Xyrin Empire
Chapter 497 Heroic Spirit Group Army

Chapter 497: Chapter 497 Heroic Spirit Group Army

"What on earth did you do?"

On the way back, Tohsaka looked at me suspiciously and asked.

"Anyway, Caster is no longer an enemy now."

I smiled casually. Betrayer Witch Medea and Kagari Ge Mu, the iron man, have always been a pair I admired. Helping them come together was a nice thing to do.

Tohsaka blinked, then focused her gaze on someone trailing behind us, "Like this guy?"

Sasaki, who had been carrying a bamboo pole on his shoulders and had been leisurely chewing a toothpick, immediately protested, "What do you mean by ’this guy’? Little girl, show some respect for your seniors."

"Hey, hey, hey, Grandpa Sasaki, may your fortune be as boundless as the East Sea and your life as long as the Southern Mountains."

"Bang," a visible bulge throbbed on Sasaki’s forehead.

You unfortunate child, battling wits with Little Demon Lin, you might as well have another fight with Vega and die a swift death.

However, speaking of fighting Vega, I suddenly thought it was a good idea. Not just to see Sasaki’s frustrated face—though that was part of the reason. What truly interested me was to see how big the gap was between a complete Heroic Spirit and a Xyrin Apostle.

The summoned Heroic Spirits participating in the Holy Grail War were not their true selves, but avatars. Due to constraints from world adjustments, Master’s strength, class limits, etc., their power was less than a third of their true forms in the Heroic Spirit Hall. For some Heroic Spirits who drew unfortunate classes, this percentage was even lower. However, once they became Heroic Spirits under Avalon, these restrictions were lifted.

I wondered if it would be more interesting to have the complete Sasaki battle against an equally powerful Vega. Of course, Vega might still overwhelmingly dominate, but I think it wouldn’t be as tragic as last time for Sasaki.

After all, based on the standard data analysis by Bubbles, a complete Heroic Spirit’s combat power could match that of an Azeroth hero and was equivalent to the strength of a lower-middle-tier Xyrin Apostle. Within the Imperial Vassal Army system, such power was considered elite. Forming them into legions—even if they were not equal to an equal number of Imperial Regular Army—they could serve as a strong support force. More importantly, unlike in regular warfare, Heroic Spirits wouldn’t truly perish in battle. As long as Bubbles’ World Tree and the Avalon Nest existed, these undead warriors could be reborn indefinitely. Thus, although the number of Heroic Spirits was far less than that of other heroes in the Alliance Army, their significance to us was not less than the latter.

"It’s always a bit confusing," Emiya blinked, watching Sasaki, who had just been an enemy and was now busy bickering with Tohsaka, a sense of unreality welling up, "Though it’s nice that we don’t have to fight and can just shake hands and make peace, it feels completely incomprehensible.

"I’m more curious as to why he calls you ’Boss’," Saber looked at me curiously, her ahoge unconsciously quivering slightly, "Even Rider does. Do Heroic Spirits work part-time?"

"Anyway, big brother is very amazing!" Ilya wasn’t confused at all, or perhaps she simply didn’t care to think about it. The silver-haired loli strutted along with Little Baobao at the front, cheerfully saying, "Berserker also thinks big brother is amazing!"

How did you get an impressive phrase like "big brother is amazing" from this foolish big guy who only knows to walk with his head down avoiding Pandora?

"So now, shall we confront the Fake Priest?" Tohsaka glanced at the bright moon in the sky. Compared to the Red Moon of the Inner World, this moon was much more pleasant to look at, "I never expected it, my senior brother was hiding such a secret. Speaking of which, could the Makoto Family’s Heroic Spirit Army also be something he’s behind?"

"This... Aren’t you being too sensitive?" Emiya scratched his cheek, his tone filled with doubt, "And since he’s your senior brother, he’s been taking care of you for many years, you must have some understanding of him. Don’t you know anything about what lies behind Yanfeng Qili?"

