At the center of the crater, which had now transformed into an illusionary ocean, an incredibly dense wave of mana erupted from the Dragon Witch.
Jeanne Alter was no longer simply cloaked in the flames of her own hatred. Thanks to the support of her faction's Caster, Alexandre Dumas, her entire being now radiated a distorted aura of heroism. Dumas had activated his Noble Phantasm, Musketeers' Masquerade: O' Musketeers, Challenge the Windmills (Anti-Unit A+).
Like a fictional knight defying the impossible, Jalter's strength, speed, and destructive power surged exponentially. Her curse of wrath was amplified to the point where the wind and reality itself seemed to tear around her presence. With a booming laugh, Jalter charged straight across the water's surface, swinging her burning black sword at Jeanne d'Arc to end the original's existence once and for all.
However, before the blade could reach the Ruler, a pillar of bluish-white fire erupted to block her path.
Kiyohime, who had been nearby, dashed forward, placing herself directly between the two Jeannes. Facing the Alter who had been bolstered to monstrous levels, the dragon Berserker did not show a single ounce of hesitation. Kiyohime's golden eyes flared with pure obsession and madness as she swung her iron fan, forcefully parrying Jalter's sword strike.
"Out of my way, lowly lizard!" Jalter growled, pressing her blade down until its black flames began to singe the edges of Kiyohime's kimono.
"I will not let a vulgar woman like you ruin this stage!" Kiyohime retorted with a deadly yandere smile, her dragon fire exploding outward to match Jalter's curses. Even though she was outmatched in raw parameters, Kiyohime's sheer madness forced her to stubbornly hold the line against the empowered Jalter's assault.
With a swift, fierce swing of her iron fan, Kiyohime unleashed a point-blank burst of scorching blue flames, forcing Jalter to leap backward to avoid the sudden heat.
But Jalter only let out a manic laugh. With a rapid cross-slash, she cleaved Kiyohime's wall of fire in two. "Then die first, fake dragon!"
Jalter dashed from her blind spot, swinging her sword straight for the Berserker's neck. Her enhanced speed was simply too fast for Kiyohime, who had just released her attack, to anticipate.
However, before the blade could touch Kiyohime's neck, a pillar of golden light erupted between them.
CLAAANG!
Jeanne d'Arc stepped forward, blocking Jalter's slash using her flagpole, Luminosité Eternelle: God is Here With Me (Barrier A Rank). The holy light of the Ruler collided with the black flames of hatred from her Alter self, creating a shockwave that blasted the water around them away.
"I will not let you harm my ally!" Jeanne declared, her eyes shining with unwavering resolve. She pushed back against Jalter's sword, using her martial arts techniques to deflect the incredibly heavy momentum of the Avenger's strike.
"You are always so self-righteous and annoying!" Jalter spat, swinging a spinning kick coated in black fire, but Jeanne swiftly ducked and countered with a sweeping strike of her flagpole.
Kiyohime did not waste the opening Jeanne created. The Berserker leapt into the air, spun her body, and slammed her flaming iron fan straight down at Jalter.
Realizing she was caught in a pincer attack, Jalter roared, detonating a pillar of black fire from within herself to violently knock both of her opponents away. Jeanne planted her flag into the ground to withstand the wind pressure, while Kiyohime landed gracefully beside the holy maiden.
Now, in the middle of the illusionary lake, the three forces faced each other. Jeanne's golden holy fire and Kiyohime's intense blue flames resonated, creating a sturdy wall of defense to hold back the storm of Jalter's pitch-black flames.
"We must work together, Kiyohime," Jeanne said calmly, even though she could feel the terrifying mana pressure emanating from her Alter form. "Her attacks are too heavy and fast thanks to Dumas' magic. I will block and parry every slash. When she is wide open..."
"...I will be the one to roast her well-done," Kiyohime interrupted, her smile growing wider and far more dangerous as the fire at the edge of her fan blazed wildly. "A wonderful idea, Miss Holy Maiden. Let us show her that a solo act from a girl throwing a tantrum will never sell on this stage!"
Seeing the cooperation between her original self and the mad Berserker in front of her, Jalter's rage reached its absolute boiling point.
"You think you can stop me?!" Jalter screamed, spreading her arms as dozens of spears made of black fire and blood materialized in the air behind her. "I will pierce through your defenses and tear you to shreds!"
