of the Thirteen Apostles of God, thus cannot be ordered by any existence other than God' and 'Because she poses a potential threat to Primates and the Planet, keeping the Noble Phantasm active for a certain time will attract the pursuit of the Counter Force.'
The first trait instantly invalidated Aaron's idea of "using a Command Spell to order her to go back to sleep."
The second trait meant that if the Herrscher of Thunder kept the Noble Phantasm active for too long, she would be hunted by Servants dispatched by the Counter Force.
Thinking about it carefully, it makes sense. Or rather, the fact that it's for a "certain time" after activation is already giving a lot of leeway.
The situation now was: Command Spells wouldn't work on "Caster," and if he didn't defeat the opponent in front of him quickly, the situation would get even more chaotic when the Counter Force sent someone—God knows which big shot the Counter Force would send as a hitman.
If someone particularly strong came along and cautiously sniped their base with a beam cannon while Aaron and the Herrscher of Thunder were halfway through their fight, blowing both of them away instantly... that would be a joke.
Combat between the two sides was now unavoidable, so...
Glancing at the Herrscher of Thunder's dark expression, Aaron secretly swapped the [Spirit Commands] skill in the shared skill slot for [Basic Weapon Usage Technique].
From the start of his battle with Artoria, he had used multiple Spirit Command skills, including [Valor] and [Guts], several times.
Combined with the shot from [Roman Artillery: Pumpkin] he aimed at Artoria's forehead, which also consumed a lot of mental energy, his remaining mental energy had dropped to a precarious level.
Spirits like [Focus], [Intuition], and [Wall] didn't consume much, but [Guts] and [Valor]... if he used each of those once more, Aaron's mental energy would probably bottom out.
Considering the Teigu also required mental energy... Wow, how annoying.
Even though I don't think I'll lose, it's still a bit annoying.
Herrscher of Thunder, you asked for this.
"Forget it. I suppose I shouldn't have expected too much from a maggot crawling on the ground."
Realizing Aaron had fallen silent, the Herrscher of Thunder, whose rage had peaked, raised her hand and fired a railgun shot from a distance.
"Magnetic Field Rotation—150,000 Horsepower!"
If it were just a standard 150,000 Horsepower Magnetic Field Rotation, Aaron certainly wouldn't fear such power.
After all, with the trump cards he currently held, while he couldn't say he'd tank it without a scratch, he at least wouldn't be rendered combat-ineffective by a hit.
But facing the railgun before him, Aaron immediately reacted.
He threw himself into a roll to dodge the strike, grabbed [Roman Artillery: Pumpkin] from the ground, tossed it into his storage space, and immediately began moving rapidly across the battlefield.
The Herrscher of Thunder's awakening level was clearly much higher than before, and her current railgun attack was obviously imbued with Herrscher Authority.
In the original future, Raiden Mei would expand the Herrscher of Thunder's Authority to include "a super-electric field surrounding the body that insulates against physical and energy attacks" and "electromagnetic pulses that destroy intramolecular chemical bonds." Of course, at this point in time, theoretically, the Herrscher of Thunder shouldn't know how to use those two Authority applications yet...
But the problem was she possessed the [Perfect Realm]. Even a 1% Perfect Realm could potentially alter the Herrscher of Thunder's control over her power.
Betting his body on whether the opponent was still an academic failure in this situation was obviously a reckless move.
And even if he won the bet, there was no benefit. Stubbornly gambling in a situation like this would make him look like a total goofy idiot.
"Hah, still only dodging? Boring... utterly boring!"
Seeing Aaron evade, the Herrscher of Thunder snapped her fingers lightly, using her Herrscher Authority to create numerous lightning strikes in the air.
"I won't give you the chance to get close to me like last time. After all, I only lost to you due to carelessness because I didn't know your melee capabilities were so strong."
"Now, I have awakened a power stronger than before. And at the same time, I have grasped the intelligence on how you fight."
"Now, what do you have to fight me with?"
Wow, that tone... although he couldn't rule out the possibility she was faking it, it sounded like she was genuinely angry.
When he spoke those words of peace earlier, Aaron had considered the scenario where she wouldn't agree.
Given the Herrscher of Thunder's personality, if she didn't agree to something, it meant she disliked it. And when seeing something she disliked, this Herrscher was extremely likely to fall into disdain and anger.
The Herrscher of Thunder spoke cautious words, but deep down, she still refused to admit that she was simply outmatched last time.
While anger could easily push out stronger power, a creature fueled by rage could also overlook details due to the rush of blood to the head.
Okay, putting it that way might be too polite. To put it bluntly—once angry, the Herrscher of Thunder was very likely to toss her brain aside.
After all, her character setting wasn't the type to calmly analyze the battlefield.
Although this guy was blasting out terrifying lightning storms, in Aaron's eyes...
The current Herrscher of Thunder was clearly starting to expose some massive openings.