Accompanied by a deafening roar, stone and earth were cleaved perfectly in half. Having escaped the Underworld via a "Spatial Gate," Takumi immediately reacquired Kingu's coordinates and resumed his relentless, hacking pursuit.
Mountains shattered; rivers were violently redirected.
While sprinting through the jagged fissure he was carving through the earth, a sudden, sharp spike of pain pierced Takumi's brain and eyes. The transparent Heart of Fire clinging to his body flickered violently, as if it were about to extinguish in that very instant.
His vision blurred, and the Lines of Death he had kept a constant, unwavering lock on wavered and vanished for a fraction of a second.
"Hah... hah..."
His breathing grew ragged and labored, and a sudden, uncomfortable palpitation gripped his chest.
Takumi instantly realized what was happening: this was the manifestation of his physical body hitting its absolute limit, compounded by a massive over-draft of mental and spiritual energy. Moreover, Takumi knew exactly why he was experiencing this.
Ever since the [Heart of Fire] initially awakened, Takumi had practically never slept. The only time he had gotten a proper night's rest was back in the Fifth Singularity, completely coerced by Florence Nightingale. For the rest of his journey—excluding a few absolutely necessary, fleeting micro-naps—he had either been in his ultra-high-speed state desperately anchoring the coordinates of Singularities, or utilizing the power of the Heart of Fire to create a mental hyperbolic time chamber, endlessly repeating and refining his various abilities.
Did any of that count as actual rest? Of course it didn't!
While the physical burden wasn't severe, the mental and spiritual toll was an entirely different story. This was especially true because Takumi—in order to rapidly adapt to the power of the [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception]—had mentally "relived" King Hassan's lethal, instant-death strike an untold number of times. Every single replay felt exactly as agonizing and terrifying as the real thing. Who in their right mind could possibly call that a comfortable experience?
Add to this the fact that Takumi barely rested at all during the Sixth Singularity—spending almost the entire time either actively fighting or sprinting toward the next fight—and the sheer fact that he hadn't literally dropped dead from exhaustion was already a testament to his inhuman resilience.
Activating and sustaining [Tiger, Burning Bright] consumed mental energy and mana. Activating the [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception] on top of that constantly drained his spiritual energy. The [Sword of the Heart] was an absolute mana hog. And the consumption rate of the [Heart of Fire] in its fully ignited state was far from negligible...
Stacked with this mountain of active skills, a fully unleashed Takumi was undeniably terrifying. But what ordinary person could possibly endure the horrific stamina drain required to sustain all of them?
If one had to pinpoint Takumi's current weakness, it was exactly this: he was utterly incapable of maintaining his absolute maximum output for extended periods. In other words, he was terrible at wars of attrition. Once a battle dragged on for too long, Takumi would be forced to deactivate his various skills and revert to a "normal" state—though even his normal state wasn't something ordinary Servants could hope to challenge.
To put it in gaming terms: normal humans and Servants generally possessed four status bars: HP, Stamina, Mana, and Mental Fortitude. Takumi possessed a fifth, unique bar: "Spiritual Willpower." Mana and Stamina weren't major issues for him, but the latter two would plummet rapidly the moment he went all-out. That was precisely why, ever since the [Heart of Fire] awakened, Takumi hadn't engaged in a single prolonged battle. He finished every fight as quickly as possible. His longest battle to date was against Cu Chulainn Alter, and even that was concluded in just over a minute.
Then again, if anyone actually possessed the capability to withstand a fully unleashed Takumi for an extended period without losing or running away, Takumi honestly wouldn't have many options left to deal with them anyway.
As for right now, the relentlessly overworked Takumi was essentially a raid boss who had all his status bars (excluding Mana) permanently capped at a lower threshold. From the moment he dropped into the Singularity, his stamina bars weren't even half full.
Furthermore, this wasn't just a simple stat-cap reduction. This level of extreme fatigue directly impacted and weakened Takumi's attack power, accuracy, combat judgment, agility, and reflexes.
It was like taking a real-world heavyweight boxing champion, forcing him to stay awake for three days and three nights straight, and then throwing him into the ring to see if he could still fight at his peak.
"Hah..."
Letting out a soft breath, Takumi realized his movements had already begun to turn sluggish and clumsy. Even the vision granted by his fiery pupils had unknowingly grown blurry, as if a layer of sheer gauze had been draped over his eyes.
Should I just stop here and let him go...?
Watching the silhouette still frantically drilling into the dirt ahead of him, Takumi—currently being suffocated by fatigue like a python wrapping around his chest—couldn't help but entertain the thought.
But in the very next second.
—Are you fcking kidding me?! Strength and stamina are just things you squeeze out by trying harder!
Takumi ruthlessly crushed that trace of sluggish hesitation. The slightly dimmed, glass-like flames within his pupils roared back to life with a vengeance, now tinged with a distinct trace of pure madness.
His blurry vision snapped back into absolute focus, and his slightly skewed slashes instantly regained their flawless precision.