Despite her strong resolve, Kiyohime's base parameters were beginning to show their limits. She could not continuously withstand the barrage of Jalter, whose strength and speed had been absurdly boosted to A+ rank by Dumas' magic. Time and time again, her iron fan was knocked back by the excessively heavy strikes of the black fire sword, leaving her arms feeling numb.
"Ugh... her brute strength is completely absurd," Kiyohime grumbled, fighting through the dull ache in her wrists. She glanced at Jeanne, who had just parried another of Jalter's strikes. "Holy Maiden, I'll leave this tantrum-throwing woman to you for a moment! I need a 'recharge'!"
Without waiting for the confused Ruler's reply, Kiyohime turned around and immediately dashed away from the dueling arena. The Berserker sprinted at full speed across the hardened water's surface, her blazing eyes locking onto one specific target in the distance: her Master.
On the other side of the battlefield, Mash sprinted across the hardened water thanks to Fujimaru's anchor Runes. Her initial intention was to immediately raise her shield and protect Jeanne from Jalter's rampage. However, her footsteps came to a sudden halt.
The reality around her had been completely hijacked by François Prelati's illusion. The 20-kilometer radius area was now a bottomless lake, and in the center of it, a writhing, mountain-sized shadow—the Gigantic Horror—let out a deafening screech. Gilles de Rais's massive cosmic entity continued to expand, its infinite tentacles lashing at the sky, threatening to swallow the entire Chaldean force if left unchecked.
Mash knew that if the Gigantic Horror wasn't stopped, any individual skirmish would be meaningless. They would all drown in a sea of madness.
"Don't lose your focus, Miss Shield!"
A fierce voice broke through the roar of the waves. Cú Chulainn shot past her like a crimson bullet. The Irish Lancer spun his blood-red spear, Gáe Bolg, at high speed, parting the thick fog and falling rain. He paid absolutely no mind to the impossible size of the sea god looming before him.
"Leave that fake dragon to our dragon girl! The real enemy is over there!" Cú Chulainn shouted, pointing his spear toward the colossal monster and the airship where Prelati stood. "I'll draw the giant squid's aggro! Get ready to cover me when that crazy Caster starts throwing his curses!"
Hearing the veteran's instructions, Mash's hesitation vanished instantly. She cast a quick glance toward Jeanne d'Arc and Kiyohime, who were engaged in a fierce, fiery struggle against Jalter, entrusting the Ruler's safety to her.
Mash tightened her grip on Lord Chaldeas, shifting her trajectory to follow Cú Chulainn straight into the eye of the storm.
"Understood, Caster!" Mash declared, her eyes shining with unwavering resolve. "Changing formation! We will pierce the core of this illusion and take down the Gigantic Horror along with Gilles de Rais and François Prelati!"
-
"Return to the void, and give back that young man!"
The moment those words left Edmond Dantès's lips, the air pressure around him instantly collapsed. He did not bother with a warm-up. He did not test his opponent's defenses. Driven by the absolute, unyielding wrath of an Avenger, Dantès unleashed his full, terrifying arsenal in the very first second of the confrontation.
"Enfer Château d'If: Tyger, Burning Bright (Anti-Army A+)"
The world seemed to freeze. Through the sheer, impossible processing power of his Determination of Steel (EX Rank), Dantès accelerated his physical body to a speed that fundamentally shattered human limitations. To the naked eye, it wasn't just ultra-high-speed movement; it was the subjective realization of a "Time Stop."
In a fraction of a millisecond, the Avenger vanished from his spot.
Simultaneously, the suffocating, pitch-black flames of his deep-seated grudges erupted around his limbs. Monte Cristo Mythologie: The King of the Cavern (Anti-Unit C) ignited his fists, feet, and claw-like grips with a lethal, conceptual poisonous fire designed to bring about absolute death.
He materialized directly in front of Fujimaru, a phantom born of vengeance moving so fast he left afterimages permanently burned into the retinas of anyone watching.
Whoosh—!
A venomous, flaming fist aimed squarely at Fujimaru's temple.
A sweeping, blazing kick aimed to shatter his ribs.
A vicious, clawing strike targeted his throat.
Dantès unleashed a hyper-lethal barrage of blows, each strike layered with the agonizing, poisonous flames of his eternal grudge. The sheer velocity of his assault created a vacuum of burning air, a storm of black fire intending to incinerate the "anomaly" piloting the boy's body before they even realized they were being attacked.
