By this time, the volleyball match on the beach was nearing its end.
Gudako, who had quite a few bandages wrapped around her, looked at the scoreboard beside her in disbelief. The large 20-0 was constantly battering her worldview.
'Master is being crushed!'
Just as Gudako said, Rin suffered a crushing defeat in the final match.
This whole thing actually had to be explained from the beginning.
Shortly after joining Chaldea, Reines, who had passed the saint graph test, used her 'connections' to obtain a blank spirit origin from Rin. However, as for which Heroic Spirit she merged with, Reines didn't say, and no one else asked. Reines's Servant form became one of the legends in Chaldea, like an urban legend; no one knew besides herself and Rin.
Afterward, Reines's performance was mediocre. Although she reached first-class in all aspects of the tests, it was precisely because she was first-class in everything with no unique specialty that she became a sort of firefighter in Chaldea, never staying in one department for long. Because of this, Reines hadn't gained much of a presence in Chaldea.
For this match, whether it was because Reines's interest was piqued or because she planned to show off her skills, she had used some unknown method to actually get Zhuge Liang to join her for a team.
Next, with Zhuge Liang's help, Reines overcame all obstacles to reach the finals. However, the impression of Reines didn't change in everyone's eyes at that point, because the previous matches had basically been handled by Zhuge Liang. It wasn't until the final against Rin that Reines deployed her saint graph and entered her Servant state for the first time in front of everyone.
Rin looked with a sour face at the dizzy Sakura behind her.
"Chancellor! You're being too much of a bully!"
The final match venue was currently surrounded by a large stone Eight Trigrams Array. A large amount of churning mercury was flowing within the array, forcing the spectators to climb up and stand on top of the stone walls to watch.
If it were just an Eight Trigrams Array plus a Primal Chaos Formation, it wouldn't have been enough for Rin to call them bullies. The key was the cooperation between the two legendary strategists of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi.
All sorts of methods that Rin didn't understand were being used by the two of them incessantly, preventing Rin from using even a fraction of her strength and leaving her completely tied down.
One moment, the sky was full of Sky Lanterns that exploded when approached, locking Rin and Sakura to the ground; the next, a Plain Zither was brought out and played, causing Rin's spike to hit her own court; then a bunch of Strawmen would pop up on her court, and she couldn't hit the opponent's court without clearing them first. This final match was exceptionally miserable for Rin.
Wearing a hair crown and dressed in a magnificent Hanfu, Reines covered her mouth with her sleeve and laughed.
"Rin, with that unfathomable magical power of yours, it's quite unseemly to say the Chancellor is a bully!"
"Humph! Stop being so sarcastic. Your vacation is canceled!"
"Oh dear! It seems I've spoken out of turn!"
"You~!"
The spectators watching the match couldn't help but burst into laughter when they saw the strange expression on Rin's face, which only made her already livid face even darker.
In fact, it wasn't that Rin had no way to deal with the combination of Zhuge Liang and Reines, but this was a match after all. Using those methods would be cheating. And because it was a match where she was strictly limited, after being suppressed in magecraft by the two great strategists, how could she win by relying only on her own magical energy and strength?
As for Sakura, her strength was originally comparable to Reines's, but after being weakened by the two great arrays and hit by various negative status effects, she was already half-useless.
Glancing at the score beside her and Reines's triumphant smile opposite her, Rin said unwillingly to Zhuge Liang,
"Chancellor, do me a favor and let me play a few points against Reines."
Zhuge Liang waved his feather fan, took a secret glance at the gloating Reines, and with a smile, extended his fan to make a gesture of invitation to Rin.
"Since the Goddess has a request, how could Liang not grant it? Goddess, please proceed as you wish; Liang shall take a rest."
As he spoke, Zhuge Liang waved his hand to summon several Yellow Turban Strongmen to bring over some large stones and place them at the edge of the court. Then, amidst Reines's look of disbelief, Zhuge Liang sat down on a stone. He took a cup of tea from a Yellow Turban Strongman, who had gotten it from who-knows-where, and waved his feather fan with a half-smile.