Simultaneously, Takumi deactivated the active combustion state of the [Heart of Fire]. The flames wreathed around his hair, his body, and the flag in his off-hand extinguished in unison.
Leaving the [Heart of Fire] fully ignited didn't provide a massive stat boost in this specific scenario, but it drained his "Spiritual Willpower" significantly. After a brief calculation, Takumi decided to toggle it off. Since he could hack Kingu to pieces regardless of whether it was active or not, cutting costs to maximize his combat endurance was clearly the smarter play.
The subterranean high-speed pursuit continued.
This apocalyptic chase eventually crossed paths with Ishtar, who was currently flying all over the world desperately searching for her lost Bull of Heaven, Gugalanna.
"What what what?! What the heck is this?!"
Looking down at the massive, perfectly smooth canyon that was rapidly extending across the earth at a speed faster than her Boat of Heaven, Ishtar's eyes practically bulged out of her skull. She clutched her head, her expression a mask of pure, unadulterated shock.
"Don't tell me my Gugalanna actually ran underground?! But even if it did, there's no way it could cause this kind of concentrated destruction..."
Ishtar fell into deep, confused thought.
The chase then crossed the Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia, which was currently under strict martial law and active combat.
"That's... There—there's something underground! And it's heading straight for us at insane speeds—!!!"
A scout soldier stationed on the wall spotted the rapidly approaching, violently expanding canyon from afar. He immediately started screaming in absolute panic.
Before the soldiers on the wall could even begin to react, they watched the massive canyon abruptly halt roughly a kilometer away from the Absolute Demonic Front. An entirely imperceptible black blur violently launched itself out of the fissure and into the sky.
"Fuck!"
Realizing he was about to bulldoze straight through the Absolute Demonic Front, Takumi cursed out loud. Forced to temporarily halt his assault on Kingu, he burst out of the earth and took to the sky to track Kingu's movements from above.
Only after he had completely bypassed the territory of the Absolute Demonic Front did Takumi dive straight back into the dirt.
The chase then crossed beneath the city of Uruk.
"Hmm? Did something just fly past?"
Gilgamesh, currently buried under a mountain of administrative paperwork, glanced up at the ceiling, feeling slightly perplexed.
In a location Gilgamesh couldn't see, Takumi was flying over the airspace of Uruk with an expression darker than the bottom of a charred pot.
Ever since they passed the Absolute Demonic Front, Kingu seemed to have acquired a taste for human shields. Whenever he detected a human settlement along their route, he deliberately drilled straight toward it. This forced Takumi to repeatedly abandon the underground pursuit and take to the skies to avoid causing massive civilian casualties, severely delaying his time spent actively hacking at Kingu.
On top of that, because a certain shut-in Goddess of the Underworld apparently enjoyed digging holes everywhere, there were large and small "Underworld Territories" scattered randomly all across the land. This resulted in Takumi accidentally slashing too deep and falling into the Underworld two or three more times.
After enduring this entire sequence of infuriating maneuvers, if Takumi hadn't been the primary victim, he would have genuinely given Kingu a standing ovation for his sheer, rat-like cunning!
However—
I'm finally about to catch this slippery bastard!
The Lines of "Death" were floating ever closer to the surface, and the physical distance between them was shrinking by the second. If he wasn't so completely exhausted, Takumi truly wanted to throw his head back and let out a villainous, unhinged cackle.
Ever since he had learned how to fight, he had never, ever experienced a battle this utterly infuriating!
But alas! No matter what brilliant evasive maneuvers Kingu pulled out of his ass, Takumi's speed was inherently faster! If he was faster today, he would be faster forever!
Hehehehe~! Run. I dare you to keep running—Eh?
Takumi, who had completely lost control of his facial expressions and was grinning like a maniac, suddenly froze.
It wasn't because of anything else, but rather because a massive, black-and-red beam of magical energy had suddenly materialized right in his face. It completely engulfed his vision, and a bizarre, heavy suppressive force instantly crashed down upon him.
His body felt leaden, his movements sluggish. Due to his terrible physical condition, Takumi's reaction time lagged by half a beat. He only had enough time to instantly deploy the zero-cast-time [Mon Coeur], desperately blocking the beam that carried the destructive power of a high-ranking Anti-Army Noble Phantasm.
However, the sheer kinetic impact of the beam still managed to violently blast him backward.
Takumi's muddled brain felt as if a bucket of ice water had just been dumped over it. Snapping fully back to reality, the moment his backward momentum slowed, he swung his sword, cleanly splitting the massive beam of magical energy perfectly in half.
Takumi looked up, locking eyes with the entities who had clearly launched a premeditated ambush against him. He was just about to glare at them with murderous intent, but he couldn't help but freeze in sheer disbelief.
One, two, three, four... Seven?
Seven! There were exactly seven Demon God Pillars standing directly in front of him!
