"...Hmm? Did you hear something?"
A certain loli-sized Goddess looked up in confusion.
"...What, sound?"
The minotaur standing beside her tilted his head puzzledly.
"Aiy, it's that sound of a heavy object falling from the sky."
"Sky, falling...?"
Asterios repeated the loli Goddess's words and listened carefully.
"Sound, heard it!"
In less than two seconds, Asterios, who heard the sound clearly, was very excited.
But the intelligent loli Goddess knew this wasn't Asterios's hearing getting better, but the sound getting louder!!
"What's the use of hearing it now! It's getting closer and closer—protect me quickly!"
Realizing something huge was crashing down towards them, the loli Goddess shouted in panic.
The next second.
The giant object crashed down. The labyrinth they were in was crushed by half as if hit by a demolition blast, smoke and dust filling the air, and crushed stones flying everywhere.
—The Golden Wild Hunt landed exactly on the labyrinth where they were.
When the vibration of the straight fall stopped, everything in their ears returned to calm.
"Still alive!"
A pirate draped over the railing suddenly raised his head, his face full of disbelief.
"Ah, the earth, my beloved earth—"
Some pirates who landed on the ground caressed and kissed the ground intoxicatingly, like meeting a long-lost lover.
"There has never been a day when I liked the feeling of being down-to-earth so much..."
There were also pirates standing on the ground, looking up, opening their arms, eyes already filled with tears.
"Ugh..."
Drake, who was thrown somewhere on the ship, rubbed her head, which hurt a bit from the impact, then seemed to remember something.
So she hurriedly swept away the dust in front of her eyes and looked in the direction where Takumi was.
She saw Takumi lying head down on the tilted deck, staring blankly at the sky, his hand still tightly holding the flag.
Seeing this, Drake breathed a sigh of relief, a gratified smile unconsciously appearing on her face.
'Working so hard like that, he must be exhausted...'
But fortunately—
"Everyone who can still move, hurry up and make a sound!"
Drake suddenly shouted to the surroundings.
"Oh!"
All the pirates who heard it responded in unison.
Drake looked around, counting everyone who stood up and waved.
—Mimi's efforts were not in vain after all.
All crew members survived successfully; even the most heavily injured only had minor injuries that didn't affect movement.
"Boss, let's not play this again next time if there's a chance, okay? My heart isn't good."
Bessie patted his chest, his eyes filled with the joy of surviving a disaster.
Although it was the second time flying, this time was much higher than the last time, and the landing place was the ground. Not crashing and dying was entirely the result of Takumi unleashing his Noble Phantasm with all his might.
"Indeed, playing this kind of game once or twice is enough. Playing too much is indeed prone to accidents—how about we play something else next time?"
Drake touched her chin, her eyes lighting up as if thinking of something more exciting.
The group of crew members: "..."
A bit reluctant to ask what the Captain's other ways of playing are.
"By the way, what the hell is this place?"
Finding no one echoed her, Drake pouted boringly, looked around, and asked in confusion.
"Looking at the appearance here, it seems to be some quite magnificent building. Did our ship crash into someone's house?"
The bushy-bearded pirate looked at the scattered human buildings around him and said thoughtfully.
But as he spoke, he laughed at himself.
After all, in this ghostly place, besides their group of pirates, where would there be people active?
"Golden Wild Hunt raiding a noble castle? Hahaha, just thinking about it is interesting!"
The big-nosed pirate imagined that scene and clapped his hands laughing.
Crash——
Suddenly, a rapid and powerful sound came from the rear right, as if something was suddenly thrown into the sky.
Pirates with suitable angles saw what was thrown up.
It was stones of various sizes; the biggest stone was even larger than an adult human.
At the same time, heavy beast-like breathing and annoyed teeth grinding sounds also came from the rear right.
The pirates stiffened, turning their heads jerkily to look behind them.
They saw a burly man, more than two meters tall, almost three meters, with two horns on his head and wrapped in many chains, looking at them with glowing crimson eyes.
"...Enemy, bad, hit!"
The Servant named Asterios glared fiercely at the pirates, then without another word, lowered his head and charged at everyone.
The minotaur possessing Servant-level physical fitness certainly didn't use a simple bull rush—at the very least, it should be a dump truck-level collision!
Facing this ferocious impact, the pirate chosen as the target could only look terrified, legs kicking backward uncontrollably:
"Don't come over here!"
In the nick of time, Takumi, who also sensed something was wrong, flipped up from the deck, then jumped down, holding the flag to block in front of this unlucky pirate.
The name Asterios might be a bit unfamiliar to people, but his other name: Minotaur, probably no one doesn't know.
The monster with a human body and bull head living in the labyrinth, foretold as a born monster destined to be defeated by a born hero, was finally found by Theseus using a thread and defeated.
As a non-human monster, he possessed Strength and Endurance that human Servants could never reach, both at A++ rank.
And Takumi, clashing with him, was like a toy under this terrifying power.
Playing almost no blocking role, he was pushed backward frantically by him.
What Takumi could do was probably only to gauge the position, use the flagstaff to catch Asterios's horns, preventing him from directly opening a hole in his chest.
Then forcefully twist it to slightly change Asterios's attack trajectory so as not to hit the ordinary pirate behind him.
Behind Takumi was a broken wall, separated by about tens of meters.
Tens of meters for a human might take seven or eight seconds to run, but for a Servant, it was at most a matter of one or two seconds.
Even though Takumi used all his strength, the trend of being pushed back didn't change at all. If he did nothing, there was a high probability that he would be pierced through by the bull horns in two seconds.
'Damn, this bull strength is really huge...'
This was the first time Takumi experienced having absolutely no chance in a contest of strength.
Plus the exhaustion making his body want to quit at any moment, Takumi understood that fighting head-on was a dead end.
Knowing what to do, Takumi observed the approaching wall behind him from the corner of his eye. At the moment before impact—
'Dodge!'
Takumi's body turned intangible. Asterios also felt his head lighten, passing through Takumi's body and crashing straight into the wall behind.
Bang!
Accompanied by a sharp noise, Asterios shattered the wall, his horns stuck inside.
Where is the person?
Asterios, with his head buried in the rubble, finally realized Takumi was gone, a trace of confusion flashing in his eyes.
'Saved...'
Takumi hurriedly ran away from Asterios, breathing a sigh of relief looking at the little bull (Asterios) who hadn't figured out the situation yet.
Things happened too fast and too suddenly. Even now, Takumi's head was a bit dizzy, unable to clarify what the current situation was.
But Asterios's head was very clear.
In his eyes, Takumi and the others were bad guys who suddenly smashed his home and almost hurt Euryale! Bad guys should be beaten!
"Woo ah——!"
Asterios roared, pulled his head out of the stones, and looked angrily at Takumi nearby.
His feet kicked the ground like a bull, looking like he was about to launch a bull rush again.
A voice suddenly came from not far away.
"Hey, big lug over there! Be smart, don't hurt my Mimi, otherwise..."
"You wouldn't want this little girl to get hurt, right?"
Drake pointed her flintlock pistol at Euryale's head, looking at Asterios with a smile.
The held hostage Euryale's face looked very ugly.