"I’ve never seen through him," Tohsaka shook her head, her mood seeming unenthusiastic, "Many people live their lives wearing masks, but through the mask, we can still see their true face. However, the Fake Priest... in my memory, he doesn’t wear a mask; he only has one mask, and there’s simply no true face behind it. After all these years, I know nothing about that nominal guardian of mine, which is why I suspect the Makoto Family’s violations are related to him. If there really is a conspiracy, as the supervisor of this Holy Grail War, he is the most likely to be causing trouble."

Regarding Tohsaka’s words, we could only remain silent; on this matter, no one but Tohsaka had the right to speak. As for the plot I was aware of, it had vanished after the appearance of the Heroic Spirit Army and the Inner World. Therefore, even if the man known as Yanfeng Qili, the Fake Priest, were to come tomorrow and perform the Nine Heavens Mysterious Thunder Technique, I could only accept it.

Although, at that moment, I really feared that I would be overturned by the Nine Heavens Mysterious Thunder.

"Officer, the space around us is somewhat unstable!"

Vega’s sudden report interrupted everyone’s contemplation. I also abruptly woke up from the nonsense illusion of Master Yanfeng flying with his sword and immediately felt the abnormalities in the surrounding space.

Less than ten meters ahead, two street lamps flickered intermittently, but the ground beneath them maintained very stable patches of light. Thin fog drifted in the air, and vaguely, around one meter above the ground, a distinctly layered vacuum band seemed to form—these "section-like" phenomena were very common when the space was unstable.

Faint energy drifted around, very subtle, clearly the aftermath of some sort of spatial distortion decay. If it weren’t for Vega’s radar system, which had a very high sensitivity, and his habit of entering a state of alert under any circumstances, we truly wouldn’t have noticed it.

The source of the abnormal fluctuation was in the direction of the Tohsaka Family.

Upon learning this news, Miss Tohsaka’s face changed instantaneously, and then she started running forward at an increased pace. Sandora and I exchanged glances and quickly followed her.

Thus, on the empty streets of Fuyuki City, a mighty Midnight Running Team of more than a dozen people appeared—tall and short, fat and thin, men and women, what a spectacular sight!

In less than a few minutes, the Tohsaka Family mansion had already appeared far in our view. From here, everything seemed normal, but my enhanced eyes vaguely made out something like vines climbing over the outer walls of the Tohsaka residence.

"Ah! What’s happening!?"

When we got closer and saw the state of her own house, Tohsaka couldn’t help but exclaim in shock, and I finally saw clearly what those so-called vines were: countless dark cracks!

These palm-width cracks started spreading from the base of the outer walls and disappeared at the position of the roof. The entire mansion was enveloped in darkness; even the few rooms where the lights had been left on before our departure were pitch-black. The surroundings were silent as if in the realm of death, and Tohsaka’s breathing became increasingly heavier and more audible.

In the silence of everyone’s confusion, moonlight gradually rose from behind the Tohsaka mansion.

Red moonlight!

An ominous glow gradually spread from behind the gloomy mansion, slowly coating the entire building with a bright red rim, as if the dawn of a blood-red morning was descending. Red light seeped through the wide cracks in the outer walls, covering the Tohsaka mansion with a massive blood-colored net. Then, the red moon slowly emerged from behind the dark silhouette of the building, rising above the horizon and casting deep red across the land. Meanwhile, the cracks on the surface of the tall building in front of us began to spread, widen, and link in front of us.

Eventually, the cracks near the central axis of the building converged together. They formed a huge gash that split the entire Tohsaka mansion in two, as if a not-so-sharp saw brutally sawed the entire house in half. Silently, the Tohsaka mansion crumbled apart without generating any tremors or noise. Against the backdrop of the red moon, the black silhouette of the mansion slowly turned into fragments that drifted apart, resembling silent scenes of crumbling mountains and splitting earth in an abstract paper-cut animation. Tohsaka stood with her mouth wide open, staring at this eerie spectacle, and after a long while, she took a deep breath, her hands unconsciously gripping my sleeves tightly.

