I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director
Chapter 446: Double Kill
On the screen, Archer was charging toward Cú Chulainn at incredible speed, intent on finishing off the already one-armed mage and removing him from the game for good.
"Tch. What a pain. One after another... Go!"
Several magic bullets shot toward Archer from different directions. Though he casually knocked them aside with his swords, the barrage was enough to slow his advance.
When Cú Chulainn glanced back, he realized that Olga Marie hadn't left with Ritsuka. She had stayed behind.
"Not bad, Miss Magus."
"Hmph. I'm the head of the Animusphere family—the Lord of the Department of Astromancy! This much is nothing!"
Olga Marie snorted proudly. As a Lord of the Clock Tower, she had her own dignity to uphold.
Across from her, a certain Archer—outwardly an ancient hero but in truth a modern magus—gave a knowing nod after hearing her name.
"So, an Animusphere... observers of the stars, huh?"
Archer's voice turned cold.
"Wouldn't it be better if your family just stayed hidden away in the mountains and kept watching the heavens? This grand cause of saving humanity seems completely unnecessary for people like you."
Hearing her family dismissed so lightly, Olga Marie immediately shot back.
"The establishment of academic disciplines. The creation of religions. The spread of navigation. The advancement of communication technologies. Humanity's first steps toward the cosmos—"
"Countless achievements of stellar pioneering, as numerous as the stars themselves!"
"To protect the greatest achievement that surpasses them all—civilization itself—is the divine move humanity has made!"
Her voice grew stronger with every word.
"To continuously prove that this celestial body called Earth has value—that is my mission, and the iron law of the Animusphere family!"
Archer let out a small snort.
"I'm surprised you carry such conviction."
He raised a white short sword and pointed it toward the dark night sky.
"But there are no stars here to guide you."
"Drifter from the heavens, surrounded by flames... where exactly are you trying to go?"
Olga Marie had no idea that Archer's words were actually mocking her—someone who had already died and technically had no future left to reach.
Instead, she recalled a question she had once asked her father when he was still alive.
"Father, we observe the stars. We observe the future. But which direction are we supposed to move toward? What exactly is a 'clear future'?"
Until the day he died, Marisbury Animusphere had never answered her.
"...I..."
After a long silence, Olga Marie slowly lifted her head.
"I don't know where I'm going."
"But I know one thing."
"I absolutely cannot stop here."
"Well said, lass." Cú Chulainn laughed and rested a hand on her shoulder.
With his experience, he had long since realized that Olga Marie was already dead. Out of simple kindness toward a young woman, however, he had never pointed it out.
And now, hearing her answer, he wanted to help her walk a little farther down that road—even if it was only a few more steps.
Bang!
Holding his staff in one hand, Cú Chulainn slammed it into the ground and erected a barrier, blocking the swords Archer had fired at them.
Archer frowned.
"Why are you helping a drifter? You have no connection to her whatsoever."
Cú Chulainn's reply was as bold as ever, "Because it's a hell of a lot better than helping a bunch of fallen fools like you!"
A grin spread across his face.
"A game that never ends is boring."
"No matter what the outcome is, you've got to move the pieces forward at least a couple of squares, right?"
Several pillars of flame erupted toward Archer. He nimbly dodged them all.
"I really can't get along with people like you."
Black and white twin swords came crashing down from above.
Cú Chulainn raised his staff like a spear and blocked the strike head-on.
"Funny. I was about to say the same thing!"
With a burst of strength, he forced Archer backward.
Then he shouted to Olga Marie behind him:
"Leave the support to you, Miss! Let's go!"
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"Hm... the philosophy of the Department of Astromancy..."
Listening to Olga Marie's declaration about her family's ideals, Kayneth rubbed his temple with his thumb.
"Well, Waver, did Shinji ever mention that he planned to form an alliance with Astromancy recently?"
"No?"
Waver blinked.
The cigar hanging from his mouth slipped and landed on his thigh. Fortunately, he hadn't lit it yet, or his trousers would have been ruined.
"Wait a second. Isn't Astromancy already one of our allies?"
"Of course not," Kayneth rejected the idea immediately.
"When Shinji pushed that little girl into the position of family head, he basically stopped paying attention afterward. If he never said anything, then they're obviously not allies."
"I seriously thought they'd joined us ages ago."
Waver looked speechless.
"I mean, that young lady is always standing on our side whenever something happens."
"So I even set up several cooperative projects that were purely beneficial to the Department of Astromancy."
"And how did she respond to all that enthusiasm?"
Waver scratched his cheek.
"She just told me to thank Shinji for taking care of her and said she'd repay the favor someday."
"...That's it."
"..."
Silence fell over the room.
Kayneth didn't respond immediately. His eyes rolled thoughtfully before he slowly spat out a conclusion.
"...Damn it. We've been playing matchmaker for that bastard this whole time, haven't we?!"
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On the screen, the final battle of the Prologue had entered its second stage.
While Cú Chulainn and the Director were still locked in a fierce fight against a certain close-combat Archer halfway up the mountain, Ritsuka and Mash had finally reached the most important node of Fuyuki City's leylines—
The Great Hollow.
"Is that Saber?"
The moment they stepped into the cavern, Mash spotted the black figure standing atop a raised platform, both hands resting on a sword planted into the ground.
Sensing intruders entering her domain, the black-armored knight slowly opened her eyes.
"...So you've come."
"That's King Arthur?"
Though Ritsuka was a native of the Nasuverse, he had never actually studied Nasuverse History—emphasis on history.