"Hey, hey, hey! Zhuge the village peasant, how dare you deceive me!"
Zhuge Liang shook his head at the hopping-mad Reines.
"Young friend, Liang is merely taking a short rest. The surrounding Eight Trigrams Array is still in place."
"No! This isn't what we agreed on! Lord Zhuge, Chancellor Zhuge, don't do this! It's just one point left, we're about to win..."
However, Rin didn't give Reines time to persuade Zhuge Liang to return. Seeing Zhuge Liang step aside, how could Rin miss such an opportunity? Just as Zhuge Liang sat down, Rin-chan tossed the volleyball high into the air. Magical energy dozens of meters high surged from her body, so massive that it even formed the phantom of a giant dragon behind her.
"Reines, take this!"
"Boom!"
The moment Rin made contact with the volleyball, a massive sound echoed through the sky. The terrifying sonic boom cloud even stirred up a tsunami dozens of meters high, and the mercury in the Eight Trigrams Array broke free from Reines's control like a churning sea.
And all of this was merely the phenomena produced by Rin's hit. From this, one could see just how much power Rin had used; she had practically used every ounce of her strength just to 'finish off' Reines.
Looking at the volleyball hurtling toward her like a meteorite, Reines, who was pinned to the ground by the wind pressure and unable to move, cried out in panic.
"Wait, are you trying to kill me?"
"Don't worry, you can be resurrected even if you die in the Spiritron World. I'll have Touko make a nice body for you!"
As she spoke, a sinister smile appeared on Rin's face. One could already imagine what kind of body Rin would have Touko prepare for Reines.
Seeing this, and with the volleyball about to evaporate her right above her head, Reines turned her head, eyes welling with tears, and began to call for help.
"Zhuge Liang, give me a hand! Fujimaru Ritsuka, save your Master..."
Boom!
A mushroom cloud slowly rose on the beach, declaring the power of 'peace' with its majestic form.
When the beach returned to calm, Reines could be seen lying unconscious with her eyes rolled back at the edge of a massive crater.
At the same time, everyone who had regained their vision looked closely and saw the flattened volleyball lying at the bottom of the huge crater, emitting wisps of blue smoke, a testament to the power of Rin's strike. Those who understood what they were seeing couldn't help but gulp.
"Gudako, this was a volleyball protected by Spiritron World permissions, right?"
Gudako looked at Shinji beside her and nodded stiffly.
At that moment, Rin, who had landed on the ground, shook her hands and feet and shouted to Gudako, who was acting as the scorekeeper.
"Gudako, the score!"
"Oh, oh, oh! The ball is out of bounds! The score is 21 to 0, the Strategist Team wins~!"
Early the next morning, Reines, having achieved victory, was led by Rin to a lake not far from Chaldea to receive the winner's prize, the battle flag of Jeanne.
Reines waved the flag in her hand at Rin and asked, "Rin, you must have some purpose in making the prize Jeanne, right? Don't tell me, let me guess. The next Singularity is in the Hundred Years' War era, and the location is also observed to be in Europe, so it's very likely the Hundred Years' War! And as Jeanne of the Hundred Years' War era..."
Watching Reines, who was chatting away endlessly beside her, Rin extended a finger, gathered the Spear of Venus, and aimed it at Reines's head.
"You know too much!"
Seeing the magecraft gathering in Rin's hand, Reines hurriedly stopped her explanation.
"Tell me, what exactly do you want to do?"
At this moment, a smile curled at the corner of Reines's mouth.
"I want to participate in the next Singularity!"
---------------------------------
I hope you enjoy this fanfiction! If you're having fun and want to read 30 chapters in advance, feel free to check out my Patreon: patreon.com/TLScarlet
Your support means a lot so if you like the story, don't forget to drop a Power Stone.