"Sandora, did you get the message?"

I turned to ask, and at that moment, she was already floating in the air, her hair reflecting streams of golden light. She watched the buildings around, following the Tohsaka mansion in disintegration, and nodded.

Just then, Avalon sent a communication: the Fate world had undergone an unprecedented twist. The entire Fuyuki City, with the Tohsaka mansion as its origin, was entirely sucked into the Inner World, and the strong energy radiated by the red moon at that moment almost surpassed the "Zero" series Planet Battleships we had created in the Kepulu Star Zone.

The only relief was that the Leaving World Garden activated in time. It rapidly altered Fuyuki City’s coordinates just before the city was destroyed by the Red Moon World, temporarily relocating it into a static space. What we were currently witnessing was merely a false shadow generated by the world’s sluggish reaction to such abnormal alterations.

"Relax, these are just illusions caused by the impact of the laws," I comforting patted Tohsaka’s hair, "Fuyuki City is now in a safe place."

Despite not being able to comprehend everything in front of her, the girl instinctively believed in the "alien uncle," who always seemed all-knowing. She gently nodded her head and calmed down.

The buildings within our sight were still collapsing one by one, soon turning into piles of rubble and then transforming into sand that scattered with the wind. In just a few minutes, the scene in front of our eyes had shifted from a modern city to a desolate charred ground. Hurried footsteps approached from nearby, and Medea and Ge Mu, who had just parted ways with us, appeared before us again.

It was truly awkward. We were supposed to be going home to sleep, but before we could even reach the door, we were pulled back into the world’s anomalies.

"Hey, haven’t you guys gone to bed yet?"

Medea’s greeting almost made me collapse with shock, and even the cold and distant Betrayer Witch couldn’t help but hold her head, "Boss! Is this really the time to ask that?"

As she finished speaking, from a distance, the low rumble of war drums gradually carried over from the horizon.

Black spears in formation, silent ranks, appeared from the remote horizon, then sped towards us at an abnormal velocity.

Upon seeing those enemies that appeared out of nowhere, even Sasaki, who was usually unperturbed, opened his mouth wide, letting his chewed toothpick quietly fall to the ground.

"Oh my god..."

I hadn’t expected Sasaki to have such a catchphrase for general use.

"Heroic Spirit Army," Sandora’s energy surged even more vigorously as she stared sharply at the dense army in the distance, "We guessed wrong initially. Five thousand Heroic Spirits... that wasn’t the limit; it was just that destroying Einzbern only needed five thousand Heroic Spirits. The number of enemies far exceeds that!"

"Hey, hey, hey, boss, you’re not really going to pat my shoulder and tell me the responsibility of saving the world has just been handed to me, are you?"

Sasaki’s eyes twitched, and now, being ignorantly optimistic, he truly felt a sense of utter despair. Joking aside, a dozen or so people facing an army of more than ten thousand Heroic Spirits?

Even if one were bathed in a warrior’s blood from birth, they couldn’t possibly muster such fighting strength.

Emiya and Tohsaka both struggled to swallow, their gulps almost synchronizing as the latter subconsciously took out several gemstones imbued with strong magic power, but, after clutching them tightly for a few moments, he despondently put them down again. Meanwhile, Emiya instinctively stepped in front of Sakura, wiping the cold sweat seeping across his forehead.

At least in this aspect, this foolish young man still impressed me.

"Hmph, seems like we are going to die on the battlefield today," said Red A, who always addressed reality without beating around the bush, "I don’t believe in miracles, but if dying this time is for protection... that doesn’t seem too bad."