He intended to end the fight—and forcefully evict the foreign soul—right then and there.
Fujimaru's kinetic vision—enhanced far beyond that of a normal human by the foreign entity residing within him—could actually track the horrific trajectory of the Avenger's movements. He could see the venomous black flames tearing through the air and the lethal trajectory of every strike.
However, seeing an attack and having the physical speed to dodge it were two entirely different things. His mortal vessel simply could not keep up with a high-speed assault equivalent to a "Time Stop."
With Dantès' flaming claws mere inches from his throat, Fujimaru did not panic. Instead, he accessed his dimensional inventory.
"Artifact Item: Armor of Reinforcement!"
In a sudden, blinding flash of metallic light and spatial distortion, a colossal mechanical suit manifested out of thin air, instantly encasing Fujimaru's body. The suit stood an imposing three meters tall, clad in an odd, intimidating blood-red armor. It boasted massive metallic shoulder wings and was armed with a massive, pipe-shaped carbine that functioned like a Heavy Machine Gun.
CLANG! CLANG! BOOM!
Dantès' ultra-high-speed barrage of poisonous punches, kicks, and claws slammed directly into the blood-red plating. The impact generated a violent shockwave of black fire, but the mechanical giant did not even flinch. The suit's durability was immense, easily capable of tanking long-range, full-force sword throws from Servant without a single scratch. Dantès' golden eyes widened in sheer shock as his lethal, armor-piercing strikes sparked uselessly against the otherworldly metal.
"What kind of anomalous trick is this?!" the Avenger roared, his instincts screaming at him. He immediately backstepped at high speed, distancing himself from the mechanical behemoth.
From inside the suit, Fujimaru activated the armor's flight capabilities. The three-meter-tall red giant effortlessly levitated off the ground, hovering in the air as its metallic shoulder wings hummed with energy. He raised the large carbine, positioning it horizontally like a massive, futuristic crossbow, and aimed it directly at the speeding Avenger.
"Let's see if your speed can outrun this," Fujimaru's voice echoed, distorted and amplified through the suit's exterior mechanical speakers.
He pulled the trigger.
The heavy machine gun did not fire bullets; it unleashed a terrifying storm of magical ballistics. Fujimaru bypassed the single-shot function, instantly firing an uncountable amount of long-ranged projectiles simultaneously. They flew at a remarkable, horrifying speed—so fast that even superhuman kinetic vision could not track them physically flying through the air. The best a warrior could pick up were mere afterimages that looked like deadly, needle-like projectiles.
Even with his Determination of Steel (EX Rank) accelerating his physical and mental processing to the absolute limit, Dantès was forced completely on the defensive. The sheer volume and velocity of the needle-barrage was overwhelming. It was an attack so dense and fast that it would leave elite undead instantly destroyed in a matter of a few hits.
The Avenger darted across the hardened water, his black flames flaring as he desperately swatted away and dodged the invisible, supersonic needles tearing up the environment around him.
But Fujimaru wasn't done. Taking advantage of the armor's built-in enchantments, he seamlessly combined his mechanical firepower with high-tier magic to corner the fast-moving Servant.
"Chain Dragon Lightning!"
The mechanical suit pulsed with intense magical energy. A massive, crackling dragon constructed entirely of blinding white-blue lightning erupted from the armor. With terrifying precision, the dragon-shaped lightning instantly locked onto Dantès. It was a high-tier tracking spell—one that would ruthlessly chase its intended target no matter how fast they moved, ready to strike him and chain its devastating voltage to anything else nearby.
The lightning dragon roared, illuminating the dark, illusionary ocean as it hunted the King of the Cavern down!
The dragon of white-blue lightning tore through the air, its tracking properties allowing it to zig-zag perfectly in pursuit of the ultra-fast Avenger. The crackling roar of the 7th Tier spell echoed over the hardened, illusionary waters, illuminating the dark battlefield with blinding flashes.
Dantès clicked his tongue. His Determination of Steel (EX Rank) allowed his mind to process the spell's trajectory in extreme slow motion. He realized instantly that raw speed alone wouldn't shake off a homing attack of this caliber.
"You think a mere spark can judge the King of the Cavern?!" Dantès roared, coming to a sudden, screeching halt.