The massive pillars of flesh formed a semi-circle, almost entirely blocking Takumi's forward vision. A colossal, sky-obscuring magic circle enveloped the entire surrounding area. Accentuated by the eerie, black-and-red magical aura, the entire region had been transformed into a localized demonic domain.
But right now, Takumi wasn't the only one standing there dumbfounded. The Demon God Pillars shared his exact sentiment—except their disbelief was heavily laced with absolute, unadulterated fury and shock.
They were shocked because they never imagined Takumi could have grown this absurdly powerful in such a short amount of time. The last combat data they had on Takumi was from the Fifth Singularity, during his coordinated attack with Karna.
And they were furious because—
Kingu! You absolute motherfucker!!!
In perfect, harmonious unison, every single Demon God Pillar present mentally directed a tidal wave of sheer hatred toward Kingu!
That little bastard completely ignored our warnings! He clearly saw Takumi, yet he still deliberately went out of his way to provoke him!
And look what happened! You led him straight to us!
The Demon God Pillars had originally mobilized because of their devastating failure in the Fifth Singularity. They realized that after Takumi had his spirit crushed by Goetia, rather than falling into despair, he had undergone a complete rebirth, emerging terrifyingly strong and casually soloing a roster of top-tier Servants.
Recognizing that a catastrophic, unforeseen variable had appeared, they instantly escalated the threat level to maximum. Consequently, they completely skipped the Sixth Singularity and deployed directly to the Seventh to intercept and eliminate him.
But just as their plan was finally falling into place, they received a frantic, terror-filled distress signal from Kingu...
Realizing the idiot had somehow provoked Takumi, they were undeniably furious. But because the Holy Grail currently residing within Kingu was the absolute lynchpin of this Singularity, they had no choice. Swallowing their rage and resentment, they were forced to step in and try their absolute best to stall Takumi, preventing him from butchering Kingu right here and now.
Could they actually beat him? Probably not. After all, a Holy Grail-buffed Kingu had been reduced to nothing more than a fleeing rat in his presence. In this era where the prestige and threat level of Demon God Pillars were plummeting by the day, winning a straight fight was completely off the table.
However!
The collective Demon God Pillars exuded an aura of absolute, suicidal resolve.
There were seven of them here! Seven!!
Even if they couldn't win, surely stalling him for a short while would be ea...sy?
The Demon God Pillars froze.
Several streaks of sword light flashed. Their collective field of vision slowly tilted from upright, to slanted, to sideways, to...
Aside from their initial, coordinated opening strike and the brief debuff from their stagnation bounded field, they had completely failed to provide even a single second of effective resistance. Under the flashing sword light, every single one of them had been cleanly bisected right around the seventy-thirty mark of their massive bodies.
"How could he... be this... strong...?"
Having been casually swatted aside like low-level trash mobs, the Demon God Pillars stared at Takumi's back as he unhesitatingly resumed his pursuit of Kingu, sinking into an abyss of absolute, incomprehensible shock.
Who could have possibly predicted that Takumi—who couldn't even defeat a single Demon God Pillar just two months ago—would reach this level?
Naturally, an impatient Takumi couldn't care less about the existential crisis he had just inflicted upon the Demon God Pillars. The only reason he had bothered to waste time chopping them down was purely because of their own nature.
He had originally intended to just ignore them and fly straight past to keep chasing Kingu. But then he remembered: Demon God Pillars were notorious for causing absolute chaos. With seven of them gathered in one place, what if he let them go and they orchestrated some massive, unforeseen disaster later?
With that thought in mind, Takumi decided to just take the extra few seconds to exterminate them.
After all, they were basically giant, stationary targets. They couldn't fly, they couldn't burrow underground, and outside of the Time Temple, they didn't possess Immortality. It literally only took two swings.
Having disposed of the Demon God Pillars, Takumi resumed his hunt for Kingu.
But just as Takumi reacquired Kingu within his strike range—meaning he had visual contact again—an even more overwhelmingly powerful, spiraling beam of light violently erupted to block his path once more.
"The Lance that Shines to the Ends of the World!"
"Rhongomyniad!"
A deeply familiar, yet slightly foreign voice drifted into Takumi's ears.
Now fully alert and on guard, Takumi obviously wasn't going to suffer a delayed reaction time again. He decisively activated his "ethereal" state, instantly phasing straight through the attack of the corrupted Holy Lance. Following the trajectory of the attack, he locked eyes with the figure standing behind the lance of light.
Jet-black armor, pale skin, dull, lusterless blonde hair, massive assets, and sitting astride a towering, dark-skinned, white-maned warhorse...
It was Lancer Artoria Alter, summoned by the Demon God Pillars!
Give me a fucking break! I actually thought the Lion King chased me all the way here!
The brief flicker of pleasant surprise in Takumi's eyes instantly vanished, replaced by absolute, freezing indifference. Moving at god-like speed, a single sword strike diagonally cleaved both her and her horse perfectly in half.
If you don't have Immortality, don't waste my time trying to face-tank me!
Leaving behind four pieces of a corpse, Takumi relentlessly continued his pursuit.