Ilya clung tightly to my arm, burying her small head forcefully against my chest, even ignoring the deathly gazes from Visca’s Little Baobao and two others from her side. The silver-haired Loli was shaking, but still bravely kept silent. Berserker, as a qualified ultimate Loli fan, also knew his moment of glory to protect his Loli had arrived. Driven by instinct, he stood at the forefront of everyone, raising his stone axe and bellowing skyward.

The next moment, Pandora grabbed Berserker by the neck and swung him through the air over twenty times, tossing him into the sand...

It wasn’t until Berserker was carelessly tossed out by Pandora once again due to his towering height that everyone snapped out of their awe from the enormous group of Heroic Spirits. They then realized that a bunch of visitors, who claimed to be photography enthusiasts from Centaurus, wore calm and relaxed expressions, certain ones even nearly bursting into laughter.

Moreover, Tohsaka keenly noticed her sister actually wearing a slight smile, as if they had found a grand opportunity to showcase their abilities and were as joyous as children. Medusa, the Heroic Spirit standing beside her and serving as her Servant, also looked relaxed, even taking the time to tease the little girl named Little Baobao.

Could it be that they still didn’t know what was happening?

Tohsaka couldn’t help but think this.

But Rider also seemed clueless...

"Boss, can you remove my restrictions?" she asked after she had tickled Little Baobao into a fit of giggles.

"There’s no need," I said, silently observing the approaching colossal Heroic Spirit Formation that was entering their attack range, "Is this formation... a Roman Legion?"

The enemy that appeared in the distance were the same Infantry Spirits we had encountered earlier at the Emiya Mansion, this time in more astonishing numbers, and structured like an ancient war legion based on my limited knowledge of world history, linking them with the Roman Legion was nothing short of a miracle.

They came prepared; their initial target had been the Tohsaka mansion, using tactics similar to those that destroyed Einzbern, massing an overwhelming number of forces to instantly demolish the enemy’s stronghold—old man tactics: steady, safe, one-hit-kill.

"So, that’s what it is," Sandora coldly said as she watched the steadily nearing Heroic Spirit Formation, "Leaving World Garden analyzed this army’s nature. The influx of a large number of Heroic Spirits distorted the world, their assembly what led to the uprising in the Inner World."

At that moment, I finally understood why when Ilya’s mountain mansion was under attack, the outside world was completely oblivious—so, they had been sucked into the Inner World then?

Moreover, it appears that in order to summon more Heroic Spirits, they need to pull a larger area into the Inner World. The two hundred Heroic Spirits initially targeting Emiya’s mansion merely caused the construction workers to faint, while five hundred attacking Ilya replaced the depth of the forest with the Inner World, the attack on Einzbern Castle with five thousand Heroic Spirits caused the entire region to evaporate, and now, a Heroic Spirit Group Army of tens of thousands required the whole of Fuyuki City to be sacrificed—such a price was indeed staggering.

But to drag the entire Fuyuki City into the deadly embrace of the Red Moon, Makoto Family, you really overdid it this time!

Do they even realize how much of my electric bill went to waste just to keep Fuyuki City safe?!

Utilizing such a scale of military forces just to deal with a few people, even doubling the number used against Einzbern, sure looks wasteful. It seems that Makoto Shinji’s foolish actions in the past, which led to the annihilation of two hundred Heroic Spirits, instilled a profound fear of us in the head of the Makoto Family. Watching what Crystal Saint Mother did, Shinji likely exaggerated the circumstances to mitigate the punishment he received. To wipe us out, these unknown formidable foes, the Makoto Family head really went all out.

Deep drum sounds came from the horizon; as the massive formation drew closer, Saber clenched the Holy Sword in her hands. The scene in front of her perhaps reminded her of the last battle she experienced.

Surrounded and fighting alone.

And this time was even worse, as she no longer had her Knight Order by her side, yet what she faced was an even larger army of Heroic Spirits. (To be continued. To find out what happens next, please visit www.qidian.com. For more Chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)