So upon seeing the knight girl, his first thought was:
King Arthur is a girl?!
His second thought came immediately afterward.
She's terrifying.
The pressure.
The killing intent.
Even from several hundred meters away, Ritsuka felt as though her presence alone could crush him at any moment.
Without question, the black-armored girl before him was the strongest Servant he had encountered so far.
"Oh?"
Arturia Alter's eyes didn't fall upon Ritsuka—the person who should have been her highest-priority target.
Instead, they locked onto the object in Mash's hands.
The Round Table.
To Arturia, the Round Table was more than just a place where meals were shared and meetings were held.
It was the spiritual symbol of the Knights of the Round Table themselves.
Since someone dared to wield the Round Table as a weapon, then as the King of Knights, she naturally had to test their worth.
Even corrupted by darkness, she was still the King of Knights.
"Then..."
Arturia Alter slowly pulled her sword from the ground.
The gesture was an unmistakable declaration of battle.
Mash immediately tensed.
"Let's see what you've got."
The instant the final word left her lips, she was already standing in front of Mash.
A flash of black steel.
One swing.
Mash was sent flying.
No—
From Mash's perspective, she had been smashed away.
The weapon in Arturia Alter's hand should have been nothing more than a standard knight's sword.
Yet when wielded by her, it felt more like a colossal warhammer.
"Ugh..."
Mash groaned painfully.
Her entire body had been embedded into the cavern wall.
Struggling to force her eyes open, the first thing she saw was a mass of black light and shadow descending upon her.
"MASH——!!!"
Ritsuka's scream echoed throughout the Great Hollow.
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Meanwhile, halfway up Mount Enzou, things weren't looking much better for Cú Chulainn either.
While neither Caster nor Archer specialized in close combat, Archer was still one of the Three Knight Classes.
His raw parameters were naturally superior to those of a Cú Chulainn summoned as a Caster.
And that wasn't even the biggest problem.
Before the battle had started, Cú Chulainn had already lost an arm.
That injury alone had drastically reduced his combat effectiveness.
On top of that, he was fighting while protecting Olga Marie.
Though the Director continuously interfered with Archer's attacks and provided magical support, she also forced Cú Chulainn to constantly keep an eye on a young woman whose close-combat ability might as well have been a flat five.
With so many disadvantages stacked against him, the fact that Cú Chulainn had managed to hold out this long without losing—and had even kept Olga Marie completely unharmed—was already an incredible feat.
A true hero of the Celts.
Even Archer, his enemy, couldn't help admiring Cú Chulainn's tenacity.
The man was practically a wild dog.
"Fighting me was your mistake, Caster."
Since he couldn't secure a quick victory, Archer decided to attack his opponent's mentality instead.
No honor.
No sportsmanship.
Only winning mattered.
There was no doubt about it.
This guy was definitely an Emiya.
The only mystery was where he had learned such vicious trash talk.
After all, Kiritsugu Emiya had always been the type to let actions speak louder than words.
"That defective Servant isn't a match for the King of Knights," Archer continued, dismantling Cú Chulainn's team with cold words.
"A Servant who can't even release her Noble Phantasm."
"Though I suppose someone like you has no room to talk."
"A Caster who spends all day trying to fight in melee combat."
"Hah! That's rich coming from an Archer."
Cú Chulainn wiped the blood from his face and fired back immediately.
"And you're the one who's got it wrong."
"A mistake? What nonsense."
"Both Mash and I are the best possible combination."
Archer merely sneered.
Clearly, he didn't believe a word of it.
"Then let me show you."
Cú Chulainn moved with astonishing speed, tracing the rune "ᛏ" across both himself and Olga Marie.
Whoosh—!
Empowered by the rune's enhancement, he leapt in a single bound and appeared behind Archer.
"That speed—! Trying to get behind me?!"
Archer immediately spun around, attempting to track Cú Chulainn's position.
But Olga Marie, likewise strengthened by rune magic, unleashed a barrage of countless magic bullets, forcing him to abandon the attempt.
"Just this much—"
Archer hurled his black-and-white twin blades, creating a defensive zone that intercepted the incoming projectiles.
Then he noticed it.
A gigantic wooden hand was rising from the ground beneath him.
"A cheap trick!"
Archer had watched Medusa's death through Clairvoyance. He knew exactly what this spell could do.
Before the wooden hand could catch him in its grasp, he swiftly evaded its imitation of the Buddha's Palm.
Unfortunately, he had miscalculated.
The wooden hand never intended to grab him.
The moment it missed, its fingers curled into a massive fist and swung upward toward him in one fluid motion.
BOOM!
"Ugh—!"
The impact shattered Archer's twin swords.
His body was launched violently through the air.
"Just this much..."
Still refusing to give up, Archer tried to regain control mid-flight.
Then his expression changed.
He realized exactly where he was heading.
Straight toward Cú Chulainn.
The lancer-turned-caster had already been waiting.
Staff raised.
A blazing sphere of fire burning fiercely at its tip.
A trap.
A perfectly executed trap.
"Looks like it's time for you to log off, Archer!"
Cú Chulainn grinned.
Then he thrust his staff forward.
"I'm sending you on your way with this one!"
Archer's eyes widened as the staff rushed closer and closer.
The cry that escaped him was filled with unwillingness and frustration.
"CASTERRRRRR—!!!"
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Tn: I updated the story once every 2 days, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 476: Shirou: I'll Take Both[1]!
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