"…Are you insane, you mongrel?"
Vlad III, having dismounted his glass horse, looked at me—who stood to challenge him—with an expression of someone observing a lunatic.
Understandably so. While I had been harassing him with hit-and-run tactics, a Vlad III who had regained his reason and liberated Legend of Dracula was clearly a cut above me. He was an opponent I should be avoiding, not engaging. If I were to fight him, it would have been more tactical to combine forces with Gareth, Ritsuka's Servant.
"Indeed, you've grown arrogant from possessing a wandering Servant. Then, I shall crush you along with that pride!"
His body transformed like a bat. No, bats burst forth from his body.
Dozens of bats circled me just like the beasts I summon from the Animal Path, and upon detonating in mid-air, they transformed into flesh-strips, simultaneously firing stakes from that very gore.
An attack where skewer-like protrusions emerged from the ends of the stakes, with further stakes erupting from those to ensnare the opponent like a thorny thicket.
I was turned into a bloodied mess in an instant, collapsing with blood flowing from every part of my body.
"…Why didn't you use a defensive barrier? Are you telling me you challenged me while your magical energy was depleted?"
Vlad III approached me where I lay fallen, piercing my heart with his long, skewered spear and suspending me upside down, effectively turning me into the subject of an 'impaling punishment.'
He soon licked the blood dripping from me—who hung inverted and suspended in the air—and suddenly, he stared at me in shock.
Hm, did you notice? But it's too late.
[Mystic Eyes of Projection - Goat]
"You damn bastard!!!!"
The eyes, the face, the torso… the 'doll' exploded right on the spot.
Magic Circuits mixed with another, the Mystic Eyes of the Goat. A technique that detonates the Runes of the Sun inscribed across the entire body. The ace up my sleeve would normally involve detonating multiple Mystic Eyes at once… but using all of them for a mere single opponent would be too wasteful.
Moreover, as for the runes used, originally it was nothing more than recycled runes Aoko Aozaki had used in a previous skirmish in Misaki City, merely intended to boost the power of the detonation. But this opponent is Dracula himself.
Flowing water, the stake through the heart… and the vampiric beast defined by its legendary fear of the sun. If he is truly Dracula, isn't it common sense that he is weak to the sun in terms of compatibility?
[Be careful, at that level he is practically a Daywalker; there is a high possibility he can endure it.]
"One should at least anticipate that much! Don't look down on modern technology, you fantasy!!!"
Neither escaping by turning into mist nor transforming into an animal shall be tolerated.
Bullets imbued with all my magical energy struck Vlad III's torso, beginning to tear his entire body to pieces as if mincing meat.
With his limbs not only pierced but mangled, Vlad writhed, trying to escape the disaster, but the fire caused by the combination of the Runes of the Sun and the self-detonation of the Goat-rank Mystic Eyes of Projection was far from extinguished; it was burning him with a terrible, persistent intensity.
Naturally, in a situation where his entire body was being obliterated in real-time, it was impossible for him to turn into mist, nor could he transform into a bat or wolf.
All he could do was writhe and let out miserable screams.
"Do you think this one would die so easily here! My life, stained with blood, I shall reproduce my lifetime on this spot!"
"Indeed, I suppose you are still a Heroic Spirit even in decay!"
Hundreds of stakes colored the vision before my eyes.
A Noble Phantasm contaminated by his life and an aspect of Dracula.
[Demon-Like King of Bloody Meat - Kazikli Bey!!!]
Every bit of his flesh, blood, hair, and shadow scattered in the surroundings transformed into stakes.
An enormous number of stakes flew toward me, advancing as if to impale me in an instant.
Yes, I have been waiting for this very moment.
A long, fluttering 'something' flew through the air, covering Count Dracula's eyes in an instant.
"Guh… you… what have you…!"
The long, red cloth, which looked capable of binding a person tight, descended from his eyes and was already coiling around Vlad III's throat, tightening.
Almost simultaneously with the cloth binding him, the countless stakes erupted from the blood-meat dissolved, and his body—transformed to summon the bats—returned to its original state. Vlad III tried his best to tear the cloth with his thorn-spear, but instead, the cloth spiraled around, binding his hands and the spear tightly.
"How amazing, the Shroud of Magdalene~! Is it truly an object of a Saint?"
"It is an object of a human who equals a Saint."
After all, it is the combat equipment of Caren Ortensia, a member of the Burial Agency who could be considered a modern-day saint.