Instead of running, he spun on his heel to face the incoming lightning dragon. The venomous black flames of his Monte Cristo Mythologie flared to life, gathering violently around his right fist. With a feral battle cry, he threw a devastating, flame-wreathed punch directly into the maw of the 7th Tier spell.
KABOOM!
The collision between high-tier lightning and the conceptual flames of a Servant's eternal grudge created a massive shockwave. White lightning and black fire rained down across the water. Thanks to his immense Endurance A+ and the complete blockade of his pain receptors granted by his skills, Dantès burst through the explosion relatively unharmed, his trench coat smoking but his golden eyes burning brighter than ever.
However, Fujimaru had not been idle during that split-second clash.
Hovering high above in the blood-red Armor of Reinforcement, Fujimaru analyzed the Avenger's movements. Dantès was too fast for single-target projectiles, and his flames could counter elemental blasts. To catch a speedster, he needed to completely deny them the space to move.
"Let's see you dodge an entire zone," Fujimaru declared, his voice booming from the suit's speakers.
The mechanical giant raised its left arm, and a massive, glowing magic circle expanded in the sky above them.
"Fire Storm!"
A terrifying deluge of divine fire plummeted from the heavens. It wasn't a single projectile, but a massive area-of-effect attack designed to incinerate everything within its radius. The roaring storm of flames slammed into the battlefield, creating a towering pillar of intense heat that surrounded Dantès from all sides. The divine nature of the fire clashed violently with the Avenger's dark flames, creating a suffocating pressure cooker that severely restricted Dantès' ultra-high-speed movements.
Trapped within the blazing inferno, Dantès was momentarily grounded, his Enfer Château d'If forcibly slowed by the sheer density of the AOE attack.
"Now," Fujimaru muttered coldly from inside the cockpit.
He aimed the heavy, pipe-shaped carbine directly down at the center of the firestorm where the Avenger was pinned. This time, he didn't fire the supersonic needles. The tip of the metallic weapon began to charge with an ominous, sickly green light. It was a magic that defied the natural laws of the world that carried the absolute concept of Instant Death.
"Heretic!"
Dantès' instincts sharpened by the Wisdom of Predicament (A Rank)—screamed at him. The green light wasn't just an attack; it was the chilling, undeniable presence of the Grim Reaper itself. If that beam touched him, no amount of Endurance would matter. His spiritual core would be instantly extinguished.
"Target locked," Fujimaru stated, pulling the trigger.
A blinding green beam of light shot forth, piercing through the swirling Fire Storm with terrifying silence. It moved at the speed of light, an inescapable execution aiming straight for the Avenger's heart.
"Do not underestimate... the depths of my despair!" Dantès bellowed.
Pushing his Determination of Steel (EX Rank) to an extent that bordered on suicidal, Dantès forcibly subjected his Saint Graph to an impossible level of ultra-high-speed thinking past their absolute limits to dodge an Instant Death spell finally caught up to the Avenger.
Dantès reappeared a dozen meters away, his boots skidding violently across the hardened water. For the first time since he manifested, the King of the Cavern stumbled. He fell to one knee, gripping his chest as his breathing turned ragged. The venomous black flames of his Monte Cristo Mythologie flickered and dimmed, struggling to stay alight. His Spirit Origin had been pushed to the very brink of collapse by the sheer processing speed required to escape the green beam.
He was fast, but he was completely outgunned.
Hovering above him, the blood-red Armor of Reinforcement showed no mercy. Fujimaru's mechanical giant turned its massive, pipe-shaped carbine toward the kneeling Avenger.
"Checkmate," Fujimaru's amplified voice declared.
With a deafening mechanical whir, the carbine unleashed its full payload. The sky was instantly painted with an uncountable swarm of supersonic, needle-like projectiles. There was no grand explosion or flashy magic this time—just a terrifying, inescapable storm of overwhelming kinetic violence.
Dantès forced his head up, his golden eyes burning with defiance. He ignited the last of his black fire to create a defensive wall, but it was futile. His ultra-high-speed movements were completely spent.
CRACK! PIERCE! SHATTER!
The supersonic needles tore through the conceptual flames like wet paper. In a fraction of a second, dozens of the invisible projectiles impaled the Avenger. His pristine mafia coat was shredded, and the sheer kinetic force of the barrage slammed him brutally into the ground, completely shattering his defenses and destroying his spiritual core.