The drawback is that men cannot use it, and there is a restriction that I cannot use it either… but here, I have Marie Antoinette as well. If a 'female Servant' uses it, there is no issue at all in handling the Shroud.
Saying that, I pulled a spear from the Hell Path.
Gae Dearg, the Rose of Redness that breaks all incantations, which was gifted to me during the Fourth Holy Grail War and has been a staple in my repertoire since. It possesses excellent destructive power sufficient to pierce Servants, and above all, as it shatters 'magecraft' itself, it is a very useful piece of equipment that ignores a Servant's high Magic Resistance to strike at their Spiritual Core.
"To the likes of you!! The likes of you dare to do this to me, to this Vlad III!!!"
"Ah, I almost forgot this."
As I manifested a Black Key given to me as a gift by Kirei Kotomine, Vlad III began to freak out and go even more berserk, but Marie Antoinette simply laughed brightly, using the Shroud of Magdalene to gag him.
Before stabbing him with Gae Dearg, I pierced him with the Black Key that Kotomine used to use, and then thrust Gae Dearg into his heart, completely gouging out his Spiritual Core.
"Is this the end?"
"For the time being, yes."
Upon Vlad III's death, the Shroud of Magdalene binding his neck and hands automatically released and returned to Marie Antoinette's hands.
[...To think you'd suppress a Berserk Lancer like that; it really is an artifact with tremendous power.]
"Yup! I think so too. But who is that over there?"
"That's our Director. Or more accurately, you can think of her as the person in charge of practical operations. And even though it's the Shroud, it's not invincible. If the opponent's strength is overwhelming, it can be torn or shed."
Of course, such a feat is only possible for someone on the level of a 5th Holy Grail War Berserker.
In the first place, that Berserker is a Servant who falls into a category of his own. Isn't he the hero who, possessing divinity, shattered Enkidu—which had the power to bind gods—and surpassed the limits of his defined Noble Phantasm to protect his Master, while resurrecting eleven times?
"I suppose I should properly introduce myself. I am Karma Kirigaya, Team Leader of Chaldea's Field Support Team A. For now, I'm one of Chaldea's Masters."
"I am Marie Antoinette~! And this here is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart."
"Nice to meet you."
Since the temporary pass was already linked, I formally established a contract with the two, and soon felt a rush of magical energy drain from a corner of my body.
"Well, at least we secured the Servants."
[Indeed, a Caster and a Rider… their combat prowess isn't immense, but in France, their fame-based reinforcement should be considerable.]
"By the way, how are Ritsuka and Mash doing? Gareth is there, so I don't think there'll be any big problems…"
No, perhaps Ritsuka might have already recruited a new Servant. In reality, I have absorbed all of Ritsuka's aggro, and unlike the original where they wandered alone with Mash, Gareth would have joined by now.
[They were attacked by Wyverns twice, but Gareth repelled them all. Then they encountered an Assassin named Carmilla, but fortunately, it wasn't a major threat. They met a wandering Servant, Jeanne d'Arc, and succeeded in repelling her.]
"Hm… in that case, three Berserk Servants have already been reduced."
Furthermore, Jeanne d'Arc, the main support of the first chapter, has joined.
Then, there are five main Servants remaining in the Hundred-Year War of the Evil Dragons.
Saint George, Siegfried, Kiyohime, Bathory… and Kojiro Sasaki.
[Ritsuka's group is moving to confirm the dragonslayer in Lyon. Since rumors spread that the Jeanne d'Arc Alter you saw is controlling dragons and raising wyverns, they decided to secure the dragonslayer first.]
If it's the dragonslayer, that would be Siegfried. Ritsuka is indeed following the main route.
"I should move as well. If we stay scattered, there's a possibility of being picked off one by one by the enemy."
Though I have seen off Charles-Henri Sanson and Vlad III, there are still enough enemies remaining. Especially with Gilles de Rais leading Fafnir and Jeanne d'Arc Alter, it is still too early for them to face them.
Pooling our forces to ensure we can counter anything is the best strategy for now.
"Marie, how many people can your glass horses carry?"
"Two per horse, and I can summon as many as I like~"
"…That works out well. Briefing team, plot the shortest route to Lyon."
[Okay. If anything happens on Ritsuka's side, I'll brief you immediately.]
At that moment, the direction to Lyon was marked with arrows on the hologram, and Marie Antoinette giggled as she summoned two giant glass horses.
"Now then, we're off to the destination. Hold on tight, Master!"