The barrage ceased, leaving absolute silence in its wake.
The heavy metallic wings of the Armor of Reinforcement hummed as Fujimaru slowly descended, landing with a heavy, earth-shaking thud in front of the fallen Servant.
Dantès lay on the cracked, hardened water. His body was already beginning to fracture, glowing cracks of golden and dark mana spreading across his skin. The King of the Cavern had been thoroughly overwhelmed and decisively defeated.
Yet, as he looked up at the towering, anomalous red machine that had struck him down, there was no fear in his eyes. Only the terrifying, bottomless obsession of an Avenger. He let out a low, raspy chuckle that sent a chill through the air.
He reached up, adjusting his battered fedora one last time.
"You may have won this stage, Ruler..." Dantès coughed, his body rapidly dissolving into golden particles of light mixed with black ash. "But a grudge born of the abyss cannot be killed by mere magic or steel."
His piercing golden gaze locked directly onto the cockpit, staring straight into the soul of the entity piloting Fujimaru's body.
"I will keep returning until you return that young man!" Dantès proclaimed, his voice echoing with absolute, haunting certainty even as his physical form faded away. A dark, knowing smirk spread across his face. "See you on the next one!"
With a final gust of wind, the Count of Monte Cristo dissolved entirely, leaving behind nothing but dissipating black embers and a chilling promise that this hunt was far from over.
! Avenger, Edmond Dantès has been defeated !
With a single mental command, the towering three-meter Armor of Reinforcement glowed and faded into particles of light, returning to his dimensional inventory.
Fujimaru now stood alone on the hardened surface of the water, his protective cloak fluttering gently in the wind that carried the dissipating black ash of the Avenger. His face showed no expression of relief or victory. Instead, his blue eyes narrowed sharply, staring blankly at the spot where Edmond Dantès had just disappeared.
The atmosphere around him felt eerily quiet for a moment, contrasting with the chaotic din still echoing from other parts of the battlefield. The King of the Cavern's final words continued to rumble in his mind.
"I will keep returning until you return that young man. See you on the next one!"
Fujimaru placed a hand over his own chest, feeling the steady heartbeat of this borrowed body. His expression hardened, projecting an intense seriousness and a coldly calculative aura—far removed from the original personality of an ordinary human teenager.
Dantès wasn't bluffing, nor was he consumed by illusions. The Avenger's eyes, forged in the darkest abyss of despair, were truly capable of piercing the veil of reality and looking directly into the essence of his soul. His existence as an 'anomaly'—a foreign entity from another universe that had hijacked the body and fate of Fujimaru Ritsuka had been exposed.
"If an Avenger can see the contradiction in my soul and recognize that I am an overlapping existence..." Fujimaru thought, his mind racing to analyze the worst-case scenarios. "How much time left until the failsafe of humanity, Counter Force Alaya eventually considered me as anomaly?"
This reality brought a new threat far more dangerous than mere enemies on the battlefield. If his existence was deemed an existential threat to human history, he could very well become a target of the World itself. Dantès had already promised to keep hunting him, hinting that the Servant summoning system might continuously send "hunters" to correct the anomaly residing within Fujimaru's vessel.
"A troublesome variable..." Fujimaru muttered quietly, his voice heavy and analytical.
However, he did not let anxiety overtake him. The entity residing within that body was a Supreme Being, a true ruler accustomed to thinking dozens of steps ahead. If this world would ultimately reject him, then he simply needed to ensure he held absolute control over the fate of this world before that happened. Because he was too focused on pondering the existential threat to his soul, Fujimaru's physical vigilance had slightly dropped.
He felt a presence rushing closer at high speed. However, because there was absolutely zero killing intent from the approaching figure, Fujimaru's combat instincts were too late to sound the alarm.
"Master—no, Anchin-sama!"
Before the young man could summon the Armor of Reinforcement or cast a high-tier defensive spell, a blur of a blue kimono tackled him. Kiyohime immediately threw her arms around Fujimaru's neck and, without a single ounce of hesitation, planted her lips squarely on her Master's.
Fujimaru's blue eyes widened in shock. The mind of the Supreme Being, usually capable of processing dozens of scenarios per second, experienced a momentary system error. He had completely failed to calculate an 'affectionate sneak attack' from a yandere Berserker amidst the chaos of a battlefield.
As their lips met, a blazing crimson light erupted from Kiyohime's body.
Personal Skill Activated: Flame-Colored Kiss (A Rank)
The kiss was not merely an outburst of obsession; it was a magical catalyst that transmuted her mad love into pure power. The skill instantly wiped away all fatigue and debuffs from the Berserker's body, while significantly boosting her physical parameters and mana flow. An incredibly dense heat—which miraculously did not harm Fujimaru—radiated fiercely from Kiyohime's body like a newly ignited nuclear reactor.
After a few seconds that felt incredibly long, Kiyohime finally released her embrace. Her face was flushed red, but a highly lethal, deeply satisfied smile was etched on her lips. Her reptilian slit pupils now shone brightly with overflowing magical power.
"Ah... Anchin-sama's love is truly for me alone," Kiyohime whispered passionately, briefly wiping her lips.
She then spun gracefully, turning her attention back toward the fierce battle between the two Jeannes in the distance. With her mana tank now overflowing past its maximum limit thanks to the kiss's buff, Kiyohime raised her iron fan. A massive, bluish-white fire, far hotter and larger than before, swirled around her body, transforming her into the eye of a hellish storm.
"Now... let us exterminate the pest that dares to disturb our stage of love!" Kiyohime declared, her voice now layered with a draconic growl that vibrated through the air.
Instead of running back to engage in close-quarters combat, she intended to end everything from a distance. The intense flames surrounding her began to form the colossal silhouette of a fiery dragon ready to swallow anything in its path, locking its target directly onto Jalter.
"Samadhi Through Transforming Flames (Anti-Unit Self EX)"
Fujimaru froze on the hardened surface of the water. His mind, which usually processed strategies and calculations like a supercomputer, experienced a momentary lag. His fingers reflexively touched his own lips, still feeling the lingering warmth from the Berserker's sudden kiss.
His knowledge of Servant mechanics immediately brought up the details of the newly activated ability. It was Flame-Colored Kiss (A Rank). The skill which her lips lock with her Master's, she will unleash her full power to obliterate any obstacle. The only price is the Master's future, forever claimed as her groom.
"My future... claimed?" he muttered quietly, his voice sounding almost in disbelief.
The main problem was, the soul behind those blue eyes wasn't the original Fujimaru Ritsuka. He was Natan.
Memories from his past life suddenly flashed through his mind. Natan came from a much bleaker world—a modern dystopia where the sky was always gray. True, he had more than enough wealth in that world, but money had never given him warmth. His romantic experience was literally zero. He had spent all his time and dedication buried in monotonous work, then escaped into virtual reality, building absolute power and an invincible avatar in a game.
His old life was incredibly lonely, revolving entirely around efficiency, statistics, and digital dominance, before an anomaly eventually transported him to this universe, possessing the body of humanity's Master.
The irony of the situation hit Natan hard. In his peaceful yet painfully boring past life, not a single woman had ever approached him. But now, in the middle of an apocalyptic warzone filled with cosmic monsters and mythological heroes killing each other, a kiss (perhaps the very first in Natan's true life) had been snatched away just like that by a yandere dragon spirit who considered him the reincarnation of her past lover.
A 'buff' paid for with an eternal marriage vow from an entity with Madness Enhancement... Natan thought, feeling an imaginary drop of cold sweat trickle down his neck. As a 'gamer', I have to admit this is a very extreme trade-off.
However, looking at the pillar of intense blue fire in the distance that was now manifesting into a colossal dragon—a fire purely fueled by the obsession and love that had just been 'formalized' upon him—Natan let out a long sigh. His cold and calculative expression slowly returned to his face, burying the awkwardness of his past life.
RROOOAAARRR!
"So be it. I'll worry about the consequences later," Natan muttered, his eyes sharpening once more were violently interrupted by a deafening, cosmic screech from the center of the lake. The colossal tentacles of the Gigantic Horror lashed at the overcast sky, sending massive shockwaves that trembled the hardened water beneath Fujimaru's feet. Right now, there was a false sea god he needed to kill, and a mad Caster he needed to silence.
"Wait for me, Mash," Fujimaru said.
A dense magical aura once again enveloped his body as he dashed forward, tearing through the thick fog as he sprinted to catch up with his Demi-Servant and Cú Chulainn at the eye of the storm.